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Blood gushed from a gash on Saam Olexo’s forehead, but the almost 3 year old wasn’t crying. His oldest brother, Bijan Olexo, pushed him down a twirly, old slide while they were at their cousins’ house for a birthday party and Olexo hit his head on a pipe at the bottom.

His dad, Steve Olexo, said he could see his skull through the wound. A plastic surgeon later sutured 10-15 internal stitches and 17 external ones, said Faranak Moghadam, Olexo’s mother. But lying on the ground, while his parents were panicked and worried, Olexo was calm, his middle brother, Kian Olexo said.

Only when his dad said they’d have to go to the emergency room did Olexo start to cry — not from pain, but because he didn’t want to leave without having a slice of cake.

“He didn’t care about the stitches, he just wanted the cake,” Steve said. “I’m like ‘Jeez, this kid’s tough.’”

Olexo’s play as the Orange’s leading long-stick midfielder has been defined by aggressive on-field defending. Head coach Gary Gait said with a laugh that “I don’t think Saam’s afraid of anything.” Olexo’s also used that same mindset on offense too, notching four goals, the most scored by a non-offensive player this season.

Bijan said he and Kian gave their younger brother “a little push in the right direction” in terms of building Olexo into the tough player he is for Syracuse. But the rest is a result of Olexo’s personality and work ethic, his brothers and parents said.

“Maybe it’s survival of the fittest, because he always used to get picked on,” Moghadam said. “He always had to stand up for himself.”

Around the same time as the slide incident, the three brothers and their dad dug a pond in their yard. Kian said they liked watching “The Three Stooges” at the time, so he and his older brother replicated one of those pranks on their youngest brother.

They stepped on the spade-end of a shovel and the handle flew up and hit Olexo in the face, giving him a “huge black eye,” Kian said. The family used a photo of a black-eyed Olexo, with stitches on his forehead, as a joke when he graduated high school, Moghadam said.

“He was perfectly fine afterwards,” Moghadam said of the two incidents. “He’s always been tough.”

Saam Olexo has been known for his toughness since he was young, and once received a black eye after being hit by a shovel. Courtesy of Bijan Olexo

That toughness has shown through Olexo’s first two years at Syracuse when he shifted to short-stick defensive midfielder in 2021. Then-defensive coordinator Lelan Rogers needed a short-stick due to injuries, and though Olexo hadn’t played the position competitively, he knew the shift was feasible. He’s owned a short stick all his life, though he played close defense at Archbishop Spalding (Maryland) High School. It just required covering an extra yard in each direction because he didn’t have his long pole.

“He has the versatility to go short, long, whatever it might be because of his athleticism, his stamina and his mental toughness of ‘I don’t care what’s happening. You’re not going to beat me,’” said Brian Phipps, Olexo’s high school coach. “He could tape his hands together and he’d still fight you to the end.”

Now, Olexo is using his experience from playing close defense in high school and short-stick last year. Combining those experiences is perfect for a long-stick midfielder, Olexo said. He’s more confident, more focused and more aggressive on the field this season, his family said.

“He leans into the attacker, so he starts the aggression rather than the offense starting it on him, which allows him more control,” Kian said.

Part of that aggressiveness also manifests offensively when Olexo pushes SU in transition, said Evan Hockel, Olexo’s junior varsity coach at Spalding. Olexo’s highlight-reel goal against Cornell — where he yard-saled the faceoff specialist from behind, sprinted the length of the field, caught a pass and scored with his non-dominant right hand — epitomized his abilities “to a T,” Phipps said.

Dangerous in transition 🔥

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— Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse (@CuseMLAX) April 11, 2022

It was a play Olexo couldn’t make five years ago, Kian said. Shooting with a long pole takes practice because it’s difficult to aim precisely, requires perfect timing on the shot release and needs to account for the weight of the 6-foot pole, his family and high school coaches said.

At Spalding, Hockel had the players do a “fun, competitive” drill at the start of practices where he rolled out a ground ball and whichever unit collected it was on offense. That meant Olexo, a defender, scored countless times. At Syracuse, he’s been practicing on goalie Bobby Gavin too.

Growing up, that toughness started when Olexo lost wrestling matches against Bijan and Kian, who are four and two years older, respectively. Their parents would break up the altercations, but even though Olexo was much smaller than his older siblings, he always got up after he was knocked down, Bijan said.

“There’s not a single argument or day in my life that he’s backed down from anything,” Kian said.

Olexo and both his brothers also played ice hockey, and Olexo loved the physicality of the sport, Steve said. Coaches told him to “make (opponents) think twice about coming in your direction towards the goal,” and Olexo did just that, Moghadam said.

A hockey stick is the same length as a lacrosse long pole, Olexo said, so the skills translated well between both sports. Hockey taught him to use his body to shield the puck, which helped him scoop up ground balls as a wing on faceoffs.

Olexo’s development also continued when he didn’t make the varsity lacrosse team during his sophomore season at Spalding. He was good enough, said Hockel, but the varsity team had a lot of experienced defenders, Phipps said.

Instead, he led the JV team to its first-ever championship, Hockel said. The team only lost one regular season game in 2017-18 to its rival, St. Mary’s High School. But during a rematch in the playoff semifinals, Olexo’s physicality in the first quarter set the tone. He threw a “phenomenal” back-check and yard-saled one of their best players, Hockel said.

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“You knew it was going to be a long day for that kid,” Hockel said. The bench got riled up by the play, and St. Mary’s scored just three goals in the loss. That summer after his sophomore JV season, Olexo was recruited by Rogers to play at SU.

For multiple summers before college, Olexo, Bijan and a few friends paved roads for American Paving Fabrics Inc. In the summer heat, they laid down tar-and-chip roads or mastic ones. A typical day started at sunrise and lasted until sundown, Bijan said.

Mastic was more labor intensive because it involved carrying pails of “hot, black putty” and pouring it into cracks on the highway. They’d walk around 10 miles while carrying the buckets of hot sludge, Bijan said. The job also included shoveling and carrying stones. You’d be sore the next day, Bijan said, but Olexo still managed to work out at home in addition to paving, Moghadam added.

“I remember him saying one time that he likes it because he’s getting paid to work out,” Kian said.

This past offseason, Olexo didn’t do any paving though. Instead, he was re-adjusting to his long pole at the park near the family’s house. Olexo was always in-season during high school because of football, ice hockey and lacrosse, so he’s learned to take advantage of full offseasons in college.

“I knew what I had to do,” Olexo said. “And it paid off.”

Olexo was tough almost 20 years ago when Bijan pushed his younger brother down the jungle gym slide, and he still is. Bijan laughs periodically as he recalls the story, adding that he was in big trouble with his parents after the incident.

The re-telling gets foggier regarding why Olexo hit his head in the first place though. Kian says Bijan convinced Olexo to let him push him down. Their father says Olexo was taking too long to go down the slide, so Bijan just pushed him. And when asked why he did it, Bijan says he doesn’t really remember.

“We were so young,” he said. “Just brotherly love, I guess.”

Published on April 18, 2022 at 1:04 am

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16