Splicetoday

Sports
May 29, 2008, 06:05AM

Worth the Drive

This year's men's lacrosse championship had plenty of disappointment for Hopkins fans, but that's all part of being a fan.

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Copyright AP

I wasn’t planning to make the trip to the NCAA Lacrosse Championships this year. It was too far (eight hours to Foxborough for me), too expensive (tickets were about 40 bucks and gas prices are still climbing), and truth be told, I didn’t think that my school, Johns Hopkins, was going to make it to the finals. Luckily, I was wrong, and by Sunday morning, I was on the New Jersey Turnpike, heading north.

The previous afternoon, I plopped down on the couch ready to enjoy a nice relaxing day of college lacrosse semi-finals on television. This idea also proved to be false. Halfway through the first game between Syracuse and Virginia I was up on my feet, pacing back and forth, tearing at my hair and shouting at the TV screen. This was a game that I didn’t even care about.

The Syracuse vs. Virginia game was one of the best lacrosse spectacles I’ve seen in a while. Both teams played with the burning intensity that defines playoff competition. Powerful offenses collided with iron wall defenses, resulting in an all-out brawl between two of the most talented teams in the country. Players sprinted, dove, cracked out massive hits, and ripped insanely fast shots, each effort matched in what became an ultimate stalemate which stretched into double overtime.

What made that game great was the evenness of competition. The Virginia squad was ranked higher and favored to win, but one could tell from the first quarter of play that Syracuse was not going to go down without a fight. With the game stuck in a grueling gridlock, it took something extra to earn the final goal. It took something extreme. Syracuse freshman Jovan Miller would be the one to deliver, ripping a wild leaping midair shot from the crease to send his team to the finals.

By then my adrenaline was pumping and I was ready to watch my Blue Jays fight what many considered to be a doomed battle against the powerhouse Duke squad. For the past two years, America (fueled by the media) has loved the poor Duke boys. Before their final four match-up, ESPN launched a tear-jerking mini-documentary covering the stripper scandal and the cancelled 2006 season, chock full of motivational interviews set to the background music of a sad violin score.

This set-up has pitted the Johns Hopkins team as the bad guys ever since their National Championship victory last season. After last year’s final, media coverage was focused more intensely on Duke losing than Hopkins winning. This year was no different. Just before the opening face-off, a commentator began the game with the words, “Will Hopkins end the dream again?”

Like the game before it, the Duke vs. Hopkins match-up was a brutal collision of titans. Each rally by one team was matched by another. Defenses held strong and offenses battled through the fray. In a game that everyone expected to be a blowout, it all came down to the final three seconds. After a timeout, Duke’s Matt Danowski had the ball behind the goal, his team trailing by a score of 10-9. He rushed in toward the center of the field, and with thousands of viewers holding their breath, he sliced a powerful shot on the goal. Deflected.

In a closing second play reminiscent of last year’s finals, Hopkins had denied Duke their goal of a National Championship for the second straight time. And once again, the media favored disappointment over glory. A Boston Globe headline the following day read something like, “Duke’s dreams crushed by pesky Jays.”

While television reporters scrambled for interviews with the disheartened Duke players and coaches, I was rushing upstairs to order my ticket and pack my bags. It was a game I couldn’t miss. Hopkins vs. Syracuse. Both teams, at the time, were tied at nine for the most National Championship wins of all time. It was to be a historic fight for the best team of all time, and I was going to be there no matter what it took.

Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium was packed with a record attendance of over 48,000 fans. Kids of all ages twirled their lacrosse sticks. College students painted their faces and chanted out loud. I even saw a man who had to have been over 60 years old donned in full Hopkins gear (including a cape) with his beard and what was left of his hair dyed a bright blue.

The sport that only a few years ago had fostered a small cult following had exploded into a massive event. The sun was shining, the field was set, and two teams who had previously been considered underdogs were ready to compete for their 10th National Championship.

The Syracuse squad was vicious, maintaining long offensive possessions and pounding the Hopkins defense relentlessly. For the first quarter, the D held strong, fueled by the stellar performance of sophomore goalie prodigy Mike Gvozden, and the offense managed to string together several well-executed plays to gain a lead.

However, the Jays fell apart fast. The defense, focusing on Syracuse’s star attackmen, were picked apart by the midfielders. Gvozden crumbled. The offense dropped balls, made stupid penalties and lost the intensity they had maintained throughout the playoffs. As a diehard New England Patriots fan, I know a choke when I see one.

