The Chronicle

Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: Features
Last update: 3/10/07 at 6:17 PM EST

Media Credit: Chronicle file photo

Any traumatic experience is an opportunity for growth and improvement. For the members of Duke's lacrosse team, last spring's rape scandal certainly qualifies.

"This whole experience is going to be a blessing as all these kids get older," lacrosse coach John Danowski says. "It's going to be an unbelievable experience, just a hell of a thing to live through."

For now, Danowski and the players say that it is still difficult to think and talk about last spring. The emotions associated with being on trial in front of the public, with being branded "hooligans" and "rapists" and with watching three close friends face long jail sentences might still be a little too raw. These young men have been accused of racism and sexism and they have seen three of their friends charged with much worse. And they were forced to stand by while those three friends had their faces splashed on the cover of magazines and newspapers all over the country with headlines calling them rapists.

"It was very painful because you saw three individuals that you cared deeply about just sort of dragged over the coals," senior captain Ed Douglas says. "And there was nothing you could do about it. We could call them; we could talk to them; we could reach out to them; but there was nothing we could do on a broader level to alleviate the sense of betrayal they felt."

Maybe in a few years, they say, they'll be in a better position to think objectively about last spring and to really see it as a blessing in disguise.

"I'm not at the time right now to really look back on it, maybe a couple years from now," senior captain Tony McDevitt says. "But from what I can look back on now, yeah, it's going to be a learning experience, already has been. How to deal with the media-we got lesson 101 on media psychology. And also, who your true friends are, your family and friends and people you can trust-I can feel that learning process happening."

As far as the media goes, team captains McDevitt, Matt Danowski and Douglas-who have served with defenseman Casey Carroll as the team's official spokesmen-say they never expected to be public figures when they came to Duke. They never expected to be talking to USA Today or the New York Times, or really any national media.

John Danowski knew when he was hired that he would be the most famous lacrosse coach in the world, but the players have had this responsibility thrust upon them. "No one, as far as I know, has had to go through this kind of firestorm before," Douglas says.

Continued...

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