No, we do not know anyone from Duke’s Lacrosse team. No, none of us were at their party. And no, none of us know anything beyond what we’ve heard in the news.
The recent weeks after the March 13 Duke men’s lacrosse party, in which a female was allegedly raped and abused, have been extremely hard to watch on the news. Not only is it difficult for all the parties involved, the university and the city of Durham; but it is difficult for the sport of lacrosse itself. ‘America’s Oldest Sport’ has been taking a beating in the press for being an ‘elitist, party-hearty’ sport, as a recent News & Observer article noted. These stereotypes have unfortunately been associated with lacrosse players nationwide, as this is the first time most people in the United States have even heard about the sport of lacrosse.
With our proximity to Durham, lacrosse players here at N.C. State have heard their share of Duke lacrosse-related comments. “Hey! Is that what goes on at your parties?” “Dude, do you know what the deal is with all those lacrosse players?” The issue was even the subject of discussion by Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield in one of my political science seminars. It puts us in a precarious situation, seeing as a month ago, people would ask us what those ‘golf club-like looking things’ on our T-shirts and hats were, and now we’re ‘trouble makers’ by association. Well, if you want to know what the NCSU men’s lacrosse team is like, you could ask Chancellor Oblinger, who attended one of our recent games to show his support of our program and watch us defeat the No. 13 team in the nation, what he thinks of our team. Or perhaps you can come out with us to our coach’s elementary school, where every year we participate in a book reading event to promote reading skills to kids of young ages. Or you can come and watch several of our players as they coach a local junior varsity high school lacrosse teams in an effort to promote lacrosse in the community and interact with young lacrosse players in the area.
As NCSU students and lacrosse players we do everything we can to represent our school with class and dignity. The scandal in Durham is in no way connected with us and we shouldn’t be stereotyped because of it. We hope that, when all is said and done with the Duke situation, people will be able to realize that the incident and the sport of lacrosse are only coincidentally related, and that our team is a great asset and representative of the University.
