Mark Cahak still laughs about it.

As his days at Fayetteville-Manlius High School dwindled, so did his college choices. Narrowing it to Syracuse and Le Moyne, Cahak took another visit to each before he made a final selection.

Ryan, his older brother, told him jokingly, ‘If you choose Syracuse, I’ll go there with you.’

At the time, Ryan Cahak played basketball for Dominican College, a Divsion II school in Orangeburg, N.Y. But when Mark decided on Syracuse, the quip became a promise rather than an offhand remark.

Ryan joined the Syracuse men’s basketball team as a walk-on and Mark committed to the men’s lacrosse team as a defenseman. Though the Cahak brothers play different sports, they have remained united through their longtime competitiveness with each other.

In their early years, the Cahaks played sports year-round – football, basketball, lacrosse. They never faced each other in organized competition, but they practiced against one another in pickup games and in their backyard. Though it was always for bragging rights, they improved each other’s performance.

One moment stood out, though, in which that wasn’t the case. When Mark was in seventh grade and Ryan was a high school freshman, they were playing lacrosse and trying to impress their parents.

As a former attack, Ryan faked his brother out, scored, but broke his brother’s arm in the process. Mark spent that summer with a cast, not being able to play any sports. It was the first of many setbacks for Mark.

‘After the injuries, I think I grew even closer to him,’ Ryan said of his brother. ‘He kept suffering injury after injury. But he never gave up and never had a bad attitude about it. I felt sorry for what he was going through. But at the same time, I was inspired by how he reacted to it.’

During Mark’s freshman year, he tore his meniscus in his knee which required surgery. He missed the football and basketball season, but was ready for lacrosse in the spring. The following year, the same knee kept bothering him. Halfway through football season, doctors determined the stitches didn’t fully hold. He was forced to rehab all the way into March until doctors sewed up his meniscus tear.

Then during his second day of preseason football camp his junior year, Mark suffered a virus infection in his heart. He was rushed to the emergency room and then taken to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for more treatment. He missed football and basketball season again due to cardiovascular rehab.

It was then he decided to concentrate solely on lacrosse. Rehabbing in time for that sport proved to be challenging enough. Trying to play two other sports, especially when he missed the previous seasons, wouldn’t do much justice.

‘For a kid who’s so active, he’s working out every single day and was in top physical condition. All of a sudden he can’t do anything,’ said Roger Springfield, the Cahaks’ father and the director of multimedia and video operations for the Syracuse athletics department and the Carrier Dome. ‘He couldn’t jog or do anything. That tested his character at that point.’

For Ryan, it gave him an opportunity to be there for Mark. It also gave Ryan perspective on his own life. The atmosphere at Dominican College displeased him. Ryan felt whenever the team lost, none of the players or coaches showed disappointment.

Ultimately, Mark did not suffer another injury and earned second-team all-state defenseman his junior and senior years. Both Mark and his roommate, Kenny Nims, a freshman attack who played against him in high school for Watertown, made enough local noise to attract offers from Syracuse.

At that time, Ryan thought about transferring but did not know where. But he became interested in Syracuse as soon as he found out Mark was as well. Ryan knew SU head Jim Boeheim and assistant coach Mike Hopkins because he often played pickup games at Manley Field House. It also didn’t hurt that his father is an employee with Syracuse Athletics.

So when Ryan called Boeheim and asked if he could try out as a walk-on, Boeheim said that wouldn’t be necessary. Boeheim already saw Ryan play enough to know he would fit in with the Orange, Ryan said.

‘I just want to do whatever I can in any way to help the team,’ Ryan said. ‘If I don’t play, I still want to go all-out in practice so that I can make the other players better. I know sometimes they have bad days. So if I practice as hard as I can, maybe I can get them to become better that day.’

Due to transfer rules, Ryan can only practice with the team. He can’t travel, and he also has to warm up well before tip-off because he’s not allowed to be on the court at least an hour before the game, his father said. Since he is redshirting this year, he has two years left of eligibility.

Though they play different sports, they always find time to see each other. During the offseason, they pushed each other through rigorous weight-training workouts. They went on similar diets consisting of protein shakes and hearty but healthy meals to bulk up. Mark went from 192 to 200 pounds. Ryan weighs 215, the exact benchmark Mark wants to reach by the end of the season.

Though they rarely played in basketball pickup games this year, Nims said they always found time to play H-O-R-S-E.

‘I used to be able to (beat Ryan),’ Mark said. ‘He’s gotten good since he’s been here.’

In the summer they run together down Euclid Avenue. And when they visit each other at school, they often duke it out on PlayStation 2. Ryan said he has the edge on football games, even though he said he runs the same three plays with a no-huddle offense. But he admits Mark has the edge with hockey games.

‘It’s half and half, let’s put it that way,’ said Nims, who is Mark’s roommate on South Campus. ‘But I beat them both.’

Ryan lives in an apartment on Sumner Avenue, but said both constantly visit each other. By setting foot on the same campus, they can have dinners with their parents and do their laundry at home. They can still compete in the weight room and with the controller. Then again, most of their time is spent either on the court or the field.

‘They’re best friends,’ Nims said. ‘I didn’t know Ryan as well as I knew Mark until he came here. But now all three of us are really good friends. It’s a good thing.’

Published on February 22, 2006 at 12:00 pm