So far, the college lacrosse community has been very warm and receptive to the rebounding Duke men’s program. Nowhere else is this more apparent than in College Park, where the Blue Devils play March 2.
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“The Maryland parents would actually like to do a joint tailgate ? as a show of unity,” Duke coach John Danowski said. “A very classy gesture by coach [Dave Cottle ? and I’m not surprised by that. That’s what I expect from the lacrosse community.”
Duke, ranked sixth in the most recent Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll, will host Dartmouth Saturday and Denver Sunday in the first game action the program has seen since an 11-7 loss to Cornell on March 21, 2006. After that date, the program was suspended with a 6-2 record amid a rape scandal that shook the Durham, N.C., community and the nation as a whole.
With everything Duke?s players went through last year, Danowski is not concerned about hostile environments on the road.
“It’s not going to be any worse than what those students experienced last spring on this campus,” Danowski said. “I don’t see anything being as distracting as it was this past spring. They’re just ready to play.”
Danowski will be ready, too. The former Hofstra coach has yet to lead the Blue Devils in a game. He said Wednesday that the lineup is still in flux, and there are plenty of X?s and O?s to straighten out before Saturday’s face-off against Dartmouth. One of Duke?s captains is senior midfielder Ed Douglas, a former Gilman star.
There is one particular player Danowski is committed to starting ? senior attack and co-captain Matt Danowski.
“I thinkI’ll start No. 40 so my wife will be happy,” John Danowski said of his son, a preseason first-team All-American.
Danowski expects his team to enter Saturday on a wave of emotion. He doesn’t plan to pull back on the reins, either. In doing so, he admitted the team might be prone to turnovers at first, but he expects his players to overcome that adversity, just as they have dealt with life off the field.
“Adjust, adapt and overcome,” Danowski said. “That’s going to be one of the challenges certainly for this first game.”
BLUE DEVIL INVASION
Duke visits the Baltimore area twice this season:
March 2 » at Maryland, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU
April 7 » at Johns Hopkins, 1 p.m., ESPNU
