On a typical Tuesday morning, Seth DeLisle, mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student in the , is working on complex differential equations that measure the lift and thrust a helicopter needs to fly.
Seth DeLisle faces off against an opposing lacross player.
“The classes that I am in like dynamics and thermodynamics—you are calculating how things move,” says DeLisle. “Propulsion, rocket engines, things like that.”
Even when his classes are over for the day, DeLisle is still working on engineering fundamentals as a faceoff specialist for Syracuse’s men’s lacrosse team.
“Power and leverage is a big part of it, speed and velocity,“ says DeLisle.
Faceoffs are one of the most important aspects of lacrosse. They occur at the start of the game and after every goal. For a team to score, they need possession of the ball. To get possession of the ball, you need to win faceoffs. With two players just millimeters apart at the center of the field, engineering science can provide an edge.
“If you are angled a little differently than the other guy, you might have an advantage to get onto the ball quicker,” says DeLisle. “When you are doing it, you think—I should lift up with my left hand to get the right wall down a little bit. You are thinking about everything that you could probably calculate in engineering classes.”
DeLisle is passionate about both engineering and lacrosse and he does not have time for much else during the spring semester.
“Some days I’m up at like 5:30 for an early morning lift and then I got practice, classes get back after midnight, one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning because you have to study and get all your work done. It definitely is tiring but it’s worth it for sure,” says DeLisle.
For DeLisle, studying engineering at a tier one research university while also having the opportunity to play major conference D-1 lacrosse is a dream come true.
“Win-win situation for me. I didn’t expect it to work out as nicely as it did, but it did. I’m very fortunate and very lucky and definitely taking every opportunity I can.”
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