This season, ESPN.com is giving you an insider's view of the Alabama softball, Oklahoma baseball and Syracuse lacrosse programs. The insider's view is called Inside the Program. The latest edition for Syracuse lacrosse is Roy Simmons Jr.'s story as told to ESPN.com's Lauren Reynolds. Jr. reflects on his father Roy Sr. playing for and coaching Syracuse, doing the same himself, his son Roy III also doing the same, and concluding with Roy IV starting his own tradition.
Roy Simmons Jr. believes that it was understood that he would play for his father. "My parents decided it was best for me to go away for high school; otherwise I would never have time away from family", Simmons states. "I came back to Syracuse to play for my father, which was an interesting experience. Then I became the freshman coach, and he was still the boss. So we had a grandfather in the stands, the ex-coach; a father on the sidelines, the head coach; and the boys on the field playing for their father, for his alma mater, with their grandfather looking down."
As witnessed in the video below Roy Simmons Jr. delivers an amazing speech prior to Syracuse winning the 2009 national championship. Roy Simmons Jr. is still the Patriarch of the Syracuse family.
Simmons' successful career as a player and coach yielded national championships and an induction into the Hall of Fame. Upon winning numerous championships and coaching countless All-Americans he has built a legacy that former player's sons long to play for. Simmons Jr. exclaims:
I'll see my former players in the stands, and I'll ask them what they're doing here, and they'll say "Look, there's my son with an Orange jersey on, like you said." When we won the national title in 2009, four of the 10 starters were sons of people who played for me. It comes back. Kids want to come back and play where their dad played, because their dad played for a damn good program.
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