Team: Germany

Position: Attacker/Co-captain

Age: 28

Birthplace: Berlin

The skinny: Introduced to the game by a physics classmate in college, Hess began playing club lacrosse at the Technical University of Berlin in 1987. Lacrosse was still developing at that time and his club had inferior supplies. "I fell in love with it," said Hess. "I knew it was my sport. I quit all the other sports I played like basketball and soccer to concentrate on lacrosse." Two months before the 1994 World Games was the first time he

actually touched a real lacrosse ball. Hess played in Germany's first World Games matchup, a 24-1 thumping at the hands of Wales. An avid fan of NCAA lacrosse, Hess studies past games and uses them as learning tools. "I've analyzed lots of games, Johns Hopkins against Maryland in '87, Syracuse against North Carolina in '93, because in Europe if you want to learn you have to on your own." Now he's a player-coach for a Berlin club team and travels 250 miles every third weekend to compete with a box and field lacrosse team in the Czech Republic.

Superstitions: Hess always drinks milk before each game.

Pub Date: 7/17/98