It takes a special athlete, both physically and mentally, to want to be in the face-off spot on a lacrosse field.
For Corona del Mar, that position is where you will find Jason Simaan. The senior, who is headed to Brown University, won 80 percent of his face-offs and picked up 197 ground balls this season, leading CdM to a 22-2 record, the Orange County championship and an appearance in the Southern Section finals.
For all of his work and what it meant to CdM’s success, Simaan is the Register’s Orange County boys lacrosse player of the year.
“He’s works incredibly hard in the offseason. Everything he’s earned and done in lacrosse is because he’s worked hard for it,” Corona del Mar’s Jordan Greenhall said of Simaan. “On the field, there’s no one that works harder. Having a guy like that (on the field), he is like the quarterback (in football). If you have a great quarterback, your team will be good.”
Having a dominant face-off specialist allows teams to run their offense, affords the offense more possessions and takes stress off a team’s defense. Simaan has been that guy for CdM for three years.
He was first-team All-County as a sophomore and second last year.
“He definitely leads on the field,” Greenhall said. “He won’t say much off of the field. He’s not going to yell at us, but he’ll do all of his talking at the face-off X. When the ball is on the ground, and it is 50-50, he’s always the guy that ends up with it.”
That was evident in the county final against St. Margaret’s. Simaan was just 10 of 23 on face-offs, but he kept CdM in striking distance, picking up eight ground balls.
“We had to fight for every ground ball,” he said. “Even if it wasn’t a clean face-off win, I knew I had to go out there and pick it up and fight for it.”
He said he decided to focus on face-offs after watching St. Margaret’s Ryan Harnisch help St. Margaret’s beat CdM in the 2012 county championship game.
“I was more of midfielder,” he said. “But that was the game that changed me. It is a position with a ton of pressure, but I just feel like I have huge ton of support behind me with my teammates.”
After three All-County years, Simaan is now looking forward to heading to Brown University.
“I knew I wanted to go to a school that I probably couldn’t get into with my grades, but I could help get in with lacrosse,” he said. “I got a lot of interest and I ended up picking Brown.”
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ALL-COUNTY BOYS LACROSSE
- Boys lacrosse coach of the year: Corona del Mar’s G. W. Mix
- Boys lacrosse player of the year: Corona del Mar’s Jason Simaan
- All-County boys lacrosse: First team
- All-County boys lacrosse: Second and Third Teams
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
