One of the best sporting events of the year is set to begin this weekend in the NCAA men?s lacrosse tournament.
Lacrosse is a sport that has passionate, loyal fans. It is also a sport growing at an incredible rate beyond its traditional Northeast base, with western states becoming the breeding ground for new youth, high school, college and professional lacrosse programs. Lacrosse superstars such as Gary Gait, Michael Powell and others understand this and have moved to states such as Colorado, California and Washington to teach the sport to aspiring players and coaches. This growth comes despite the fact that very few people can become rich playing lacrosse professionally, unlike traditional American sports such as football, baseball and basketball.
Unfortunately, much of that goodwill and excitement are lost on the general public thanks to the media firestorm created in the wake of the alleged sexual assault involving an exotic dancer and members of the Duke men?s lacrosse team. The story is a “perfect storm” for a media with a 24-hour news cycle.
Whatever happened at that party will be handled by the court system. And, if those charged in this case are found guilty, they should be punished appropriately. It is unfair to the rest of the sport ? and college athletics in general ? that the alleged actions of a few are being used to rip an entire institution. Imagine if this alleged assault occurred at a car salesman convention or at a party with a bunch of computer programmers. Would these groups face the same backlash that the lacrosse community faced?
“There?s no question this tournament is an opportunity for lacrosse to present itself in a positive light,” Maryland men?s lacrosse coach Dave Cottle said. “If a kid misbehaves, I punish that kid and don?t try to link those associated with him to thatact.”
Cottle?s squad recently fed dinners to terminally-ill patients and their families at the National Institutes of Health. But that wasn?t “sexy” enough to garner any attention.
“We don?t do things like that to garner attention,” Cottle said. “We do things like that because it?s the right thing to do.”
What?s truly important to many media members came to light Sunday when ESPNews announced the tournament pairings.
The anchor could have pointed out a number of the great story lines within the bracket, such as Maryland-Baltimore County reaching the tournament for the first time since 1999; Syracuse and defending national champion Johns Hopkins making the field after miserable starts to their seasons; or Pennsylvania reaching the postseason one year after going 2-11.
The anchor could have also asked about how Navy is improved this season with the return of Ian Dingman, who was re-admitted to the Naval Academy after a year in which he attended Jefferson Community College in New York to improve his grades. Instead, the anchor couldn?t wait to ask Virginia coach Dom Starsia about what impact Duke?s absence this year meant to the tournament.
“This is a season where there are a lot of good teams that have posted a lot of big wins and losses, which means anything can happen in this tournament,” UMBC coach Don Zimmerman said. “This is a great sport and whatever blemish it has right now will quickly be removed when the nation sees 60,000 fans packed into Lincoln Financial Field for the championship” in Philadelphia in late May.
Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala agrees.
“This tournament will bring some added excitement to the sport and help people refocus on the game itself,” Pietramala said.
