FROM THE BASS'S GILLS

by Josh Stickler, www.sticklersworld.blogspot.com

I am a lacrosse player.

It was the early 90’s and I suffered critical injuries in a major car accident that changed my life forever. No longer could I play soccer, because balls bouncing off my head could possibly kill me. Talk about a scary thought, no more soccer!!!! While attending my first year of high school, I was required to take rehabilitation elective instead of gym class. The class was a joke, a place where children who didn’t like gym would use a, in most cases, fake doctor’s note so they wouldn’t have to participate in activities. But a few were there because of injuries like myself. A guy in the class with me had screwed up his knee and was going through the same therapy.

He was a lacrosse player.

He was part of the reason I kept on working to get better. Everyday he helped me with workouts to regain strength in my legs; so I didn’t have to walk with a cane. When my rehab was over the doctors said, “You should choose another sport!� I made the suggestion of Lacrosse, there answer, “You can play lacrosse because you wear a helmet, much safer then soccer.� Little did the Midwestern doctors know I was about to be beaten down repeatedly by long metal sticks in the roughest game on two feet. The first day out on the field we scrimmaged the varsity. I was checked immediately and lay on the ground for a full minute before one of the players came out and helped me off the field. I was a middie, and the smallest, skinniest guy on the team. I got used to the physical woes that go along with the sport and became a quick thinker to get myself out of jams a larger person could use brute force to avoid. I played through high school and into college. Making friends with guys from all walks of life through a sport that I leaned to love more then anything else. But now I read the news everyday…

They were lacrosse players.

I’m talking about the controversy with the Duke Lacrosse team. If you don’t know what I am talking about, here is some Windex to clean the smudges off of your plastic bubble. Lacrosse taught me to be a gentleman, how to act in a civilized society, keeping rivals on the field and befriending people from all walks of life. Ever since the breaking news about the Duke team, I am made fun of, ridiculed everywhere for liking this sport. Well I’m tired of these preconceived notions of lacrosse players, which is why I told the story above to show that we are not all bad.

The media has inadvertently cast a terrible light on the sport instead of the issue at hand. So I am here now to clear it up for all you naysayers out there. Let’s take the word “lacrosse� out of the situation for just one moment. The story would go something like this: A bunch of Duke students threw a party, got drunk, hired a stripper, and maybe she was raped. Oh wait, when you take sports out of it, it sounds like something that happens everyday on college campuses everywhere. I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I read similar headlines in our student newspaper while I was attending college.

People, the problem is not sports, the problem is students who are given freedoms in college that they have never had before. It also doesn't help when the kids have pockets full of disposable cash and parents with percieved powers. They act out, they drink, they party, they make mistakes (I know you are all snickering remembering the debauchery that was your college experience) and I will fully admit that in college I drank and did things that I am not proud of. But to blame coaches and athletics in general for the stupidity of college students is outrageous.

I read ESPN, the local newspaper; all over the Internet the words I see are about the problems with sports teams. Well I got news for all of you reporters out there; it’s not just the sports teams! It’s in the dorms, it’s in the frat houses, and it’s off campus. Everyone is missing the point because maybe they are afraid to say it. There is a problem in colleges and universities with the way students act! Maybe they are afraid to admit that students watch movies like Animal House, PCU, and Van Wilder… and try to have “The College Experience.� In the end students make mistakes, just like the ones the Duke lacrosse players made.

I am not saying you shouldn’t have your college experience, that you shouldn’t test boundaries, and live your life. Nor am I saying that what these duke students was in any way proper! All I am saying is that everyone should start looking at the bigger picture and stop blaming sports teams when they fully know that this is a common problem for this age group on university campuses. And while your at it, learn a little about the sport of lacrosse and you will see that a majority of the people who come out of it are better role models then most major athletes! So with all that being said, pass me another beer! And if you are going to kidnap a prostitute, please don't play my favorite sport. As you can see, it gets me in a huff.