Sept. 5, 2006

By Mike Sheridan

Villanova Media Relations

It is the sound no athlete ever wants to hear.

Dan DeMasters heard it while playing for the club team where he cut his soccer teeth, FC Delco, in a state cup semifinal match in the summer of 2005.

"I was just running, trying to chase a ball down with a defender on me when I stepped on it wrong," recalls DeMasters, a junior midfielder, of his right knee. "I knew it was bad because I heard the snap."

That fateful sound is often the harbinger of doom for an athlete. In DeMasters' case he wasn't exactly sure what it meant to his burgeoning soccer career, one that had seen him earn third team All-Big East honors as a Villanova freshman in the fall of 2004. Yet his instincts told him that this injury was unlike anything he had dealt with before.

"I didn't think I tore anything at first," he recalls, "but I knew it wasn't good. I've always heard people talking of muscles snapping and that stuff. When I heard the snap, I was concerned."

In a matter of days the extent of his injury was revealed - DeMasters suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament that would have to be repaired by surgery. It would cost him the 2005 season and force him into the kind of lengthy rehabilitation that is a strain on both the psyche and the body. Today, he is working his way back to his old form, with one assist in five games for the 2006 Wildcats.

"It was probably the worst experience I ever had in soccer," he says now. "I love the game so much and I had never been injured like that."

Though clearly discouraged, DeMasters could take solace in the fact that his post-surgery prognosis was excellent. In fact, he recovered quickly and was able to resume his daily activities by the time his sophomore year at Villanova began. Yet he was a long way from resuming his soccer career, as he was reminded fairly early in the rehab process.

"The doctor said I healed pretty quickly after surgery," DeMasters states. "I was able to get back to walking and getting strength back pretty quickly. But then I hit a point where I was starting to jog and that was the point where it really hit me. It probably took me like a month and a half to where I could walk normally but it was three or four months before I could run. Four months of trying to run again was just miserable.

"But I think I had a good attitude. I look back at it now and I know I learned a lot from it. It was good to watch our team and see how guys play. Everything happens for a reason, I guess."

Given that he was expected to be a Wildcat cornerstone, the loss of DeMasters was an enormous blow. Yet Sullivan, DeMasters and the squad were determined to make the best of it. Led by senior captains Brett Stassfurth and Pat Gallagher, the Wildcats delivered another solid season in 2005, reaching the Big East Tournament for the third straight year and finishing with a 7-7-4 record.

For his part, DeMasters offered encouragement and willingly agreed to a suggestion from Sullivan - that he serve as the team's videographer. In this role, DeMasters would operate the video camera that tapes each contest from a lift, raised above the stands. It afforded the native of Lititz, Pa., a different perspective than he had come to know as a player.

"I talked to Coach (Sullivan) and he told me that if I watched the game (from there) I would become a smarter player," DeMasters recalls. "I definitely did. Learning how my teammates play and how other teams play helps me now."

Yet the isolation of the lift served as a fitting metaphor - DeMasters couldn't physically have been more removed from the action while still in the soccer complex. And while he absorbed what he could, the field seldom appeared more distant to him.

"Games seemed like they were four hours long," he says. "I tried to help guys out by talking them during practice but I couldn't do that during games. I couldn't yell from up there."

Throughout his soccer development, DeMasters had rarely been in a position to observe. Instead, he had been one of those initiating the action. As a youth he did some competitive swimming but the soccer field was where he found a home. The son of James and Donna DeMasters became a deft ballhandler and skilled midfielder early in his development. By the age of 15 he joined FC Delco, a Philadelphia area club team with a national profile.

"That was the age when I found the love of the game," he says. "That's when I started to change and develop. Ever since I started high school, soccer was something I wanted to play for as long as I could."

When it came time to start assessing potential colleges, DeMasters took a very mature approach to the process.

"I wanted soccer to take me to a good school," he states. "Unfortunately, you can't play a sport forever. Villanova is up there nationally in academics - it has great academics. So that was always a big part of the decision."

DeMasters was in demand and also gave consideration to Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others. Yet in the end the proximity of Villanova along with the education and soccer won out.

It was a significant recruiting victory for Sullivan and his staff. DeMasters' quickness and ability to create help generate precious scoring chances. Sullivan was convinced DeMasters would be a good fit for his program and it didn't' take the 2003 Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year long to make an impact. He scored his first career goal in the second game of the season, a 3-1 win over Penn, and later scored both goals in a 2-1 upset victory over Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

He would go on to finish with five goals and two assists, helping the `Cats to a 7-5-6 record, en route to being named a Mid-Atlantic Regional All-American.

"Coach told me when I came in that he wanted me to take on a leadership role," he says. "I knew I was young so I wasn't going to be a vocal leader. I just tried to show it on the field.

"The way I looked at it as a freshman was that you have to become accepted and have (teammates) trust you as much as possible. I just tried to get close to the seniors and kind of work from there. It went real well - we did well."

For all the good vibes of 2004, DeMasters hasn't forgotten how that campaign ended - the `Cats came up short on penalty kicks after playing a 1-1 tie against Georgetown and were eliminated from the Big East Tournament and NCAA Tournament consideration. Although he scored Villanova's lone goal that day, DeMasters hasn't forgotten something else from that bright fall Saturday.

"I missed a PK," he says with a sigh.

In the larger sense, however, that afternoon held meaning for the program. The Wildcats hosted their first Big East Tournament game in program history before a packed house.

"You could see that day what Coach had been saying was true - the program was growing," DeMasters states. "The crowd was big and it was a great soccer atmosphere that we have continued to see at home. But PK's, that's a horrible way to lose."

Of course, Villanova's 2005 season ended in identical fashion as Georgetown advanced after another tie, this one 2-2. Now, the hope is that the seasoned talent which lived through those disappointing ends can author a new script in 2006.

So far, the returns have been promising. Villanova is 3-1-1 heading into Big East play, which begins Friday at Providence. Perhaps just as important, DeMasters, now a tri-captain along with goalkeeper Jason Friel and back Matt Sleece, continues to make strides after his season-long layoff.

"The knee feels fine," he says. "It really hasn't given me any trouble."

Alas, a foot injury and quadriceps setback have been issues in the early going. They have not kept DeMasters off the field - he has played in all five games - but have encouraged Sullivan to carefully monitor his minutes. Yet there have been enough flashes of the old brilliance to suggest that a return to form is not far off.

One of those came last week at Saint Joseph's. Sullivan said before the game that he was hoping to avoid using DeMasters on the artificial surface on Hawk Hill. He held him out until the game went into overtime.

"I wanted to go in so bad," he says. "I knew that was one of the games we had to win. I just told Coach I wanted to go in - I was warming up the whole second half, hoping to go in. I went in and tried to change the game around. They got the momentum at the end of the second half when they got the tying goal. I knew I had to do something different. I told the guys in the huddle before the overtime, we're scoring in this first overtime.'"

And then he initiated the play that made it a reality. He dribbled the ball down the right side, beat a defender, and sent a perfect cross in front of the net to freshman Victor Faustino. Faustino one-timed the shot into the net and the Wildcats had a significant win at the start of a six game stretch to be played away from home.

It was the kind of moment DeMasters missed most. Now, he has learned to relish all of it and not just the goals and assists. Even the simple things, like practicing with teammates, are appreciated.

"I try to bring all the passion and love for the game that I can every time I go out there," he says.

That isn't a change from the past.

It's just that now there is an echo that lingers in his mind.

It is the echo of a snap that no athlete ever wants to hear.