Last Thursday, Virginia head coach Dom Starsia called up his counterpart at Duke.
"What's new?" Starsia asked John Danowski, a friend and colleague Starsia has known for more than 30 years.
Of course, plenty was new.
Thursday was the day after the charges were dropped against three former members of the Duke men's lacrosse team and two days before the then-No. 2 Cavaliers were set take on the fourth-ranked Blue Devils in front of a packed house in Koskinen Stadium.
Duke ended up beating Virginia with a thrilling sudden-death goal that made SportsCenter's top plays Saturday night. But everyone involved in the game knew the outcome on the field was less important than what happened last Wednesday in Raleigh, when North Carolina Attorney General declared David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann to be "innocent," and the three players spoke emotionally to a national audience in their own news conference.
For the past 13 months, the media frenzy created by the Duke case has stirred the lacrosse community nationwide. And although the most significant impacts of the scandal were felt by the indicted players and their families-and to all those related to the Duke program-the effects have rippled throughout the sport.
Last spring, Starsia watched as his close friend Mike Pressler-whom he had recruited as a player more than two decades earlier-was forced to resign from his position at Duke, and as some media used the case's image to condemn the behavior of college athletes, specifically lacrosse players.
"Last spring there was a sense of terror among college lacrosse coaches that they were coming to get the rest of us," Starsia said. "In a very close community like college lacrosse, it affected us all in a very real way and quite dramatically."
Outside of Duke, Starsia's Virginia program was one that was particularly affected. Matt Ward, last year's National Player of the Year while a senior for the Cavaliers, grew up with Evans and inscribed his initials on his helmet as Virginia marched to last year's national title. And this spring, the Cavaliers got a fresh taste of the bitter circumstances surrounding Duke lacrosse when Pressler brought his Division II Bryant team to Charlottesville to train with Virginia for five days.
As the news media took the case as an opportunity to focus on perceptions of out-of-control alcohol consumption and an over-inflated sense of privilege within the lacrosse community, coaches like Starsia were forced to watch as the reputation of the sport they loved was tarnished.
On one day before charges were filed, Starsia said he received calls to speak on three major network's national news programs, but chose not to for fear that his words could be misconstrued in a 20-second sound byte.
"It was never about sport of lacrosse-it was more a college athlete issue, and it happened to be a men's lacrosse team," Starsia said. "It was indicative for a period of time when people were cherry-picking to make their point. They could have found similar things on any college campus."
Many of the coaches were upset that issues like underage drinking were over-simplified by outsiders who did not understand the climate present on college campuses. None of them condoned the actions from the March 13, 2006 party-for which the Duke players have since apologized-and the coaches have used this as an opportunity to influence off-field behavior.
"There are a million lessons to be learned-one is that athletes are very much in the public eye and subject to the sensationalism that was applied to this case by all different forms of media," said Scott Anderson, Harvard's men's lacrosse head coach. "You can't ignore that. It's part of the additional responsibility that comes with the privilege of being an athlete and representing your school."
The wounds from the past year will likely never heal completely-Starsia said he had "never been witness to a most hurtful" situation-but Cooper's forceful words last week were a step in the right direction.
At Virginia, Starsia watched the Attorney General's press conference before telling his players that afternoon that the moment-the exoneration of the Duke players-was more important than lacrosse.
At Harvard, Anderson said there has been a "general shift in attitude" to be more accepting, even as residual effects of negative perceptions continue to be held by those who have not followed the case as closely. Anderson's campus may get a chance to experience it more first hand, as both Finnerty and Seligmann are reportedly considering transferring to Harvard.
Harvard's transfer process, however, is still a month or two away from completion, Anderson said, and Finnerty and Seligmann will both be considered by the admissions office now that charges are dropped.
At Duke, the win over the Cavaliers catapulted the Blue Devils to No. 2 this week, trailing only Cornell. As wins and losses and poll standings will continue to grow in importance now that the criminal legal issues have been resolved, Danowski said his program will continue to move forward.
"Some wise woman or man once said that there's no such thing as bad publicity; in this case I'm not so sure if it's applicable," Danowski said. "When people who don't know hear 'lacrosse' now they think of Duke Lacrosse. As we've said from the first day, we're going to try and use it as a positive.
"What other option did we really have?"
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