Sitting at a dinner table, in a home near the center of Amsterdam last winter, Lynn Farquhar had a plate of Dutch meat, mashed potatoes and string beans. A Holland dish.

Syracuse’s assistant field hockey coach had come to the Netherlands capital to recruit, and over Jan Van der Post’s signature dish studied his daughter Ann-Sophie’s collegiate interest.

‘She showed me what Syracuse was all about, and I showed her what I was all about,’ Anne-Sophie Van der Post said. ‘I think she liked my game.’

Under head coach Ange Bradley, Farquhar has traveled internationally as recruiting coordinator trying to find and to fit the pieces to No. 1 Syracuse’s (14-0) constant puzzle – the athletes needed to win an NCAA Championship.

Finding a backfield force in Van der Post was instrumental, Bradley said. Like Farquhar’s trip and recruitment of Martina Loncarica from her comfort of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Both freshmen starters, Loncarica now leads the nation in assists per game (1.36); Van der Post has started every game, most times playing the entire 70 minutes.

Farquhar didn’t have to think twice. If a business trip to Holland would benefit Syracuse, she would leave in a heartbeat.

‘On the drop of a dime,’ Bradley said. ‘She has this adventurous spirit, but it’s just like a quiet storm.’

Farquhar, a woman of one- or two-word answers who followed Bradley from Richmond last year, first came across as shy, forward Brittany Shannon said.

But there’s a hidden personality, a Farquhar who twice parachuted from a plane; one willing to travel the world, Shannon said.

Farquhar is funny, Shannon said. She’s grown to know Bradley and the team quite a bit, and talks a ton now. Easy to tease.

‘But, when she has something to say, you better listen,’ Bradley said. ‘She has a repertoire with her players … to give understanding to the athlete and also to be able to give compassion.’

There is room to relate. Farquhar, a defensive-minded coach, will push her players to push harder, so they can march their black cleats with confidence that on defense, the Orange cannot lose.

She matches their effort watching film – always watching film – studying for her team, Shannon said.

When Shannon tore her anterior cruciate ligament last October, Farquhar took her out to A-La-Mode for sandwiches and ice cream. She spoke to her from experience of persistence. Farquhar pushed past two ACL injuries, which earned her a redshirt spot on Old Dominion’s 2000 NCAA Championship team.

Farquhar likes a challenge, to try new things or to stick with what she wants. The soccer player from West Potomac (Va.) High School who picked up field hockey her senior year hasn’t let go. She has pursued coaching to keep herself in the game.

‘It lets you know how to push yourself to new challenges and probably grow into somebody you never know you could at first,’ Farquhar said, referring to the reason coaching is fun and the ways she can be like a teammate on the turf.

‘Just like one of them,’ said Farquhar, pointing at her players with her left finger wrapped in her Syracuse-sweater sleeve.Volunteering as an assistant coach for Bradley’s Spiders after graduation from Old Dominion in 2005, Farquhar served as a waitress at an upscale cafe in Richmond, Va. She kept practice gear in a bag in her car, and combined her job with what she wanted.

‘I’m a worker,’ Farquhar said. ‘I need to work.’

It’s what Farquhar looks for when she travels abroad, potential recruits synonymous as workers who won’t quit. When discussing a red card Van der Post received during her regional championship in Amsterdam, hours before her father’s meal, Farquhar smiled.

In December, she will be sent out again, Bradley said. She will recruit new players, travel to new sights.

As Bradley said: ‘She has this adventure about her that you’ll never know.’

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on October 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm