Like many boarding schools, Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass., requires students to play two sports. Delia Cox, who entered the school as a sophomore, knew she wanted to continue with her soccer career in the fall.

But what about the spring? Her only options were track and lacrosse. Knowing a few friends on the lacrosse team, she went along with them, pumped up to learn the sport but never expecting it to amount to anything.

Now, Cox, a junior at Maryland, is a three-year starter at attack with 110 career goals for the Terrapins, a perennial lacrosse power.

After Syracuse hosts Rutgers on Friday at 4 pm. in the Carrier Dome, the Orange travels to Ludwig Field to face Cox and Maryland on Sunday at 1 pm.

Cox’s sudden success on the lacrosse field should come as no shock. She has made a habit of wandering into different sports and suddenly achieving notable accomplishments in each of them. Lacrosse only happened to be the latest.

‘In 20 years of coaching, I’ve seen one other player make the adjustment so quickly,’ said Roberta McClain, Cox’s assistant coach at Dummer Academy. ‘It was obvious from the start (Delia) had it.

‘She really knew how to handle a stick, which people didn’t expect given her background.’

What exactly is that background? It starts with equestrian. Like lacrosse, horseback riding began as an obligation. But instead of the academy mandating her participation, it was her mom and dad who forced her in the saddle at age 5. Many young children head to the stables in Cox’s hometown of Newbury, Mass.

But it soon became apparent horseback riding was no simple activity for Cox. She started competing. And winning.

‘She was enormously successful,’ said Ralph Cox, her father. ‘I really thought she would follow that as her career.’

For 10 years, Cox was what her father called a ‘rink-rat,’ practically living at the stables. She won a sea of blue ribbons and was on track to eventually compete for a spot on America’s Olympic team until she stopped riding competitively when she began high school. The family did not have the resources for her to continue at the highest level.

That doesn’t mean she didn’t stop riding casually, or that she didn’t take anything from that experience to her future sports.

‘One thing that helps is when you’re in the ring and it’s just you and the horse,’ Cox said, ‘you have to clear your mind and just focus on the moment that you’re in right now.’

Her newfound love of soccer made the transition from equestrian easier. She stumbled upon this sport, too. She just wanted to try a team sport with several of her friends in sixth grade, and promptly excelled. She played for seven years, starring at Dummer Academy.

‘I thought up until her senior year she would play soccer at a university,’ Ralph Cox said. It was the second time he was wrong about which sport his daughter would ultimately select.

But how could he possibly know she would immediately fall in love and excel at a third sport? Cox didn’t know how good she was at lacrosse until recruiting letters poured in after she was named All-American as a junior. Up until then, she never imagined altering plans of playing soccer at Maryland.

McClain, though, who was also her soccer coach, predicted her sophomore year that lacrosse would eventually take over.

‘I don’t know that she knew it,’ McClain said. ‘But I did.’

When she joined the Maryland lacrosse team the following spring, Cox remained skeptical that her abilities were truly good enough to play for an elite Division I school. She found out soon enough.

She was named NCAA Rookie of the Year. She scored 36 goals, many off a trademark move that few freshmen bring to the college level so confidently.

‘You can tell that once she puts her head down, she is going to score,’ said sophomore teammate Katie Doolittle of Manlius.

But perhaps the strangest story about Cox is another odd beginning. Only this time it’s not the start of playing a sport, it’s the beginning of her life.

She was born in Klagenfurt, Austria. Ralph Cox played professional hockey in Europe for six seasons, living with Delia’s mother, Elizabeth Duff-George, across the Atlantic during hockey season.

‘It’s the coolest story ever to tell people,’ Cox said. ‘I don’t remember anything about when I was there. I can just tell people I was born in Austria, and that is awesome.’

She has visited her country of birth several times, stopping by her godmother’s house each time.

But Delia has not been back in six years. When she does return, she should bring updated photos for her godmother to replace the old ones of her on a horse or with a soccer ball.

She may also need to provide explanation of the game of lacrosse, which as of now still remains the sport she has played for the least amount of time.

It seems like yesterday to her father that she just took up the game.

‘It’s still amazing to me her success in lacrosse,’ Ralph Cox said. ‘She has surprised me with everything she has done.’

Published on April 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm