PHILADELPHIA, May 28 I'm a sports fan at heart. I swear. Before I ever touched a pen or harnessed the power of Microsoft Word I would sit balanced on my Dad's lap cheering on the Redskins teams of the mid to late 80s during Joe Gibbs' first reign. Okay, so he did most of the actual cheering (read: shouting at the TV), and I did all of the crying but those sessions built a strong base of fandom for me to build upon in future years with future teams.
For 18 years before arriving at the University, being a fan was all I knew, although not for a lack of trying. When I tried to join the school newspaper at the end of my junior year in high school I was informed by my AP English teacher that there were already "too many white senior males" writing for the paper. Thankfully The Cavalier Daily has no such restrictions, so over the last two years I've spent countless hours cycling through the stages of covering games, interviewing players, writing articles, shouting loudly at the computer screen, and re-writing articles until reaching perfection -- or until I hit the deadline. Usually, it's the latter.
I give this background so you can fully understand the dilemma I faced as a fan, as well as a writer two weeks ago in Philadelphia covering the NCAA men's lacrosse championships. As a fan, the team I've cheered for since birth was going shot-for-shot against Johns Hopkins for the rights to advance to the national championship game. As a writer, stuck in the soundless vault that is the press box, No. 4 seeded Virginia (11-3) was looking to upset No. 1 seeded Johns Hopkins (14-0). To make this clear, let me impart a few things about the press box.
First commandment of the press box: Thou shalt not cheer. Second commandment: Thou shalt not show emotion... ever. Third commandment: Thou shalt take no more than two free Twinkies (Twinkie privileges being revoked should either of the first two commandments be broken). Just as playing a violent video game will desensitize children to bloodshed, watching a game from the press box will slowly begin to desensitize the average fan's enjoyment of the game due to the dearth of emotion. Sportswriters, perched high above the crowd in their magical crow's nest, are detached from fans, players, and coaches -- the press box acting as a glass wall between the writers and the atmosphere surrounding the contest. If there's a catch to the Nirvana that is being a sports writer it's the business-like mentality that must be maintained. Much like a climber hiking Mount Everest without oxygen, the inner fan struggles to function in such an environment, suffocating from deprivation of the sports fan's oxygen: passion for the game.
After spending an entire season as a beat writer for the men's lacrosse team, I've learned that some of the spirit of the game is lost in the press box. Players become numbers, and spectacular plays are reduced to statistics. Records, instead of being mythical feats, just stand to further the watermark of physical achievement. Through all of this, sportswriters are akin to historic scribes -- each one representing a different nation, giving varying accounts for why their warriors either failed or emerged victorious in battle.
As a scribe at work but a fan at heart it was harder than ever to watch our warriors from Charlottesville fall short against Johns Hopkins after coming so close to victory. It was all there within Virginia's reach. Ruining Hopkins undefeated season, enacting revenge for a 9-7 mid-April loss, but more importantly, moving one step close to capturing the program's third National Championship in seven seasons. A year removed from a disappointing 5-8 2004 campaign, the Cavaliers found themselves leading Johns Hopkins 8-7 with only 12 seconds remaining in the second semifinal game of the day. 12 seconds. Combined, it took the two teams over 25 minutes at the start of the game to score the first goal. When it mattered most, Hopkins attackman Jake Byrne didn't need 25 minutes to score the biggest goal of his career. He didn't even need 12 seconds -- he only needed 11. Initiating a game of "anything you can do I can do better" with Matt Ward, Byrne did exactly that, firing a perfect bounce shot squarely between Kip Turner's open legs with 1.4 seconds remaining.
But there is a reason for why lacrosse has steadily been emerging from its cocoon as a niche sport between football and soccer while claiming an exciting identity of its own, and it showed in Philadelphia with high scoring and flashy game winning performances. While Virginia was on the wrong end of one of the most captivating moments in tournament history, there will surely be more opportunities for glory in seasons to come.
While the final score stood at 9-8, those weren't the most important numbers of the day. It wasn't the 12 seconds it took Hopkins to send the game into overtime or even the 18 saves recorded by Virginia goalie Kip Turner. Looking towards the future, the most important number of the day was six, as in Virginia's six seniors. While they'll all be missed, from prime-time-player John Christmas, to role players Brendan Gill, Hunter Kass and Joe Thompson, to face-off extraordinaire Jack deVilliers, down to transfer long-pole Rob Bateman, the cupboard is hardly bare. Joe Yevoli will likely return as a red-shirt senior to complement Matt Ward on the attack, while the entire starting defense, including budding sophomore goalie Kip Turner, returns intact.
The class of 2005 gave the University one National Championship in 2003, here's hoping the class of 2006 can give us one more.
Read More
No. 6 women’s squash falls to No. 5 Stanford in first match of the new year
By Peter Kratz | YesterdayThe Cavaliers fall to 0-1 in conference play after their first clash with the Cardinal.
Katie Grimes posts historic debut as women’s swimming and diving annihilates Virginia Tech
By Xander Tilock | 2 days agoGrimes broke out as a new superstar for Coach Todd DeSorbo's squad.
Women’s basketball displays stingy defense, but falls short versus No. 14 Duke
By Xander Tilock | 3 days agoThe Cavaliers nearly conquered a ranked rival but could not generate consistent offense.
