Delaware just like home for Diachenko

NEWARK, DELAWARE -- Nick Diachenko has resigned himself to taking the good with the bad.

Right now, the good far outweighs the bad.

The good includes speaking from the campus of the University of Delaware, where the Courtice resident is getting acclimatized to university life and familiar with the style of play of the school's field lacrosse team. The bad, of course, is that family and friends were left behind in his pursuit of an athletic scholarship.

"It's so different," he says of the culture shock after arriving at the school in early January. "Moving away from home and leaving family and friends was really hard but it's also good because this is what I've worked my whole life for, to play university ball.

"Even though it was hard, it's so exciting at the same time."

Diachenko was invited down for this semester to practise with the team and enroll in some courses, helping to ease the transition next fall when his freshman year of eligibility kicks in. After being pursued by a number of schools, including such notables at Ohio, Yale and Hofstra, the 19-year-old made a short list of five, setting out with his family on a campus tour.

Once he visited Delaware, he knew his search was over.

"Delaware just stood out compared to all the other schools," he says. "It felt like a second home and somewhere I could be for four years."

The graduate of Holy Trinity Catholic School was a two-sport athlete, playing junior lacrosse for the Jr. B Clarington Green Gaels and then the Jr. A Peterborough Lakers the following summer, as well as spending the winter playing Tier II junior hockey with the Bowmanville Eagles and then Cobourg Cougars. In fact, the Saginaw Spirit thought enough of his hockey skills to select him in the 11th round of the 2006 OHL draft.

But four years of field lacrosse at Holy Trinity, a summer with the Blue Knights, and training at a number of elite camps convinced him to pursue that sport.

He's one of only two Canadians on the Delaware roster and takes a lot of good-natured kidding about that from teammates. And when he comes home, he has to answer to friends, who naturally inquire about the school's nickname, the Fightin' Blue Hens.

"Oh my God. I get ragged about the Fightin' Blue Hens all the time," he laughs. "How do you explain something like that. I don't even know what to say."

Not true. He goes on to explain that back in the Civil War era, cock fighting was popular in the area, and one particular hen, with a blue tint to its feathers, was unbeatable. The school adopted the name after the legendary hen.

Diachenko is hoping to help Delaware rule the roost one day as well.