If the Championship Blue Jays were to be compared to the Super Bowl Patriots, then senior midfielder Paul Rabil would be synonymous with wide receiver Wes Welker. Tallying six goals on the day, it was evident that Rabil was one of the only players who knew what it took to win. You could see his anger and his frustration in his playing style as he crashed through opponents, sprinted through double-teams, and ripped shot after brutal shot at the goal. It was the final game of his collegiate career and despite the final score, it was the best I had ever seen him play.

When the final whistle blew, Syracuse came out on top 13-10. As the team rushed the field and the sea of orange that filled the stadium roared, I could only stare blankly at the grass and wonder what it was that made me drive 400 miles to have my hopes crushed. I guess I just can’t help it. When you’re a fan, you travel those miles. You shell out the gas money. You deal with the disappointment, and every once in a while, you feel that rush of victory. And the best part about it all is, when you’re heading home and you have eight hours of open highway in front of you, you can always say to yourself, “Maybe next year.”

Discussion
  • Frankly, as a lacrosse fan and Princeton alum, I get a little sick and tired reading about the glory of Johns Hopkins lacrosse. They're like the Yankees of this sport. And, given the travesty of justice in Durham a couple of years ago, I was rooting for Duke. Nonetheless, an engaging article.

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  • I am surprised that people find time to watch lacrosse between sailing lessons and scolding fifi for vomiting caviar on their fancy rugs and nazi memorabilia.

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  • Is there a nomination process for Best Forum Post Ever? I submit Mr. BillyIdolFan's comment above. Jesus, the whole lacrosse culture is terrible.

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  • Why? Lacrosse is worse than college football culture?

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  • Much worse because lacrosse doesn't receive the respect that football does, so lacrosse players feel underappreciated. Since most lacrosse players are New England prep school elitists who already live with a sense of entitlement, it makes for an even more obnoxious culture than college football.

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  • That's horseshit. Most lacrosse players are not "New England prep school elitists." In fact, the sport first became popular more than a generation ago chiefly in Maryland and on Long Island. And while lacrosse players end their athletic careers after college, the "culture" of recruiters looking for high school football players, plying them with money and women, is more corrupt than anything that happens with lacrosse.

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  • Maybe more corrupt, but also more understandable. The rich kids that play lacrosse have no excuse for being selfish asses, while at least some kids are changing their lives with football and basketball.

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  • Isn't that a gross generalization? Not all lacrosse players are "rich kids" who are "selfish asses." There are selfish and boorish people in all sports, as well as all sectors of American society.

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  • Everybody plays football and basketball while very few even try to play lacrosse. it is a generalization, but dude there are some stereotypes with more than a bit of truth to them. I mean the only lacrosse team where I ever really knew many the members was high school, and lets just say not too many of them were leaving practice early to get to their after school job. I mean just look at the colleges that are good at lacrosse: John Hopkins, Duke, Virginia (a public school, but southern state schools attract these old money dixie types that love lacrosse). Not all of them are rich or assholes, but enough are to where their reputation is deserved. Also angelslut69 owes me 50$.

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  • Timothy- sure there are "rich kids" and "selfish asses" in all sports. But lacrosse, unlike all other sports, is almost wholly made up of such rich kids and selfish asses. So while a big time prep school in baltimore may maybe (and i mean maybe) send one football player to a top 25 program each year, they send a ton of lax bros. Lacrosse isn't even played in most of the country! Even less people play lax than hockey, which is similarly economically inaccessible. Also, angleslut69 owes me a massage.

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  • Hopkins lacrosse is awesome! Besides, one of my uncles played lacrosse in college, and he wasn't rich, he went there on a scholarship.

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  • angelslut69 owes me flatware. Also, a point that was alluded to but never fully explored is that lacrosse quite simply costs a lot of money to play. You do actually have to be kind of rich in order to afford all the gear and equipment while you're growing up. It's not football, where schools and rec leagues maintain equipment for kids to use. Every player has to buy at least one of stick, which run above $200 on the top end. Basketball it ain't.

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  • There sure is a lot of anti-lacrosse sentiment out there. I'm betting that three years ago, pre-Duke, this article wouldn't even get a single comment. Thank the media for putting those Duke lacrosse players on trial, and finding them guilty, before the facts were in. Of course, the irony is that it's a pretty sure bet that the kids of a lot of the media scolds go to private schools and play lacrosse.

