5/10/03 - The Undecideds

Chris Rotelli had heard all the stories about Tucker Radebaugh. How Radebaugh, before his senior season in 1999, had turned himself into the best-conditioned player on the Virginia men’s lacrosse team. How Radebaugh had been the consummate team leader. How Radebaugh had done everything on the field — scoring goals, flying after ground balls, making his teammates better — to lead the Cavaliers to the national championship.
“I thought: Why not see if I can do the same thing?” Rotelli said.
So it is that Rotelli, a senior midfielder, has become something of a Radebaugh replica.
This season — starting, in fact, well before the first game — Rotelli has set the tone for Virginia with his fanatical work ethic, his selfless play and his fierce desire to win. Thanks in large part to his leadership, the Cavaliers are 11-2 and seeded second in the NCAA tournament.
“From the first day of the fall, Chris has dominated this team with the quality of his workouts and his absolute dedication,” said UVa coach Dom Starsia. “It has been the sheer force of his will that has lifted the team up to this point.”
Of course, Rotelli wants to get far beyond this point — a first-round game against Mount St. Mary’s today at Klockner Stadium.
He joined the program in 2000, the year after its first national title in 27 years, and he expected to win a few championships during his career. Instead, Virginia has not made it past the semifinals since 1999.
Rotelli has played in five NCAA tournament games. All were decided by a single goal. The Cavaliers lost three of them. You don’t have to tell him that the differences between top teams are miniscule, so it is important to do anything to create an edge.
Or maybe he did need to be told that. In his first two seasons, Rotelli said, he was concerned only with doing the big things. His philosophy: “Go as hard as you can and score as many goals as you can.”
Rotelli led Virginia with 28 goals as a sophomore, but the team finished 7-7 and lost in the NCAA quarterfinals. After that, he says, he devoted himself to becoming a much more complete player. He made big improvements as a passer and defender last season, when he had 24 goals, a career-high 10 assists and was named a first-team All-American.
Still, the Cavaliers lost to Syracuse in double overtime in the NCAA semifinals, so Rotelli — with the stories about Radebaugh serving as inspiration — decided, in his words, “to make a conscious effort to take things up a notch.”
Already a hard worker, he became a conditioning fiend. Since the start of last summer, he has put in dozens of extra hours running and lifting weights. Derek Laing, the team’s strength and conditioning coach, recalls seeing Rotelli on the treadmill following the team’s regular workout.
“I asked him what he was doing and he said, ‘I’m leaving nothing to chance this year,’” Laing said. “I remember thinking: Wow.”
Senior midfielder A.J. Shannon said Rotelli “goes hard every day in practice. He’s the last guy who needs to be running sprints, but he’s always the one who wins them. The guy is just working his butt off.”
Starsia says Radebaugh’s behavior was similar as a senior. The coach recalls looking outside his office window in the McCue Center and seeing Radebaugh running hills while carrying a 45-pound plate over his head. As talented as the 1999 team was, he says, it probably would not have claimed the championship without Radebaugh’s will and work ethic.
“Chris does remind me a lot of Tucker,” Starsia said. “He’s someone all his teammates respect and he gives you a voice of authority as a player that makes it easier for you as a coach. This team hasn’t needed the whip from me because Chris and the other seniors have been such good leaders.”
In many ways, Rotelli has had his finest season. Though he rarely forces shots on offense — a problem in the past — he is tied for the team lead with 39 points. He is especially proud of his 15 assists, nearly matching his total from the previous three years.
Beyond stats, Rotelli has done all of the little things that make a team successful: playing tough defense, facilitating ball movement, exhorting his teammates, maintaining intensity at all times. The ACC coaches named him player of the year in the conference — the same award Radebaugh won in 1999 — and Starsia believes Rotelli is a strong candidate for the Tewaaraton Trophy, which goes to the nation’s top player.
Rotelli said he did not set any personal goals other than to do absolutely everything possible to put himself and his team in the best position to win.
“I didn’t want to lose any opportunity to get better at any aspect of the game,” he said. “Every day, I’ve just been focusing on whatever it is that can put us over the top. I think we have a lot of guys who have had that same determination.
“As a team, I know we’ve worked for everything we’ve gotten this year. We’ve had our mind on one goal: winning the national championship. All our eggs are in one basket, and I know that’s not necessarily good. But we’re doing everything we can to achieve it. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But I don’t want to look back and think: What else could I have done?”
Regardless of whether the Cavaliers claim the title, Starsia believes Rotelli’s influence will extend to future seasons. In the fall, he had different groups of freshmen work out with Rotelli, hoping his passion would rub off on them.
“I hold Chris as an example to the younger guys,” Starsia said. “Maybe one of them will think: I want to be like Chris Rotelli.”