HEBRON

On the television Owen “Kit” Smith was living the dream, running around with the capacity and confidence of a professional athlete.

Television? Hey, not bad for an Algebra teacher at Hebron Academy.

You didn’t know? Haven’t you read the news already!

Brunswick resident and former Brunswick High School and Bowdoin College three-sport luminary, Kit Smith, is embarking on yet another athletic journey, this time as a full-fledged member of the Boston Cannons.

Cannons? Yes, as a member of Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the Cannons, with Kit on the regular 25- man active squad as a midfielder, opened their season Saturday night at Harvard Stadium against the Rochester Rattlers.

The Cannons prevailed 15-3 with Kit, currently a boys lacrosse coach at Hebron, taking two shots with a goal scored.

His recent road to the Cannons was initially paved with doubt and uncertainty. Though confident in his abilities, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound midfielder wasn’t sure what to expect when he agreed to attend an open tryout for the Cannons.

An economics major at Bowdoin, the 22-year-old admits to not having a grand plan following graduation last spring, so why not try out?

“I really had no idea … many of my friends were applying to investment banks, and insurance and real estate companies, and that just didn’t really appeal to me at all. Here I was just trying to figure out what an economics major was supposed to do.

“And, still, I hadn’t chosen a career yet. We used to joke around about trying out, or getting drafted by one of the MLL teams … just chatting around on a Saturday night.”

But, let’s back up a bit.

His post-college career began last year when he got a call about an opening at Hebron. “It really jumped out at me because coaching was something I could see myself getting into at some point.”

A summer stint at Pine Island Camp on the Belgrade Lakes helped fortify his coaching resume.

“That actually taught me and gave me a lot of experience dealing with young people. Trying to teach them something. You get a group of young kids that you have for a certain amount of time. You want them to have fun and you want them to get something out of it. Hopefully, I can teach these kids (at Hebron) about the game of lacrosse.”

“I have enjoyed watching and listening to Kit coach,” said Hebron athletic director Leslie Guethner. “He is a very good teacher, talking to a player after a shift about what worked well or what might have been better — but always in a positive and constructive way.

“He is also a great role model for our students; he holds his team to some high expectations while also highlighting the importance of good sportsmanship. His playing experiences at Bowdoin made him a great candidate for a teaching and coaching position at Hebron, and I am certain this new experience with the Boston Cannons — a coach being a player while also being a coach — will make him even better at what he does.

“We are lucky to have Kit here at Hebron and he has made a positive impact on our school community, both in the classroom, and on the ice and the lacrosse field.”

While at Hebron he stayed active, more recently with core workouts and long distance running, etc. Of course he stilled played lacrosse. Have game, will travel.

“I couldn’t stay away from the game. I played some pick-up games with the Portland Lumberjacks. If was just fun to go out and play with whoever.”

One day he ran into Bowdoin assistant coach Tom Bragg, who mentioned that the defending MLL champions were holding an open tryout.

“I had no idea … I was like ‘come on! What does an open tryout really mean? Are they really going to take the people seriously?’ That’s what I had imagined, but he (Bragg) really encouraged me. His attitude was ‘why not take a shot? What have you got to lose?’”

The tryout was held outside of Harvard Stadium, a cold, windy day in March with about 30-35 other hopefuls.

There was one player from New Zealand, a couple from the Long Island Lizards of the MLL, some Division One players. Talent abound.

“It looked like there were some pretty good players … I noticed that right off the bat.”

And, his lacrosse play of late had been sporadic. “I knew some of the players really had their ‘sticks’ … that they had been playing a lot of lacrosse recently. It was a fast-level of play.”

Kit can play Although the tryout lasted three hours, it took just a short while for him to “realize that I was playing with similar guys. I realized pretty quickly that I could play with these guys. I could definitely run with them and did my best just to listen to what the coach (Steve) Duffy was saying before every drill. The MLL is all about transition … if you’re a good transition team you can be good in the MLL. A lot of drills had us running down the field trying to make something happen. I focused, when I was on defense, on hustling as hard as I could to get back into the hole and getting into a good position, and when I was on offense really trying to push the ball, make good passes.”

A week later on a Florida surfing vacation, he got a call and was invited to their training camp.

“Kit showed us the athleticism, quickness and physical presence of an MLL player” said Duffy. “And, I think the landscape of professional lacrosse is that there is a group of players from all levels, not just Division One. We really like what we saw in Kit.”

A couple of weeks ago, training camps began with weekend practices. Remember now, the MLL is not full-time work for most of these guys. Duffy, for instance, is an assistant principal.

“It was like a whole new level of play. Stepping on the field with Paul Rabil and Kyle Sweeney, some of the guys I’ve been watching on television, was a cool experience, but it takes a second or two to really realize where you stand.”

He also found out that some of the things he did at Bowdoin also worked on the professional level. “Like being physical with my dodges, shooting the ball hard and away.”

