I MISS JAY JALBERT - By: Kyle Devitte
Back in the day there were no DVD’s. There were no digital copies. There were no streaming websites – in fact the Internet was just a place to find blurry pictures of hot chicks. Us old folks had to rely on Videotapes for our entertainment. Back in the early 2000’s it was nearly impossible to find tape of any lacrosse games. I scoured and searched store after store, film library after film library and never found anything worth keeping, buying or stealing. Until one day I happened to spy a prepackaged VHS tape in a glass case in my local (re: 2 hours away) lacrosse retailer. I just stared at it for a few seconds and then asked, “What is THAT?”
The employee scoffed (unnecessarily): “That’s the MLL showcase tape.”
Me: “What’s the MLL?”
Oh, don’t worry this isn’t the story of how I came to have man love for the league that allows me my weekly release. No, this is how I became a fan of Jay Jalbert.
At the time I saw the tape I was nursing a particularly nasty groin injury – it was torn in half – and I lived on a couch for a long time. I hobbled to the VCR (a VCR was like a DVD player that sometimes ate DVD’s. And cooked pop tarts) and threw my only lax fix for the past 2 months into the player.
Now I’m sure that many of you have a seminal moment in lacrosse that you can pinpoint as the actual moment you fell in love with the game. For a lot of you it was probably something you did yourself on the field, for others it may be something you did as a coach. The first time I felt it was when I hit someone for the first time and they lost their shoe. I lost it when I was hit in the back and felt pain akin to a broken glass bottle being twisted into my special area. I regained my love of the game from something I saw on the MLL showcase highlight videotape. If there is a way for me to embed the video in this article I will do it, otherwise you will have to settle for the following fanboy description – as I described it to someone on Instant Messenger this morning:
Jalbert picks the ball up in front of the cage from a rebounded shot.
He looks for space in front of the net, but is blocked by the goalie and a defender.
He then takes the ball to X and, without stopping his movement, dives from X while corkscrewing his body and puts the ball in behind the keeper’s right leg.
As awesome as that may sound, imagine how awesome that would look to someone in the year 2000 that was told he would never play lacrosse again. After I attempted to jump off the couch and fell to the wood floor in agony, I vowed that very second to play lacrosse again. Essentially, I owe Jay Jalbert my entire NCAA “career” as roughshod and inconsequential as it was.
But that’s not why I wrote this article. Well, it’s not the ONLY reason I wrote it, anyway.
Jay Jalbert was the greatest midfielder in the history of the MLL and he retired with little fanfare last week. Did he have his jersey number retired? Yeah, of course he did, but I guess I just wanted…more. Maybe some notice so I could be in the crowd and give the guy a hand. It’s the least I could do. I mean, what do you think is going to happen when Casey Powell retires? Dollars to doughnuts he gets a parade with frilly ponies, a fricking jet fly by and a massive tribute game.
That’s it; I want a Jay Jalbert Tribute game. I said it before, I’ll say it again – Jay Jalbert is the greatest midfielder in the HISTORY of the league. AND he played for the New Jersey Pride for two years! Without killing himself!
What’s that? You want me to justify it? You think I can’t back up my ludicrous statements with hard facts? Strap up, I’m about to get statistical on your ass.
Jay Jalbert played in every MLL All-star game from 2001-2005.
Jalbert was the league’s MVP in 2003 and won an MLL championship with the Lizards in his first year with the team that year as well.
Jalbert averaged 27 goals, 37.4 points and 66.6 ground balls per season in five full seasons in the MLL. His best season was in 2003 with the Long Island Lizards when he tallied 32 goals, 12 assists and 105 ground balls. No other player has scored 30+ goals, dished 10+ assists or scooped 100+ ground balls in MLL history.
In 2006, Jalbert played on the United States Team that went to the World Lacrosse Championships in London, Ontario. Jalbert was named Best Midfielder and earned All-World honours for the second place US team. He scored a goal with three seconds remaining in the initial game against Canada to break the 12-12 tie. Jalbert was third on the team in goals and the only US midfielder to score in double digits in the tournament. It’s not the MLL, but it’s worth mentioning because Jalbert would have played that summer in the MLL if he weren’t in Canada running show on foreign dudes.
It is well documented that Jalbert retired due to a number of serious concussions. The thing about that is, Jalbert didn’t get those concussions from playing with his head down. He got them from blasting OTHER players who had their heads down. The guy played phenomenal midfield short stick defense. In the open field you weren’t going to beat Jay Jalbert down the field and get a clean shot off. Jalbert would rather die than allow his guy a lane to the goal. Contrary to popular belief it was Jay Jalbert who invented the swim dodge – not Paul Rabil. There is no one like Jay Jalbert in the MLL anymore. He was the last midfielder to be feared on both sides of the ball.
He deserves more than a tribute game; He deserves to be remembered.
He deserves to be missed.
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