Albany has come calling for Brett Queener twice.

After Queener’s freshman year at Penn State, he left the school because his mother said he was a “naughty boy.” One year at Herkimer Community College and one NJCAA lacrosse championship later, the goalie landed at Albany.

“Ending up at Albany was a great place for him because (head coach) Scott Marr loves the fast-break game so much that he used Brett’s ability to create that fast-break situation to perfection,” said Patricia Queener, his mother.

“Only Brett could end up in a great situation even though he made a couple mistakes.”

The second time No. 9 Albany (7-1, 3-0 America East) and Marr came calling was around last Christmas. Queener had been a volunteer assistant coach for the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team the prior three seasons, but he received his first men’s lacrosse coaching opportunity.

This season, Queener has seamlessly transitioned back to the sport he played, assuming the same role he had with SU, working with the Great Danes’ goalies. When No. 2 SU (7-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) and Albany square off on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome, it will be Queener’s fourth matchup against the Orange.

“It’s pretty much the best environment I could ask for,” Queener said.

Though Albany provided Queener his first opportunity to coach men’s college lacrosse, SU women’s lacrosse head coach Gary Gait and assistant head coach Regy Thorpe — Queener’s coaches with the Hamilton Nationals of Major League Lacrosse — gave him his first coaching opportunity in 2011.

Queener had been a fan of Gait since he was a child. Gait had recruited Sarah Queener, his sister, when Gait coached for Maryland’s women’s lacrosse team. When Gait visited the Queener house to recruit Sarah, Patricia pulled Gait upstairs to her children’s rooms to take pictures with the children and sign their posters of himself and his brother Paul, who were both stars at SU.

“Who wouldn’t want to coach with Gary Gait?” Patricia Queener said. “Other people had Mickey Mantle, but for us in this house it was the Gait brothers that were the stars.”

Queener transitioned to his role at SU seamlessly, having been around women’s lacrosse from the time he was in fourth grade. He helped his mother coach the women’s lacrosse team at Penn Yan Academy (New York), teaching the goalies to play similar to the Penn Yan boys’ goalies, where his father was the coach. Patricia Queener told her goalies that he knew more than anyone on the team, and that included her.

“I had one (goalie) who was a little more resistant,” Patricia Queener said of her son coaching, “and the one that wasn’t as resistant was our starting goalie.”

Before a state title game Penn Yan won, state officials tried kicking Queener off the field. His mother had to cite the roster card, telling the officials he was listed as an assistant coach.

Queener also chose SU because he wanted to coach a program with a chance to win a championship. From a young age Queener and his sister would have dance competitions to Madonna’s “Celebration” CD and he would always claim he won. Even now, he is competitive in games of Cards Against Humanity, Sylvia said.

SU goalies Kelsey Richardson and Alyssa Costantino were helped by Queener after goalie Liz Hogan, Syracuse’s three-time nominee for the Tewaaraton Award, graduated. Richardson used to have “happy feet” that didn’t settle while she was in net. Queener helped her learn ways to strengthen her ankles and feel more comfortable in net, so her feet settled.

Around last Christmas, Albany called Queener about a job opening. He had not actively thought about returning to men’s lacrosse, but realized it was the right time to return. When he came to an Albany practice, the players didn’t know he’d be a full-time coach.

“The third or fourth day of practice we didn’t know what was going on,” Albany goalie Blaze Riorden said. “He stepped up in the huddle and said he wanted to be a Great Dane this year, and he wanted to coach for a team that could win a national championship and we’re that team.”

At Albany, Queener coaches with Marr, Liam Gleason and Eric Wolf — the latter two being former Albany teammates of Queener that he drove to and from games with.

Riorden already mimicked Queener’s ability to come out of the net because he watched him play as a member of the MLL’s Rochester Rattlers. He remembers Queener making big plays and playing to the crowd. As his coach, Queener taught him ways to shield his stick, get attacks off balance when he takes the ball out of the net and intercept passes behind the net.

“Really to get him back at Albany in the coaching level, in this capacity, by my side on the defense has been great,” Gleason said. “He’s helped our goalies take the next step to being great goalies.”

Now Queener is back where his Division I career restarted.

He gets a rematch with a school that inspired him as a kid, terrorized him for three losses as a player and was the first to employ him as a coach.

Published on April 1, 2015 at 9:37 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati