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| An Attack for All Time: Hess, Hubbard and Massey 10 Years Later |
They speak, almost every day. They're in their early 30s now. Two are married; one is soon to follow. One has a child. One works in finance. One is a lawyer. One still works in the sport they played together at Princeton University.
They are moving along on their careers, with their lives, going in three different directions. They're never far away from each other, though.
They laugh. They gossip. They talk about old times and new times, about anything at any time, about the others they met back in the day, back when this unbreakable bond they share was forged, back when they together became so much more than they ever dreamed they would individually, back when Chris Massey, Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard became perhaps the greatest attack unit in the history of collegiate lacrosse.
“It doesn't get much better than those three, that's for sure,” says Roy Simmons Jr., the Hall of Fame former coach at Syracuse who went head-to-head with the three. “They're Hall-of-Famers all some day. They'll be remembered with the greats who ever played this game, from the 30s and 40s to now. They were great athletes, fine students and total gentlemen.”
It's been 10 years now, 10 years since Massey, Hess and Hubbard dominated college lacrosse before graduating together from Princeton in 1998. The numbers they put up together get more amazing as time goes on.
“When I think of those three guys,” Princeton head coach Bill Tierney says, “the first thing I think of is how blessed I was to coach them.”
Massey and Hess played together on attack as freshmen, and Hubbard moved from midfield to attack when they were sophomores. Starting together their final three years, the three led Princeton to an overall record of 43-2 from 1996-98, including 18-0 in Ivy League games. They won the 1996, 1997 and 1998 NCAA championships as Princeton joined Johns Hopkins from 1978-80 and Syracuse from 1988-90 as the only teams to win three straight NCAA titles.
Their three years together on attack are, not coincidentally, the three highest-scoring single-seasons in Princeton history, with 235 goals in 1996, 223 in 1997 and 217 in 1998. These numbers don't factor in how the nine times Princeton reached Tierney's self-imposed 19-goal limit in those three years, including four straight times during the undefeated 1997 season and once in a 19-7 win over Maryland in the 1997 NCAA final, as well as the numerous games where the three were out of the game by the start of the fourth quarter.
Beyond their team success, their individual numbers are astonishing. Together they combined for 618 points in 60 games, and if you think they did it all in blowouts, consider that in 11 career NCAA tournament games, they combined for 127 points. Hubbard and Massey rank 1-2 in goals scored in Princeton history with 163 and 146; the next highest total by a Princeton player is 126 by Sean Hartofilis. Massey holds the Princeton record for consecutive games with at least one goal with 46. Hess, the feeder, ranks third all-time in points and assists at Princeton in a career; he holds the school single-season points record with 74 in 1997 and is tied with Ryan Boyle for the single-season assists record with 48, also in 1997.
Together they earned four first-team All-America honors, three second-team All-America selections and two third-team All-America selections.
“That was our time,” Hess says. “And we tried to make the most of it. It's amazing to think that that was 10 years ago, Now, with the way lacrosse is growing, there are so many people who don't know about us, don't know what we did. I talk to some guys who play now, and they ask me if I ever played on a team that won a championship. The period we played in is becoming less and less known by kids today, because of the massive growth, which is great. But we like to think we have a place in lacrosse history, as a unit that helped a team three-peat. That's still very rare.”
One rarity about the three is that they played their entire careers together. Princeton, and other schools, had some great attack groups before and after those three, but none featured three players in the same class who spent that much time together on the field, and off.
“There have been some great units,” Tierney says. “I could talk about great attack units at Hopkins or Syracuse or elsewhere, but they were together for a year or two before one graduated and then maybe someone else came in and changed it somewhat. These guys were together for four years.”
The way they came together was nothing extraordinary. It started with Hubbard, a St. Alban's grad from Washington, D.C. who wanted to play with his brother Andy, who was a senior in Jesse's freshman year of 1995.
Hess was from Upper Nyack, N.Y., where he played on the Hudson Valley team at the Empire State Games against a Long Island team that featured Garden City's Massey.
“Sometimes you work so hard in recruiting, and then you get a guy like Jesse because he so badly wanted to play with his brother,” Tierney says. “With Hess, we thought we knew what we were getting, which was a great left handed feeder. We worried about him at his size, about 140 pounds when he was a senior in high school, if he could take the pounding. Massey was the one we knew the least about. Once he got here, though, we saw what he could do with his speed, with the way he could run past guys, the way he could shoot with time and space.”
They became known so much as a unit that it's easy to forget that they are vastly different individuals, and talking to them today is not much different than talking to them when they were undergrads. Hess is the voice of the group, an analytical thinker who answers questions thoughtfully and thoroughly. Massey, who speaks in a much softer tone, is quick to laugh and slow to talk about himself. Hubbard's voice is even lower than Massey's, and the quantity of words that come out of his mouth and Massey's mouth combined don't equal those that come from Hess.
They do have a common thread of a lack of willingness to take the credit for the great teams on which they played. All three rattle of the names of their teammates during those years, and all three caution that they fear offending anyone by leaving him out.
“Jesse is ice water,” Tierney says. “Nothing bothered him. He was obstinate to a fault. He told us a few years after he graduated that he'd read the scouting report on the opposing goalie and then shoot exactly where we said not to. He wanted to show the goalie that he could score against his strength. Once you break a goalie down like that, you got him. Hess is a vocal leader, a talker, an energizer, an initiator. Massey was so consistent. He'd never talk about individual stuff.”
Hess met Massey on their recruiting trip and met Hubbard when the two played together at the North-South high school all-star game. “I remember the first time I met Jon,” Hubbard says. “We were practicing at Loyola College. He was really friendly. He came up to me and said 'Hi, I'm Jon Hess. I'm going to Princeton with you next year.' He was trying to chat me up, but I was just concentrating on playing. He says I blew him off. I figured I'd see enough of him in the future. I think that was an indication of our personalities.”
Massey and Hubbard met once they arrived on campus. It wasn't long before the three were inseparable.
“They were attached at the hip off the field,” Tierney says. “They'd go to the back of Dillon Gym at midnight to shoot. They were three best friends. Jesse once broke Jon's orbital bone in a bounce house at a fair.”
Their first game as Tigers was in 1995 at Homewood Field against Hopkins, and Hubbard would score the first three of his career goals in that game. Princeton, who had won NCAA titles in 1992 and 1994, had Scott Conklin on attack with Hess and Massey, who both started from Day 1, while Hubbard ran on the first midfield. Princeton would go 7-3 in its first 10 games that season, losing 9-8 at Cornell before a midweek game against Delaware that was played on a high school field in Newark.
“Before that game against Delaware,” Hubbard says, “T took us aside and told us, 'This is your team now. I know you're freshmen, but this team is yours. Don't waste any time. Step up.'”
Princeton would finish as co-champion of the league that year and then beat UMass in the first round of the NCAA tournament before falling at Syracuse 15-11 in the quarterfinals.
“Syracuse had a guy named Ric Beardsley,” Hess says of the Orange defenseman who was first-team All-America in 1994 and 1995. “Chris was matched up against him. T told us no to try to dodge against their defense, and he actually told Beardsley during the game that he was going to be bored because our coach had told us not to challenge him. Massey couldn't accept that. He said 'I can't not go against my guy.' So he ran by him. He scored four goals in that game, as a freshman.”
Tierney moved Hubbard from midfield to attack for his sophomore year, teaming the three on one unit for the first time. The 1996 season began with a 12-9 win against Hopkins, which was followed by a game at Virginia that saw the Cavs jump out to a 10-0 lead before winning 12-9. Sitting at 1-1, Princeton would not lose again until Week 2 of the 1998 season, reeling off a school record 29-game winning streak along the way.
Because Princeton would win three straight championships and because the last two finals would be wins by double figures, it's easy to forget just how close so many of those tournament games would be. Of the nine NCAA games Princeton played their three years together on attack, three were two-goal games and three were one-goal games.
“Had some of those games played out just a little differently, we'd be sitting here with maybe only one championship,” Hess says. “It wasn't the same person every time. That's what made is so great. It was someone different in whatever situation came up.”
Princeton would have to come from behind or snap tie games in the fourth quarter in the 1996 semifinal against Syracuse, the 1996 final against Virginia, the 1997 semifinal and the 1998 quarterfinal against Duke and the 1998 semifinal against Syracuse.
The three would have huge moments in the postseason, where their legacy was really made.
Hubbard scored 34 seconds into overtime to defeat Virginia in the 1996 final, and he would have a 10-point game against Towson in the 1996 quarterfinals and score six goals in the 1997 quarterfinals against UMass. Massey scored the game-winner against Duke in the 1997 semis on a backdoor feed from Hess with 4:40 to play.
Hess, Hubbard and Massey combined for 11 goals and eight assists in the 1997 title game against Maryland, a 19-7 win that equals the largest margin of victory in an NCAA final.
“I remember coming back for our senior year,” Massey says. “Everyone had had Wall Street internships or gone out on their own. I remember thinking there was no way we were going to win again.”
Princeton had its 29-game winning streak end in Week 2 at Virginia, as Hubbard missed the first three games with a shoulder injury. Princeton would not lose again, but again the tournament would not be easy.
Princeton trailed Duke in the quarterfinal and Syracuse in the semifinal by 8-4 scores in of both games before rallying. Syracuse would lead the semifinal game 10-7 in the fourth quarter before Princeton scored four straight, including two by Seamus Grooms, who shared a room with the three attackmen and a game-winner from Sims.
That advanced Princeton to the final, again against Maryland.
The score would be 3-3 at halftime, at which point the three attackmen had combined for two points.
“I watched a tape of that game for the first time ever a few months ago,” Hess says. “I forgot how close it was. Maryland was very physical. We went into the locker room, and T looked at us and asked us what we wanted to do. He told us we weren't scoring, so did we want to change it up? We told him to not do anything tricky, that we'd be fine.”
With 30 minutes remaining in their careers, their legacy was very much up in the air. With two championships in the bank and with a rewritten record book, they had already assured themselves of a place in lacrosse history, but a loss in their final game would have changed the way they were remembered.
“It wouldn't have been the same,” Tierney says. “And they knew it.”
The last 30 minutes was a coronation. The three combined for nine goals and six assists in the second half alone, and Princeton rolled to a 15-5 win. It was a fitting end for them.
“To me, it's all one big memory,” Hubbard says. “For us, there was no distinction between on the field and off the field. I think we complemented each other so well. For instance, if Jon was right-handed, we probably wouldn't have connected as much. We all had specific roles. I didn't dodge much. I was a finisher. I tried to stretch defenses. Jon and I thought Chris was unstoppable. Coach T didn't like it all the time, but you couldn't stop him when used his strength and speed. Jon and I would look at each other and say 'that's one way to do it. Chris shattered the Princeton goal-scoring record that existed when we got there. Jon is up there with the best feeders of all time.”
The three would go on to play together with the New Jersey Pride in Major League Lacrosse, but it wouldn't be the same. Massey won an MLL title with the Long Island Lizards in 2002, and he would use the money he made playing professional lacrosse to help pay for law school. Massey and Hess no longer play in the MLL; Hubbard is still on the Pride and is one of the top scorers in league history. He also has played for the U.S. team at the World Championships.
Massey is a lawyer in Manhattan. Hess works for Merrill Lynch, also in Manhattan. Hubbard works for Warrior Lacrosse and is based in Manhattan.
Hess is married with a 17-month old son named Tucker. Massey recently got married, and Hubbard will be getting married this summer on the island of Mykonos in Greece. His two former teammates will be groomsmen.
“When I hear someone talk about Hess, Hubbard and Massey, it brings a smile to my face,” Massey says. “They're my best friends, the best friends I'll ever meet anywhere. It's something pretty special. It's great to have been a part of it.”
With that, it was back to work for Massey, back to being a lawyer, back to life for the young 30-somethings. Perhaps there'd be a talk with Hess and Hubbard later, or maybe it would wait until a day or two later. No matter. They'd talk soon. They always do. They always will.
It's a part of them. It's who they are.
Three best friends, three remarkable athletes, three young men whose accomplishments on the lacrosse field 10 years ago will never be forgotten – and probably never equaled.
Previous Features by Jerry Price
Marathon Man: Bryce Chase
The Big Fish That Didn't Get Away
Picture Perfect
Metz on Metz
The Ultimate Warrior
Seeing 30-30
Think You Know Bill Tierney?
Letter of the Law
Andy Moe, Where Did You Go?
Caught in His Web-The Swami
Jerry Price is Associate Director of Athletics and Athletic Communications at Princeton University.
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