He has signed a contract that pays per-game, but you have to dress for that particular contest to earn some legal tender. The team also has a sixman practice squad.

There are perks, and the other day he was presented with a goodie bag chalk full of equipment. “The whole nine yards, so right there I was thinking, ‘even if I get cut, I’ve got all this gear!’”

And for you Bowdoin followers, he is wearing number 39.

Last Friday he headed down to Boston for a night practice followed by a Saturday walk-through. The team set him up at the local Hyatt.

Well, here’s his take on last Saturday Night Under the Lights:

“The atmosphere was electric. It kind of reminded me a little bit of Bowdoin-Colby hockey games in the Sid Watson Arena. In both cases, the fans are right on top of you going wild, and you feel the spotlight on you intensely. I think my experience in Watson helped me deal with the big game feel at Harvard Stadium. The crowd was cheering, the dance team was dancing, Jon Hayes ran out on the field with the championship trophy from last year, and they dropped the championship banner. I was more excited than nervous … I think. I just wanted to get out and run around, take some dodges, make some passes.

“Coach Duffy and the rest of the coaching staff had done an incredible job during training camp getting us prepared for the opener. Everyone on the field knew what they needed to do, and it showed.”

On this night, the coaches took a more simplistic route with Kit and his role.

“The coaching staff just said, ‘dodge hard down hill and take what the defense gives you. Don’t try to do too much.’ I felt like my role was to try to beat my man, draw the slide, and move the ball. The shot clock was something that took some time to adjust to. In the MLL, when you’re on offense, you have to be aware of what the count is because you don’t want to take a bad shot and give up transition going the other way.

“As midfielders, when the clock gets under 10, we give the ball to the attackmen and we get off the field so we can get our defensive personnel out there. We know we will get another opportunity on offense soon because the other team has the same shot clock to deal with. I mainly focused on valuing the ball when I

Cannons tickets

Season tickets to see the Kit and the Cannons this summer at Harvard Stadium are on sale now, with packages starting at $115. For more information, or to purchase Cannons tickets, visit BostonCannons.com or call (617) 746-9933.

got out on the field — something I also stress with my players back at Hebron. It’s funny how the things I say to my guys at Hebron seem to me that they should be so simple to execute, but then, as a player, it turns out these things are tougher than they look.”

It didn’t take long for Kit to get into the swing of things.

“I think I jumped into the game the second or third shift with my linemates, Thomas Burke and Paul Rabil. I wasn’t sure how many shifts I would get, but I knew we were trying to use our full bench. Coach Duffy wanted to run the Rattlers’ defensive midfielders down to exhaustion. I basically ran regularly every third shift. With the shot clock, there are so many more offensive positions than in college, so every third shift turned out to be a lot. I like the quick pace of the MLL game.”

Now, for his first professional goal!

“I was just above the top of the restraining line and Mike Stone had just taken a wing dodge down the alley, drawing a slide. He banged it to Ryan Boyle on the backside, and I realized right then that the ball might be coming to me shortly. I had watched Boyle thread the skip pass numerous times in training camp and I was ready for it.

“I thought for a split second that I might lose the ball in the stadium lights, but I was able to jump and snatch it successfully out of the air. The Rattlers’ defense had no time to recover, so they were weak up top. I made a hard move to the right side of the defender, found my range, and shot on the run as hard as I could at the net. The plan was to shoot high to low on Galloway, but I shot high too high. I think it kind of caught Galloway by surprise.

“Ari Sussman, one of our attackmen, was the first to grab me. Then Boyle came over and said, ‘What did I tell you? Just get it on cage.’”

Following the game, there was the usual banter.

“I talked a little bit with Craig Bunker, another NESCAC guy, after the game. He was pretty excited about the face-off battles he had just had with our FOGO, Chris Eck. A bunch of my friends and family from Brunswick and from Bowdoin had come to the game, and I got to see them briefly.

“There were even a few people from Hebron who had come to watch. I couldn’t stop smiling. We went in the locker room for our post game debrief, where we celebrated a few firsts. Jake Beebe, who ended up with four goals, and I both got the ball back from when we had scored, and it was also coach Duffy’s first win as head coach.”

And, his final thoughts?

“Compared to college, the MLL rules allow defenders to get away with a little bit more physical play. At one point, one of our attackmen made a hard drive to the net and there were a number of Rattler shafts that came down violently on his head, hands and stick, and then one particularly large fellow hit our guy pretty hard sending him sprawling over another Rattler who was on the ground. The two opposing players exchanged some heated words.

“Normally, in college, if I saw that I would have turned and walked away, but this opposing defender was so big that I was genuinely worried about the well-being of our attackmen. There were some monsters out on the field. That is one of the other things about the MLL game. I’m not the only big guy out there.”

GEORGE ALMASI is the Times Record sports editor. He can be reached at galmasi@timesrecord.com