A Tale of Two Goalies

About a week and a half ago my favorite College lacrosse goalie of all time played his last game. Colin Gallagher is a fantastic goalie and an even better brother. At every level he has competed on he has excelled. He has wowed crowds with amazing saves, led teammates with words as well as play, and occasionally demoralized attackers. As a reflection of our new family home, he was introduced to the crowd this season as the senior captain from Minneapolis, Minnesota. In a roster dominated by some of Long Island’s finest it really stood out.

People usually assume that because we are not only brothers but also both left handed upstate New York goalies that we play similarly. We certainly share a lot of traits in common but whenever we discuss how we play the differences are what we talk about.

Colin challenges shooters by modifying his stance. He plays really low to entice shooters to go high. He leaves corners uncovered and then takes the easy goal away at the last second. The smarter and better the shooter, the harder it is to score on my brother. When he makes saves, it’s almost like the shooter fell into a trap. He is unsettlingly good. One of his teammates told me a story about my brother in practice. During a shooting drill Colin was correctly yelling where the shooter was going to shoot as they wound up. Based on how he was talking it’s a good thing Colin wasn’t around back when they conducted witch-hunts.

Colin told me a story of a shooter who he knew had a cannon. “I didn’t know if I could catch up with the ball from inside of 15 yards.”  So he decided to be creative, “So whenever the guy had the ball outside of 15 yards I yelled to him ‘GIVE ME THE HEATER!’ and he took the challenge. After I made a few saves he decided he couldn’t score on me and stopped shooting.” As a goalie nothing is more beautiful than when a guy beats his defender, looks at you, then passes the ball. It’s beautiful because good shots that aren’t taken are the easiest to handle.

I can’t do any of those things. I try and challenge shooters based on where I stand. Colin told me “It is scary just how you just stand there in your stance as the guy is winding up, waiting to move at the last possible second.” I do get a little anxious in there.

Colin ruining a fast breakWe both love the challenge of one on one fake and finish opportunities. My brother explains, “The pressure is on the shooter to score, I just concentrate on making the last good move and I hope to come out on top.” I had never thought of it in that way, but he is right. Just because a goalie bites on a fake doesn’t mean he is given up a goal, the goalie just needs to be that much better on the actual shot.

When thinking this blog out, a thought ran through my mind. Colin’s style of goaltending is an open challenge. He tests the shooter with a location that is smart to shoot to. In essence he challenges them to a game they are both good at. I do not. I only bait to places I am good at stopping the ball. Lets play a game I am good at. Maybe our differences on the field stem from me being the older brother. I did pick the games. Maybe Colin just got used to challenging people to what they were good at. Still thinking about that.

Colin has graduated from SUNY Maritime, with a Commission in the Navy for the Merchant Marine Reserve. He has accepted a job working for Bath Iron Works, where he will help design and build ships for the Navy. I have to be nice to him now, he has a freaking sword.

So Minnesota thanks from the Gallagher brothers for adopting two left handed, smart mouthed goalies from Syracuse.

And thank you Mom, for making all we have done possible.