(June 5, 2004) — Friday afternoon the Rochester Rattlers left for Boston, where they will play their third Major League Lacrosse game of the season tonight.
Tim Soudan did not accompany them.

”I’m sitting here completely relieved that I’m not stepping on a bus to go to Boston and that I’ll be home with my family this weekend,” said the Fairport native, who announced Friday that he is retiring from the Rattlers effective immediately.

”It wasn’t in my heart to keep going. I wanted my weekends back for the summer. I’ve been going hard for four years (playing for the Rattlers in the summer and the Rochester Knighthawks in the winter).

”I kind of woke up last Friday morning and realized I wasn’t excited for the game.”

The 36-year-old Soudan said he will work out during the summer and will try to maintain his roster spot with the Knighthawks when training camp starts in the fall because he still thinks he can be an asset in the indoor game.

However, the outdoor game, at least at the star-studded MLL level, has passed him by.

”There are a lot of great athletes in the indoor league, but the athletes in the field game, you’re looking at guys who run 4.4 40s and I can’t run with those guys anymore,” said Soudan, who was an original member of the Rattlers when the team formed in 2001.

”Indoors I can play a role, go on the field offensively and then come off and let a defensive guy go out there. Offensively I can still play and I understand the game.

”But outdoors I’m not as consistent anymore. I can’t run past people anymore. My game has changed so much since we started in this league. I never pulled muscles until last year. My body is telling me the story.”

Soudan retires having scored 32 goals, 3 2-point goals, and 9 assists for 47 points in 31 games for the Rattlers.

On the all-time team lists he ranks seventh in games played, goals and points, and he is tied for first for the most 2-point goals in Rattlers history.

”He has meant a lot to the organization and helped build the Rattlers,” said general manager Jody Gage. “He was a great leader and I wish him the best of luck.”

Soudan grew up playing field lacrosse and it was one of three sports he starred in at Fairport. He later attended the University of Massachusetts, where he was a two-time All-American, and he played for the United States team in the World Lacrosse Championship tournament in 1994 and 1998.

Although he is known these days for his 10-year career with the Knighthawks, where he ranks second only to Regy Thorpe in games played at 120, Soudan’s true love was the field game. Thus, no one was more excited when Rochester was chosen as one of six startup cities for the MLL.

”It was an unbelievable opportunity,” he said. “I wish I could still do it, I wish I was younger when it started, but the bottom line is I wasn’t.”

Still, he certainly has no regrets because playing pro lacrosse for two teams helped him pay to further his education at SUNY Brockport, where he earned a teaching degree that was parlayed into a full-time physical education teacher’s job at Martha Brown Middle School in Fairport.

”I worked so hard for so many years playing lacrosse, put so much time into it, and it rewarded me over and over again,” he said. “I was able to go back to school, so I’m really thankful that that came along. Plus it was just a ton of fun.”