On his drive back from work, Hakeem Lecky’s grandfather, Nelson, would pull over his Cadillac about halfway home to let 6-year-old Hakeem sit on his lap and steer the rest of the way home.
Years of observing from the passenger’s seat and watching Nelson make the trip home made Lecky feel like he already knew what to do when he finally got his shot.
Just sitting, and watching.
“Everything I was being taught, I was just sucking it in like a sponge,” Lecky said.
Growing up for the first eight years of his life in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Lecky found his childhood role model in Nelson. His mother worked nearly every day and his father separated from the family.
But 17 years later, the roles have been reversed with Lecky. He’s a redshirt senior, being followed and observed by underclassmen studying the makeup of the 25th two-time captain in the 99-year history of Syracuse lacrosse.
The 5-foot-10 midfielder has never been the fundamental piece to what Lecky calls the best offense in college lacrosse, but he couples his exceptional speed with an arsenal of deceptive moves and jukes he’s picked up by just watching.
“It was incredible how fast he picked up the moves,” Lecky’s guardian, Kevin Martin, said. “I could never do it, but he could watch Kyle Harrison do a split dodge into a roll and go out and do it three times and he’s got it.”
Before he got to split dodges, Martin said Lecky learned to catch and throw within one high school practice. And before he was catching and throwing, Lecky applied his watch-and-learn act as a young basketball player.
Not having played sports while in Jamaica, Lecky picked up basketball by watching videos of Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant. He tried to do what they did.
“If I was really interested in something I would always try to establish someone who is good at whatever I’m trying to do, and mimic it,” Lecky said.
Eventually that morphed into Lecky watching Major League Lacrosse stars Paul Rabil and Mikey Powell videos on repeat, then going outside to get their moves down.
Lecky spent his first few lacrosse practices on the sideline by himself, watching what everyone else was doing while practicing his stick handling. In his first real practice, having already watched the team’s dodging drill, Martin said he was amazed how effortlessly Lecky stagger-stepped and rolled off to the side with his stick in one hand.
“My mom always told me I was a follower,” Lecky said laughing. “But I told her I don’t follow, I just mimic people to my benefit.”
Follower or not, it’s fair to say from his grandfather to Bryant or Rabil, there’s always been a figure he’s looked up to, trying to flawlessly reproduce their every movement.
But now as one of the elders for SU, Lecky finds himself as someone who’s being looked up to or mimicked. The whole team quite literally mirrors his movements as he and his fellow captains lead stretches before practice and games, with Lecky announcing each new stretch.
More than a year into his captaincy, he’s established himself as the same go-to guy he sought out to follow when he was a freshman five years ago.
“He definitely likes to look out for his brothers on the team,” sophomore midfielder Jordan Evans said. “When it’s his time to step up and be the guy everyone looks to, he does what’s necessary to do that.
“I like to say that I look up to him.”
Following Syracuse’s loss to Bryant in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, Lecky sent an email out to his teammates.
Knowing he was the only captain that would return for another campaign, he said everyone needed to do something to prepare themselves over summer to come back next season and win. A few teammates showed their respect by responding with a simple, “Thanks 8,” referring to his uniform number.
Lecky’s spent nearly his entire athletic career watching and replicating. But in his fifth year as a part of the Orange, he’s done watching. He wants it to be him that’s viewed as the leader of a championship team.
“I treated last year as my last year, and we came up short,” Lecky said. “You just have to make sure that doesn’t happen this year.”
