Corey: A Separate Peace

By Michael Corey

BALTIMORE - With great expectation they paved a path to Duke, leaving their prep school training behind, armed with superlative lacrosse talent borne of the fierce competition from whence they came.

“We are excited about this group in that we have upgraded our skill level and athleticism at each position,” then-head coach Mike Pressler said prior to their arrival on campus in the summer of 2003. “We feel strongly that we addressed our needs across the board. Several members of this group have the ability to make an immediate impact for our program.”

That impact was indeed Swift, as the modest proposal was whispered that Duke might reverse its recent fortune to win a few national championships on the strength of the players in that class. It took a year of transitioning through the hellfire of a 5-8 campaign in 2004, but a year later, that collection of recruits had forged a chemistry that enabled them to lead the Blue Devils to a national runner-up finish in 2005.

The hellfire that was 2006 brought a postponement of the lacrosse team's ultimate reason for matriculating at Duke in the first place--to learn via sport--as a dastardly misrepresentative of the justice system incited a public pillory of the program and the men therein. A trio was then siphoned away from the team and dumped into the cesspool that was the rhetorical filth being spewed by a rogue District Attorney, and by certain locusts in the media eager to join the schadenfreude, impatience and prejudgment that fueled the feeding frenzy.

Lamentably, it took all the months from then to now to properly clean the triumvirate from the odious allegations that were hurled their way. The stains will surely remain, however. Or as David Evans, the eldest of the exonerated, put it so morbidly yet accurately on 60 Minutes: When he dies, his obituary will speak of what he was alleged of doing in his life, not of the life he actually lived.

Having lived through this, the Duke lacrosse team--which will forever include Evans, Reade Seliggman and Colin Finnerty--faced a myriad of obstacles that no one should ever have to cope with over the course of a lifetime. And yet, through sport, they have not only come together, they have made the most poignant statement that has yet been made in the wake of the lacrosse imbroglio.

They have continued to win.

Against a tumultuous backdrop, they resolved to remain at Duke, and resolved to follow a new leader. That man, who in his prosperous 20 years of coaching had never advanced to a Final Four, came to Duke with a different system, with a different perspective. The transition could have been disastrous in the hands of a lesser coach, and in the hands of less united players, but the Blue Devils have positioned themselves to put a perfect ending on what has been an otherwise murky chapter in Duke history, to put it euphemistically.

But rather than engaging in spin--positive or otherwise--the men's lacrosse team has wisely opted to speak softly in public while making a statement with their sticks. Cornell joins the conversation Saturday, and the undefeated Big Red is expected to make a lot of noise.

Cornell is likely to employ a defensive tactic called “shut-off” against half of Duke's star tandem, either Matt Danowski or Zack Greer. This strategy requires the assignment of one player to shadow another all over the field, a strategy that was used unsuccessfully by North Carolina in Duke's quarterfinal win last weekend. To combat it, Duke pulled its player being shadowed away from the action, and a five-on-five game around the net resumed.

It's the equivalent of a box-and-one defense in basketball. It works against one-dimensional teams. But the Blue Devils are anything but. Cornell undoubtedly recognizes this, and any number of alternative strategies might be hurled Duke's way.

But this is nothing new to Duke. Certainly, the coaching staff recognizes the challenges Cornell might present. But Coach Danowski's philosophy is less reactionary than those of others. His focus is on his team, not on what an opponent might devise to cut them down, a lesson not unfamiliar to the Blue Devils, a lesson learned from the fierce year from whence they've come, a lesson that has made this edition of the men's lacrosse team all the more formidable on the field.

Conflict came to Durham under false pretenses that disrupted more than the lacrosse team's season. Now, the city's mayor, Bill Bell, is proposing celebratory measures in honor of the team's success.

That success started when this crop of seniors matriculated at Duke in the fall of 2003. Their on-field talents were expected to have an immediate impact, but the talents they've developed off the field will be of greater consequence to their program, and to their educational experience. Battles deriving from the past year will continue to be waged, of course. But one concludes this weekend. The Blue Devils can achieve a separate peace for themselves when they step on the field Saturday afternoon, and for the rest of us, as well.

Indeed, they already have.