Derek DeJoe's shot has been clocked at 111 mph, but he wants to be known for more than just his fast shot

Brielle DeJoe crouched behind the goal in her front yard and watched her older brother Derek fire shot after shot into the netting. She braved the oncoming barrage of lacrosse balls for the thrill of watching the numbers flash on the radar gun in her outstretched arm.

104. 105. 106.

“I was always excited to see how fast it was,” Brielle said. “… I would suck it up and stand back there, but I was definitely scared.”

When it wasn’t Brielle standing behind the cage, it was her father, Steve, who was testing the speed of Derek’s shots. And if it wasn’t at home, Derek was showcasing his high-velocity shot at camps, tournaments and other lacrosse events.

DeJoe’s shot has defined his lacrosse career. It’s fast — topping out at 111 mph at an official Major League Lacrosse radar test in the summer of 2014, which is only 8.9 mph shy of a world record — and why head coach John Desko tabbed him as the team’s “3-point shooter.”

But three years into his Syracuse career, DeJoe is tired of answering questions about his shot. He’s tired of being stuck, for much of his career, as a man-up specialist. He has a chance to be a mainstay in the midfield and display parts of his arsenal not defined by triple digits.

“I don’t think he’s gotten to show a lot of that stuff,” Steve DeJoe said, “Because when you’re just on man-up you just have a certain role. Once he gets more consistency out on the field, he’s going to rise to the top and do a lot better because he’s been waiting.”

DeJoe lines his chin up over his right shoulder, extends his arms fully back to his left and crow-hops forward before ripping a shot toward the cage. It’s his mechanics that give him such high speeds on his shots, he said, joking that he’s “not that big of a guy” at the prospect of it being pure strength.

The now 6-foot-1, 215-pound midfielder was a mechanically sound player from the start, his former high school coach and current Rochester Rattler’s (MLL) coach, Tim Soudan, said. He was a natural. He never had a problem shooting with his arms tight to his body or limiting his strength to just his elbows like many players do.

What he did have was larger thighs than his teammates, which allowed him to generate power through his lower body and put torque on the ball.

At home, DeJoe constantly shattered his own windows and the neighbors’. The neighborhood didn’t mind too much, his dad said, but when DeJoe nearly shredded a hole in a neighbor’s garage door, his father set up a 20-foot high and 60-foot wide screen to confine the balls to their front yard.

Warming up before a game during his sophomore year of high school, DeJoe rocketed a ball near post toward his teammate, Blaze Riorden, in net. His hand stood about as much of a chance as any of the windows.

The ball struck near the goalie’s thumb and broke the side of his hand, sending him to the hospital. DeJoe’s coaches had to talk to him about easing up in practice.

“Basically, what I told him was just shoot for the corners, “ Soudan said. “We don’t want to hurt any more of our guys. … He’s just a guy that shoots it hard.”

When DeJoe was younger, he watched Soudan shoot in the low-100s at clinics that Soudan ran. It was the fastest DeJoe had ever seen and he wanted to emulate it.

In time, he did. DeJoe started winning every fastest shot competition he could enter. Crowds gathered at the annual Ithaca Turkeyshoot Lacrosse Tournament to watch him win lacrosse stick heads each year. At tournaments, his teammates would take the money their parents gave them for the $1 shot speed competitions and give it to DeJoe to use.

“He’d win a bunch of prizes for doing it,” Riorden said. “… We knew he was going to win.”

In games, though, a quick release is more important than the velocity on the ball, he said. That was something that came naturally to him, too.

From 15 yards out, DeJoe can catch a pass while taking a step forward and shoot on net all in one fluid motion. Most players struggle to find the cage from beyond 12 yards.

“I usually tell people to let up shots outside of 12 yards. Twelve yards is fine with me,” said Riorden, now the starting goalie at Albany. “But when it comes to Derek, I have to tell them to push out to at least 15 yards.”

His shot and ability to stretch opposing defenses has been mostly limited to man-up opportunities. Eight of his 13 career goals have come during a man advantage. In the stands, his father would anxiously await opposing penalties because they signaled DeJoe’s time on the field.

DeJoe focused on dodging this offseason and improved his shooting with his non-dominant right hand. Each skill is better showcased in the normal run of play than limited to the designated man-up role.

During Syracuse’s scrimmage against Le Moyne on Jan. 30, DeJoe played with the second line of midfielders. Now that midfielders like Nicky Galasso, Henry Schoonmaker and Hakeem Lecky are gone, there are spots in the midfield for the taking.

Standing on the block S in the middle of the Carrier Dome field, DeJoe is the only player on the team that can fire the ball straight up 165 feet and hit the top of the Dome.

His shot has gotten him this far in his Orange career. It’s given him a reputation in the lacrosse community, causing defenders and even sometimes goalies to duck out of the way.

But even though he can tag the inflated roof with lacrosse balls, he hasn’t yet reached his own ceiling. His first, and last, chance to show his dodging, improved offhand and effect he can have beyond the extra man role all hinge on this season.

“I don’t want to leave any questions,” DeJoe said, “anything unanswered.”