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After plying his trade for four years as an undergraduate at Georgetown Scott Kahoe (MSB ’08) now finds himself a member of rival Syracuse.

A young fan approached Scott Kahoe near the sideline on the Multi-Sport Facility after the Georgetown-Syracuse game two weeks ago.

“Can I have your autograph?” asked the bright-eyed fan, thrusting a lacrosse ball up toward the much taller Kahoe. Without hesitation, Kahoe took the ball and scribbled his name.

The scene may be a common routine for a college lacrosse game, but this particular encounter must have looked more like a Salvador Dalí painting to the Georgetown players and fans walking out of the stadium. Instead of the hometown colors, Kahoe and the young boy were both sporting Syracuse orange.

After spending his four undergraduate years with the Georgetown lacrosse program, Kahoe is now enrolled in graduate school at Syracuse and playing out his final year of eligibility with the Hoyas’ rivals.

“It’s definitely weird seeing him in the Orange,” says former teammate Barney Ehrmann, a junior defender for Georgetown.

While the added fan support is something Kahoe can get used to (“Hey, well we just played in front of 17,000 people last week against Virginia,” he says), coming back to Georgetown and playing against his old friends was a challenge.

“It was definitely weird at first – probably one of the most difficult things I’ve had to deal with in my 22 years,” Kahoe says. “It was tough. It brought back a lot of memories of playing on this field and playing with this coaching staff and all the players on the team.”

Kahoe came to Georgetown in 2005 as a high school All-American and contributed immediately, scoring six goals as a freshman. But the midfielder had injury problems and sat out his junior season following shoulder surgery. Kahoe’s game never took off after his freshman campaign and he scored only five more goals for the Blue and Gray in his career.

Syracuse’s wide-open style seems to suit the athletic Kahoe much better. Through just five games with his new team, Kahoe has more goals, assists and shots than he had all of last season.

“G-Town has a great offense and some great personnel and they’ve got some great players. At the same time too, they settle down and look for a specific shot, whereas we attack from all different kinds of angles,” Kahoe said. “We take whatever the defense gives us. We play fast and loose.”

Syracuse Head Coach John Desko and his fast-paced offense appreciate the immediate impact from Kahoe, who already has four goals and five assists.

“He’s a big athletic kid who can shoot the ball from outside. He gives us depth and he’s a real threat to score,” Desko said.

Another difference between Georgetown and Syracuse is tradition. While the Hoyas have been a perennial top-10 team behind 20-year Head Coach Dave Urick, the Orange are legendary in the lacrosse world. They have won nine national championships, including last year’s, and have been to 25 Final Fours. Syracuse has had 12 four-time All-Americans, including Gary Gait – considered by many to be the best lacrosse player ever – and the renowned Powell brothers. Located in lacrosse-crazy upstate New York, Syracuse draws many devoted fans to the Carrier Dome and even on the road.

While the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry has a tradition of its own on the lacrosse field – and the two will compete against each other next year in the Big East’s first year of men’s lacrosse – there was no bad blood after Kahoe and the Orange beat the Hoyas 8-5. Though Georgetown could have prevented Kahoe from even playing at Syracuse, Urick said the thought never crossed his mind. NCAA regulations state that in order for a graduate student to gain eligibility at a school other than the one he completed his undergrad degree at, the previous school has to sign a release. It is not uncommon for graduate students to play for a new team, but most coaches will only allow former players to go to teams they do not compete against.

“An interesting thing is that certain schools, when a guy leaves, they only release him to certain schools. They’ll only release guys to schools they don’t play against,” Urick says. “To me, that didn’t seem to make sense. He had a year of eligibility left and he wanted to go to graduate school. He should be allowed to go wherever he’s got a good opportunity. I never even thought twice about not releasing him to somebody that we happened to play against.”

Urick said that knowing Kahoe’s game made it easier to prepare against him, but off the field the two did not discuss lacrosse.

“I asked him how he was doing in school and making sure that part is going well,” Urick said. “He’s a kid that I got to know pretty well while he was here.”

Kahoe is currently pursuing an MBA in Syracuse’s School of Information Studies. His lacrosse eligibility will run out after this season, and when asked about what the future may hold for him, Kahoe was unsure.

“We’ll see,” he says. “I’ve been approached by the football coaches, but we’ll see. That’s a whole different story.”

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