Vinson Has Led Hoyas Out of the Woods

Each of the Georgetown men's lacrosse players vowed to do conditioning work over the summer. For senior faceoff specialist Dan Vinson, it wasn't as easy as it sounds.

Vinson spent the summer as a back-country ranger at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California. His duties included putting out left-behind campfires and helping lost hikers find their way. He once hiked to nearly 9,000 feet to attend to a woman who was having symptoms of a heart attack.

But the workouts were not an afterthought for him, and that's a good thing. Because after being a reserve as a junior and sophomore, and having been cut from the team as a freshman, Vinson has emerged as the main faceoff man for the Hoyas (6-2, 2-0) entering tomorrow's Eastern College Athletic Conference game at Fairfield (3-5, 1-2).

Vinson built his own rudimentary "weight room" in the forest. He used tree branches as pull-up bars, heavy rocks and boulders for lower-body workouts and heavy logs for bench presses.

"We would go out on four-day patrols, and the trail work helped out my legs," Vinson said. "Sometimes we hiked 10 miles a day. . . . The branches had dipped because of the snow, so I used them for pull-ups. I tried to get creative with it."

When the season began, Vinson was a reserve and the Hoyas were 1-2 entering a game against then-No. 10 Delaware on March 12.

Midway through the first quarter, Vinson entered for a faceoff. To that point, Georgetown had won 27 of 73 faceoffs (36.9 percent) on the season.

Vinson won 11 of 20 faceoffs in an 18-10 victory. Overall, he has won 41 of 74 (55.4 percent).

"When he's in the game, you can tell that there's a heightened energy on the sideline," junior defensive midfielder Chris Taylor said. "He is so loved on the team, not one person can say a bad word about him. He really provides us with a spark. We all know how hard he has worked."

Vinson responded to being cut from the team as a freshman in a similar way. He asked for, and received, a workout regimen from strength and conditioning coach Augie Maurelli.

Ultimately, such success seemed a long way off even after he made the team as a sophomore in 2006. He was the third-string faceoff man the past two years.

This year, he began behind freshman Brian Tabb and senior Rob Dubas.