Duke lax hurting everyone

Lacrosse is a special sport for me, and not just because I grew up playing it in an area… Lacrosse is a special sport for me, and not just because I grew up playing it in an area where a lacrosse stick can pass as a first gift and we produce some of the best high school lacrosse in the entire nation.

It’s not just because I must be one of the few around who can honestly tell you, “I played in a game with my dad last night and he scored three goals, I assisted on two of them.” You might be laughing, but I’d like to see you try to check the ball out of his stick.

And it isn’t just because my best friend is an NCAA national champion or that my high school lined up and played one of the top lacrosse programs in the entire nation — West Genesee — twice a year.

It’s special to me and so many others back in Central New York because of the uniqueness of this growing sport. Lacrosse is the closest thing to a special fraternity or sorority that you will find in sports. You can walk by a complete stranger with lacrosse apparel on and likely have a conversation with him about the game because it isn’t played everywhere in the country.

That’s why, when the fastest game on two feet makes a rare appearance on a major media outlet like ESPN, I take careful notice. Usually it comes about once a year — Memorial Day weekend, when NCAA champions are crowned and the sport is celebrated like it’s just coming into existence.

Much to the embarrassment of the sport, however, lacrosse made the wrong kind of headlines this week when police decided to take DNA samples from 46 of the 47 members of Duke’s nationally ranked lacrosse team to see if allegations of rape — stemming from a blowout party at an off-campus house leased by three members on the team — were true. As many as 40 of the team’s members are believed to have attended the March 13 party, which involved alcohol and the hiring of two exotic dancers, whose services were reportedly procured through an escort service.

One of the dancers, a student at a local college, claims that at this party, she was held down, beaten, strangled and raped by three men. The one player who evaded the DNA testing, the only black player on the team, has been ruled out because the victim told the police that white men attacked her.

Since then, the situation has escalated to a point where the 6-2 team has forfeited two games and may very well lose the final five games on its schedule, given that the team’s schedule is suspended until the allegations are fully resolved. District Attorney Mike Nifong is convinced a sexual assault occurred, and the campus is irate with both the team’s unwillingness to come forward and the university’s decision to delegate the investigation to the Durham County Police Department.

The team has openly denied that rape occurred, and the DNA results won’t be in for about two weeks. But that isn’t enough for the Duke community. Several protests, fliers calling out the team to come forward and candlelight vigils have gone on all week.

Perhaps the Duke community’s concern can be best summed up by a one-page document submitted to the university’s president, Richard Brodhead, as reported on ESPN.com. The missive reads, “It is our impression that the university is cultivating and sustaining a culture of privilege and silence that allows inappropriate behavior to plague the campus.”

There is no way that the lacrosse team comes out of this situation unscathed, even if all allegations somehow prove to be false. It just disappoints me to see another contribution to the “dumb jock, immature partying college student” stereotype. Having been an athlete throughout high school, I like to dismiss such allegations, but it’s awfully hard to label something a stereotype when no one makes an effort to disprove it.

People, for various reasons, want to seize on the flaws you make as a student-athlete and will gladly open any windows you leave cracked. Some see that as malicious and unprovoked, but that’s what you have to expect as an athlete — there are people who want to see you fail, both on and off the field.

That means you have an inherent responsibility to conduct yourself in the right fashion off the field. And “right” isn’t subjective; it’s how the athletics department wants you to act, and most are crystal clear about their expectations before they allow an athlete to join the programs. It doesn’t say “Duke” across your chest so you can pick out who is on your team, it’s a reminder of whom you represent.

And the representation and scrutiny rightfully never stops. Being on the road or even in the confines of your own off-campus house isn’t a “Get-Out-of-Jail-Free” card that excuses you from the rules, or the law. Your university holds you to higher standards, and justifiably so.

But lost in this is the fact that you are constantly representing your sport as well. Lacrosse is on the rise in this country, but still isn’t widespread enough for the average sports fan to have a great understanding of it. What will the casual reader think of lacrosse now? This should be just as much a concern to these players as what the general view of Duke is now, one that clearly is somewhat tarnished, given the severity of the accusations and the university’s unwillingness to investigate the matter itself.

The pressures that come with being a constant ambassador of your school and your sport are large, but that doesn’t validate them as excuses. What Duke’s captains are calling a “lapse in judgment” is much more than that — it’s a terribly embarrassing account that further erodes the public perception of athletes, students and the universities that have put so much trust in them.

Geoff Dutelle is the sports editor of The Pitt news. E-mail him at gmd8@pitt.edu.