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  • Wow! It is really obvious that most of these commenters are from the East Coast and no absolutely nothing about college football. Who the hell cares if lacrosse players are for the most part rich white kids with trust funds? Most football players are overweight, brain dead hicks--there are stereotypes in every sport. A particular sport's culture has little to do with its athletes and pretty much everything to do with its fans. I love college football, but I will readily admit that we are incredibly obnoxious. We start drinking at 7 in the morning and keep going all day. We throw rocks and full beer cans at opposing fans as they walk down the street. Hell, some schools start RIOTS when their teams win or lose. The entire identity of a school with a good football program is defined by that team's success or failure. Until they pack stadiums each weekend with upwards of 100,000 people like football games do, no one gives a damn that many lacrosse players are wealthy snobs. I commend lacrosse players actually--at least they chose to play something way cooler than golf. Talk about a rich kid sport.

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  • Finally, some sanity.

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  • Umm, golf's not a sport.

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  • Not my kind of activity, either, Mr. Deities, too expensive. But pros sure make a lot of money playing it, so it must be a sport. I'm a mini-golf man myself.

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  • If you look at any top D1 lax roster, most of the athletes are from public schools in Maryland or New York. If you look at the top 20 lacrosse high schools in the country, most are public schools in Maryland or New York. The affluent stereotype emerged early in the game when the only schools playing the game were the Ivies. Sit in on a lacrosse practice and I think many of you will change your opinion of the sport.

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  • Umm, I'm looking at Laxpower.com's high school boys national rankings, and all of the schools from Maryland in the top 20 are private schools with at least $10,000 tuitions.

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  • Honestly, does all this really matter? Lacrosse is a really interesting and exciting sport to watch. Isn't that enough? It takes tremendous skill and commitment. When these guys go pro, they're making under $10,000 instead of millions. You have to love the game to pursue it after college. And there is tremendous diversity at this sport in more recent years. Yes, many of them are still from prep schools, but really, in the final analysis, is this so important that it colors the entire sport? I agree with Tim, if not for the Duke fiasco, would anyone really care?

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  • I'm just a fan, and wouldn't travel 400 miles like Demian Kendall did for a championship lacrosse game, so I'm deferring to him on the stats of how rich the athletes are. Besides, it's pretty cool that some 48,000 people showed up for a "spoiled, rich kid's" sport. And all detractors above, admit it, aren't you just a bit sick of the Super Bowl becoming a national holiday each year? If lacrosse continues to get people enthused--and not all 48,000 people at the stadium can be rich and spoiled--that's a plus for spectator sports.

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  • You know, actually, one of my teacher's is a pro lacrosse player. Funny, teaching is the most part of his salary.

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  • I'm in no way condemning the sport of the lacrosse, or the level of condition or commitment that the players have. In fact, I find it a very enjoyable sport to watch. I also like watching college football. I still dislike most of the football and an even higher percentage of the lacrosse I've met. At least with football you have numerous stories of players who used football to improve their family situations. Of course not every lacrosse player is a rich asshole, but a higher percentage than most sports. In no way am I putting down the article because it is a great sport to watch.

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  • There are great stories about football and baseball players from immigrant or poor backgrounds using their new wealth to help their families and communities. When a Dominican MLB star, for example, builds schools in his hometown, who can't cheer? And there are less heart-warming stories as well. What's unique about lacrosse is that it all ends after college: no big contracts, no packed stadiums for 10 years. I guess a star lax player can use his collegiate career to make contacts, but it's still an amateur sport, although one that's growing in popularity.

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  • i'd like lacrosse better if theyd play it the way indians play it- a 1000 players at a time, played from dawn till dusk, over a field that could be miles long. Also if I could cheer and execute players by giving a thumbs up or down.

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  • atta boy billy idol. let's not forget the roots of the game! think of the native americans whose land and culture we stole from them for trinkets and small pox. this is a game they all remember and in turn unites them. sure they have casinos now... but they need a sport, too. plus native americans are a very green and environmentally conscious people. ipso facto, if you hate lacross you're not only a communist but also support global warming and want those poor polar bears in the north pole to die... i digress. anyway great article broski- i could care less about lax and it still captivated me.

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  • Man, a lot of sarcasm directed at Son of the South BillyIdol. I'm not sure how you turn an article about lacrosse, which I've never played or watched, into a diatribe about polar bears and commies, but hey, what about the Lakers?

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