Gary Gait
Born	April 5, 1967 (1967-04-05) (age 42), Victoria, British Columbia, CA
Position	Attack/Midfield
Height Weight	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 210 pounds (95 kg)
Former WLA Team	Victoria Shamrocks
NLL Team F. Teams	Rochester Knighthawks Colorado Mammoth Washington Power Pittsburgh CrosseFire Baltimore Thunder Philadelphia Wings Detroit Turbos
MLL Team F. Teams	Toronto Nationals Long Island Lizards Baltimore Bayhawks
Nationality	Canada
Pro Career	1991-2005, 2009 – present
Shoots	Left/Right
U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame NLL Hall of Fame, 2006
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Gary Charles Gait (b. April 5, 1967 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a professional lacrosse player for the Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League and the Toronto Nationals of Major League Lacrosse. Gait is also the former head coach of the NLL's Colorado Mammoth. He is a member of the United States Lacrosse National Hall of Fame and the National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame, and is widely regarded as the best lacrosse player of all time, just above his twin brother Paul.^[1][2][3][4] A fairytale finish to his playing career earned him every possible major lacrosse title; he scored four goals in the last quarter of Canada's historic 15-10 victory over the United States in the final of the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship, his last ever international game.

In 2007, Gait returned to his alma mater Syracuse University to become the head coach of the Orange women's lacrosse team.^[5][6]

[edit] College career

Gary Gait and his twin brother Paul Gait both attended Syracuse University and played in the NCAA, setting many records during their time there. Gait was a three-time first team All-American and once Honorable Mention All-American at Syracuse. He graduated as the Orangemen’s all-time goal leader with 192. He led the team to three Division I Championships. He was NCAA Player of the Year in both 1988 and 1990 and was Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament in 1990. Gait was also widely known for his acrobatic "Air Gait", where he would jump over the crease from behind the goal, scoring while in mid-air, and land on the opposite side of the crease, a move which was later banned in the NCAA.

[edit] NLL career

Gait at the 2005 All-Star Skills Competition

Gait started playing in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (later the National Lacrosse League) in 1991 and won the Rookie of the Year Award. In April 2005 he announced his retirement; he played his last game on April 22, 2005.

In the opening game of the 2006 NLL season on December 30, 2005, at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, the Colorado Mammoth raised Gait's jersey number (22) to the rafters, making him the second player in NLL history to have his number retired, after Buffalo's Darris Kilgour.^[7]

In 2006, both Gait and his brother were among the 5 charter members to be voted into the National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame.

In October 2008, a month after it was announced that Knighthawks star John Grant, Jr. would miss the entire 2009 season^[8], the Knighthawks traded forward Andrew Potter and two first-round draft picks to the Mammoth for Gait's playing rights.^[9]

On December 26, 2008 Gary's twin brother, Paul Gait, was named the Head Coach of the Rochester Knighthawks, reuniting them in sport once again.^[10] During the 2009 NLL season, he was named a reserve to the All-Star game.^[11]

[edit] Coaching

In June 2005, Gait was named head coach of his former team, the Colorado Mammoth.^[12] After a 10-6 season in which the Mammoth finished second in the Western Division, Gait led them to an overtime 18-17 win over Calgary and a 13-12 win over Arizona before shutting down the East Division champion Buffalo Bandits 16-9 in the Championship game.^[13] Gait became the first rookie head coach to win a championship since Tony Resch did it with the Philadelphia Wings in 1994, a team on which Gait played.^[14]

Gait announced in August 2007 that he was stepping down after two seasons as head coach of the Mammoth to pursue other interests.^[15]

Syracuse University Director of Athletics Dr. Daryl Gross has announced that former Orange All-American and lacrosse Hall of Famer Gary Gait has been named the second coach in the history of the women's lacrosse program.^[5][6]

[edit] MLL career

Gait has also played in Major League Lacrosse since its inception in 2001. He was a member of the Long Island Lizards. After the first season, Gait was traded to the Baltimore Bayhawks where he served as a player-coach for the next four years. In 2005, Gait won the Steinfeld Cup as a player-coach. He scored six goals in the Championship Game and was named MVP of that game as well as the season.

He recently came out of MLL retirement and signed with the Toronto Nationals for their inaugural season in 2009.

[edit] WLA career

Gait, along with his brother, had great seasons with the Victoria Shamrocks of the Western Lacrosse Association. Gait won the Mike Kelly Memorial Trophy as most valuable player of the Mann Cup as a Shamrock in 1997, and shared the most valuable player award with his brother Paul in 1999.^[16]

[edit] International lacrosse career

1990 - Member of Team Canada, finalists in the World Lacrosse Championship
1994 - Member of Team Canada, 3rd place at the World Lacrosse Championship
1998 - Member of Team Canada, finalists in the World Lacrosse Championship
2002 - Member of Team Canada, finalists in the Heritage Cup
2004 - Member of Team Canada, winners of the Heritage Cup
2006 - Member of Team Canada, winners of the World Lacrosse Championship

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Syracuse University

^(a) 2nd in NCAA single-season goals

^(b) 3rd in NCAA career goals

[edit] Records and awards

Gait set many NLL scoring records during his career.

Gait was named NLL MVP six times, including five consecutive seasons. Other than Gary Gait, only John Tavares (3 times) has ever won the award more than once.

He was also given the NLL Sportsmanship Award twice, in 2004 (tie with Peter Lough) and 2005.

NLL Weekly and Monthly Awards:

• Player of the Week (1994-2001) 7 times
• Overall Player of the Week (2002-) 6 times
• Offensive Player of the Week (2002-) 3 times
• Player of the Month 6 times

Gait was named the MLL MVP his final season in 2005, sharing it with Mark Millon. That season he also led the league in goals and points with 42 goals and 21 assists for 63 points.

MLL Weekly Awards:

• Offensive Player of the Week 2 times

[edit] Personal life

Gary Gait lives in Cazenovia, New York with his wife, Nicole, and their children Taylor and Braedon. His daughter, Taylor, also plays lacrosse at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, New York.

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gary Gait

• Career achievements of Gary Gait
• Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse