With my eldest in tow, I planned to spend a relaxing evening at Ludwig watching the Maryland women play Miami. There were not going to be many more people at the stadium than for the Colgate game Tuesday, but the match was not ignored. Athletic Director Kevin Anderson was there with his daughter. President Wallace Loh showed up as well.
What everyone in attendance saw was ridiculous, an embarrassment to college athletics.
Miami features two players with local roots that both started in the defense -- Senior Ali Brennan (Columbia, Maryland) and Sophomore Maddie Simms (Bowie, Maryland) -- and both had considerable amounts of support in the stands. That's not unusual. There are often family and other partisans for the other side at games. That's the way it should be. Things went off the rails tonight, however, in part because of a complete lack of decorum from the otherwise welcome guests.
Abuse of the referees by the Miami supporters started early. Maryland's fans on the same side didn't exactly react well and howls of complaint and derision erupted every time any foul was perceived. The rancor in the stands -- focused on the referees -- fueled physical conflict on the field. In the second half, Maryland's terrific forward Hayley Brock got hammered over and over and over again. Good ball control and quick turns terrorized Miami's backline and the response, particularly from the Hurricanes' Blake Stockton, was to cut Hayley down.
The eventual breakdown was presaged by a moment late in the second half where Brock, struck down again outside the box, responded by getting up and kicking out at the face of an opponent that had also hit the ground. No card. No warning. Just the referee and linesmen being berated by boorish men.
We were on the other side of the field, but it looked like Maddie Simms got a measure of revenge by kicking a ball hard into Brock when play had been stopped and Brock responded by landing a haymaker. Bedlam.
Awful? Yes. But the lack of discipline by the players paled in comparison to the idiot dad who jumped over the fence to get in between the players. Idiot may seem a strong word. In this instance, an understatement. When I finally shepherded my four-year old out of the stadium at the end of regulation -- as a mother screamed at Miami's fans "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME! NUMBER 27 IS MY DAUGHTER!" -- the same dad stood outside shouting that he shouldn't have been ejected because he "didn't go on to the field," he "only went on the sideline."
Un-frigging-believable.
That there is one idiot -- an excitable, over-involved father -- in the stands was not remarkable. That no one else within the pro-Miami faction shut him up or pulled him back was a total embarrassment.
Showing posts with label Maryland Women's Soccer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maryland Women's Soccer. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Wagner's Double
Although we have gone to a number of games over the last week, I wanted to get to another Maryland women's soccer game before the season closed.
I made it to the Towson match and while Towson has really struggled this season, Maryland was impressive. The thing that stuck with me the most from that game was the play of senior Olivia Wagner, who scored a pair of goals and added an assist.
Maryland was not as impressive tonight against a very talented Virginia side. The Cavaliers bossed much of the game and the normally solid Domenica Hodak got blitzed by the Wahoos attack. Virginia outshot Maryland 15 to 9 and won 5 corners versus just one for the Terps (taken by Ms. Wagner after a slight distraction from a precocious four-year old). Yet, against the run of play, two free kicks from Olivia Wagner delivered victory to a surging Maryland team.
The Terps are halfway through the conference season and have now run their record to 4 wins -- including victories over North Carolina and Virginia -- and 1 tie. They've already equaled their conference win total from last season (4-4-2) and it is the first time in the 26 year history of women's soccer at Maryland that a team has started this well. The team's best conference mark, reached in 2010, of 7-2-1 is conceivably in play, although three of the final five conference games are on the road (at Va. Tech Sunday, at N.C. State the next Sunday, and at Boston College) and Maryland will close the regular season against a terrific Florida State squad.
I made it to the Towson match and while Towson has really struggled this season, Maryland was impressive. The thing that stuck with me the most from that game was the play of senior Olivia Wagner, who scored a pair of goals and added an assist.
Maryland was not as impressive tonight against a very talented Virginia side. The Cavaliers bossed much of the game and the normally solid Domenica Hodak got blitzed by the Wahoos attack. Virginia outshot Maryland 15 to 9 and won 5 corners versus just one for the Terps (taken by Ms. Wagner after a slight distraction from a precocious four-year old). Yet, against the run of play, two free kicks from Olivia Wagner delivered victory to a surging Maryland team.
The Terps are halfway through the conference season and have now run their record to 4 wins -- including victories over North Carolina and Virginia -- and 1 tie. They've already equaled their conference win total from last season (4-4-2) and it is the first time in the 26 year history of women's soccer at Maryland that a team has started this well. The team's best conference mark, reached in 2010, of 7-2-1 is conceivably in play, although three of the final five conference games are on the road (at Va. Tech Sunday, at N.C. State the next Sunday, and at Boston College) and Maryland will close the regular season against a terrific Florida State squad.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Let's Goooooooo Maryland
Three days, three trips to campus, four games. Three Terrapin wins, one tie.
Most of the ink will be spilled bemoaning low attendance at Byrd and a poor performance by the football team against an FCS team. There is certainly justification for a negative takeaway from the weekend (it was shocking to watch) but Maryland's other football teams put in performances that were just as jaw-dropping for positive reasons.
As fans, the recurring theme of the weekend was the incredible support garnered by the various teams from within the athletics program. Among the 6,562 people in Ludwig Friday night was Nick Faust and Pe'shon Howard, as the men's basketball team was well-represented. My daughter and I ran into Faust again Saturday at the football game. Tonight at the men's soccer game against Cal, I was bracketed in the stands by Coach Brenda Frese and her family on one side and Domenica Hodak and Hayley Brock on the other. (Much respect to Coach Frese's boys, who responded to one of the Crew's many "sucks" chants by trying to start positive chants of their own. I remain unimpressed by the Crew who cracked up the stadium with a rousing rendition of Katy Perry's "California Gurls," but wiped out that witticism in a late game chant with the inclusion of the homophobic slur of choice for the student body's biggest tools. You can't put an umbrella up in the stands, but no worries about a group of students calling an opposing player a f&**%t). At the women's soccer game against Towson a few hours earlier, President Loh sat behind Jonathan Morgan for his first official home game as head coach.
Little bit different story for the student body. ESPN3 likely showed the backs of lots of Maryland students leaving Ludwig in the second half of the match against UCLA Saturday night and leaving Byrd on Sunday for the dire game against William & Mary.
It was worth staying for both.
It isn't exactly easy to be optimistic about the football team but after one game it is already clear that, yes, Stefon Diggs is that good. And, yes, the offense is really, really bad... but from a purely selfish standpoint, the inability of the offense to move the ball or avoid turnovers meant that the game stayed close and tense until the last minute, resulting in my eldest being around for the final whistle of a football game for the first time. Still, it is going to be a painful season.
Not so for the soccer teams. Although Maryland's record got its first blemish after failing to defeat a very good UCLA squad, the second half of that match was thrilling. With Keith Cardona in goal, Taylor Kemp and Mikey Ambrose at fullback, London Woodberry and Dakota Edwards at center half, Helge Leikvang and Dan Metzger cleaning up the midfield, John Stertzer directing the offense, and Patrick Mullins as the target man up top, this is a familiar, traditional Maryland powerhouse men's soccer squad. The type of squad that once featured three of the twenty-five called into the USMNT for the World Cup Qualifiers against Jamaica (Maurice Edu, Clarence Goodson, and Graham Zusi), one of Costa Rica's internationals (Rodney Wallace), three of the professional soccer players on hand at the game against Cal tonight (Zac MacMath, Matt Kassel, and Jeremy Hall), and two of the starters for Chivas USA who got blistered tonight by San Jose (Danny Califf and Casey Townsend).
But this year's version of Cirovski's Brigade is decidedly different because of what is on offer from Sunny Jane, Schillo Tshuma, Mikias Eticha, Widner Saint Cyr, Alex Shinsky, and Christiano Francois. These six players are remarkable on the ball and can, with varying degrees of reliability, launch breathtaking runs with only a sliver of space.
UCLA did very well bottling up release valves for these runs, but Maryland still managed 22 shots to UCLA's 8. Cal-Berkeley, picked by Pac-12's coaches to finish second behind UCLA in the conference this season, did not do well in that regard. While the 22 shots against UCLA resulted in 2 goals, 20 shots against Cal tonight resulted in 6 goals.
No Taylor Kemp, no Helge Leikvang tonight (replaced in the starting lineup by Widner Saint Cyr and Mikias Eticha, respectively), no problem. In driving, pouring rain and terrible conditions, kids all around the stadium begged their parents to stay a little longer. Mostly to watch Maryland's number 10.
In three games -- against pretty good opposition in Louisville, UCLA, and Cal -- Maryland has scored eleven goals. They are electrifying. The attacks in the second half of tonight's game (when five of the eleven team goals were scored), Maryland's offense was relentless as they toyed with a defense that was brutally overrun.
Maryland's first road game of the season is against another powerhouse, the #13 (NCSAA)/ #10 (Soccer America) Boston College Eagles, who need to rebound after a disappointing showing against Boston University Monday. With another good showing Friday night, the foundations for a special season will be laid.
Separately, congratulations to Jonathan Morgan on the women's emphatic 5-0 win this afternoon against Towson. Hayley Brock is terrific, but the story of the match was Olivia Wagner's brace. Both were long-range blasts; the first one was stunning. With several freshmen playing a major role on the squad this season, the women are likely to be inconsistent. Today's match gave supporters a little taste of how good they can be.
Most of the ink will be spilled bemoaning low attendance at Byrd and a poor performance by the football team against an FCS team. There is certainly justification for a negative takeaway from the weekend (it was shocking to watch) but Maryland's other football teams put in performances that were just as jaw-dropping for positive reasons.
As fans, the recurring theme of the weekend was the incredible support garnered by the various teams from within the athletics program. Among the 6,562 people in Ludwig Friday night was Nick Faust and Pe'shon Howard, as the men's basketball team was well-represented. My daughter and I ran into Faust again Saturday at the football game. Tonight at the men's soccer game against Cal, I was bracketed in the stands by Coach Brenda Frese and her family on one side and Domenica Hodak and Hayley Brock on the other. (Much respect to Coach Frese's boys, who responded to one of the Crew's many "sucks" chants by trying to start positive chants of their own. I remain unimpressed by the Crew who cracked up the stadium with a rousing rendition of Katy Perry's "California Gurls," but wiped out that witticism in a late game chant with the inclusion of the homophobic slur of choice for the student body's biggest tools. You can't put an umbrella up in the stands, but no worries about a group of students calling an opposing player a f&**%t). At the women's soccer game against Towson a few hours earlier, President Loh sat behind Jonathan Morgan for his first official home game as head coach.
Little bit different story for the student body. ESPN3 likely showed the backs of lots of Maryland students leaving Ludwig in the second half of the match against UCLA Saturday night and leaving Byrd on Sunday for the dire game against William & Mary.
It was worth staying for both.
It isn't exactly easy to be optimistic about the football team but after one game it is already clear that, yes, Stefon Diggs is that good. And, yes, the offense is really, really bad... but from a purely selfish standpoint, the inability of the offense to move the ball or avoid turnovers meant that the game stayed close and tense until the last minute, resulting in my eldest being around for the final whistle of a football game for the first time. Still, it is going to be a painful season.
Not so for the soccer teams. Although Maryland's record got its first blemish after failing to defeat a very good UCLA squad, the second half of that match was thrilling. With Keith Cardona in goal, Taylor Kemp and Mikey Ambrose at fullback, London Woodberry and Dakota Edwards at center half, Helge Leikvang and Dan Metzger cleaning up the midfield, John Stertzer directing the offense, and Patrick Mullins as the target man up top, this is a familiar, traditional Maryland powerhouse men's soccer squad. The type of squad that once featured three of the twenty-five called into the USMNT for the World Cup Qualifiers against Jamaica (Maurice Edu, Clarence Goodson, and Graham Zusi), one of Costa Rica's internationals (Rodney Wallace), three of the professional soccer players on hand at the game against Cal tonight (Zac MacMath, Matt Kassel, and Jeremy Hall), and two of the starters for Chivas USA who got blistered tonight by San Jose (Danny Califf and Casey Townsend).
But this year's version of Cirovski's Brigade is decidedly different because of what is on offer from Sunny Jane, Schillo Tshuma, Mikias Eticha, Widner Saint Cyr, Alex Shinsky, and Christiano Francois. These six players are remarkable on the ball and can, with varying degrees of reliability, launch breathtaking runs with only a sliver of space.
UCLA did very well bottling up release valves for these runs, but Maryland still managed 22 shots to UCLA's 8. Cal-Berkeley, picked by Pac-12's coaches to finish second behind UCLA in the conference this season, did not do well in that regard. While the 22 shots against UCLA resulted in 2 goals, 20 shots against Cal tonight resulted in 6 goals.
No Taylor Kemp, no Helge Leikvang tonight (replaced in the starting lineup by Widner Saint Cyr and Mikias Eticha, respectively), no problem. In driving, pouring rain and terrible conditions, kids all around the stadium begged their parents to stay a little longer. Mostly to watch Maryland's number 10.
In three games -- against pretty good opposition in Louisville, UCLA, and Cal -- Maryland has scored eleven goals. They are electrifying. The attacks in the second half of tonight's game (when five of the eleven team goals were scored), Maryland's offense was relentless as they toyed with a defense that was brutally overrun.
Maryland's first road game of the season is against another powerhouse, the #13 (NCSAA)/ #10 (Soccer America) Boston College Eagles, who need to rebound after a disappointing showing against Boston University Monday. With another good showing Friday night, the foundations for a special season will be laid.
Separately, congratulations to Jonathan Morgan on the women's emphatic 5-0 win this afternoon against Towson. Hayley Brock is terrific, but the story of the match was Olivia Wagner's brace. Both were long-range blasts; the first one was stunning. With several freshmen playing a major role on the squad this season, the women are likely to be inconsistent. Today's match gave supporters a little taste of how good they can be.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thanksgiving
I read Tracee Hamilton's most recent column as my three-year old napped prior to tip-off of the Maryland-Florida Gulf Coast game. We were taking our daughters to their first Maryland men's basketball game after a pleasant Tuesday evening visit to campus for my five-month old's first Maryland women's basketball game.
The view of Comcast that my girls had at both games was roughly the same, as the stadium was largely devoid of fans for Mark Turgeon's second home game of the year. The thousands of empty seats led the Baltimore Sun's Don Markus to observe:
Hamilton's frivolous lament stuck with me during the game because it seemed to so perfectly reflect the ethos of what it means to be a Washington-area sports fan. It also encapsulates why midwesterners (among others) have such difficulty sympathizing with the fickle nature of the DC-area sports fan.
Washingtonians behave as if this is an anointed city of Champions. And not just run-of-the-mill "we're ridiculously, phenomenally blessed in these particular areas of sport" but Champions in things that will earn the attention of important people around the globe. What matters is the Redskins competing for the Super Bowl, the Wizards marching towards the Eastern Conference finals, the Nationals stirring towards a wild-card spot, the Capitals hoisting the Stanley Cup, and the Terps in play for a BCS bowl or yet another Final Four men's basketball tournament appearance.
The complaints about the dire status of Redskins and Terps football, Wizards and Terps men's basketball, and Washington sports generally comes at a time when my enjoyment of local sports -- particularly those at the University of Maryland -- is at an all-time high. And the incongruences between the way sports are covered in this region and what actually takes place become all the more remarkable.
The best example I can give is from two weekends ago beginning with Veterans Day.
The weekend began with a trip to Ludwig to watch the Maryland women open up their NCAA tournament games against a La Salle team that had given up seven goals all season. Led by a fantastic performance by sophomore transfer Hayley Brock, the Terps put five in the back of the net against the Explorers in one game. There were probably more La Salle students in the stands for the game than Maryland students, but those Maryland supporters that showed up were treated to a terrific showing by an extremely talented Terp team that had sputtered a bit through ACC play.
After the game, we walked down to Comcast to watch the women's basketball team open the regular season by blowing out Loyola. And, as usual, the student showing was even more sparse than at the soccer game. Even with few eyes on them, Coach Frese's team served notice that this year's squad is much stronger than last year's version.
Saturday night, we traveled over to FedEx Field to catch Maryland get whacked by Notre Dame. There were probably better ways to spend the evening and there's little doubt that the Terps are not a good football team, but, for us, we're not going to do a lot of traveling with the team and sitting down on the field engulfed by Notre Dame supporters afforded us a level of intense fan support that is unmatched at Byrd on gameday. Plus, despite being pounded on the scoreboard and pummeled in the stands, we got to watch solid linebacker play out of Demetrius Hartsfield and freshman Alex Twine.
And Sunday, I went to Comcast twice -- first for the Maryland women's prolific beat down of a very, very good Georgetown team (a team that embarrassed Georgia's women tonight in Las Vegas) and later for Coach Turgeon's inaugural win as head coach of the Maryland men against UNC Wilmington. For both games, the Center was largely empty. And the massive line from community supporters waiting to meet the Maryland women's players and coaching staff after the Georgetown upset was piteously juxtaposed with the short wait I endured to get into the men's game as students got their tickets scanned, then turned around and walked out of the stadium (something I've never previously seen first hand).
In between all of that, I also attended my first ever field hockey games, watching Maryland beat Iowa in their first round NCAA tournament game and then sitting through most of a thrilling, tense affair that concluded with the Terps upending Syracuse to advance to the Final Four.
Of all the Maryland events I went to that weekend, the Syracuse field hockey game was the single-best sporting event; although I had little idea of what was going on in terms of rules or playing strategy, the contest was so engrossing I forewent a large part of the Maryland-Georgetown game. And the timing could not have been better... the next weekend, for entirely bizarre and providential reasons, we toured the Field Hockey Hall of Fame housed in Collegeville, Pennsylvania on Saturday and then my three-year old and I watched, through a live feed, Maryland's stunning comeback win over the Tar Heels in the National Championship game on Sunday.
I may not have any ability to appreciate the subtlety of the sport, but even my three-year old could appreciate the drama of a two-goal comeback with four minutes in regulation and the exhilaration of Jill Witmer's determined run in overtime to give the Terps yet another National Championship.
But an NCAA field hockey championship is not a real championship and Kevin Anderson still deserves to be fired and Debbie Yow remains the worst person in the world. And *yawn* we've got another top ten women's basketball team in College Park. And *shrug* Maryland's men's soccer team absolutely obliterated West Virginia -- with a hat-trick from future professional Casey Townsend -- in their opening game of the NCAA tournament, roughly a week and a half after Maryland alum Omar Gonzalez was named MLS defender of the year and shortly before he and fellow Maryland alum A.J. DeLaGarza would start together and secure a clean sheet MLS Cup win.
Of course, all of the above relates only to Maryland.
After skipping the Georgetown men's home opener to watch field hockey, I went to Verizon that Monday to see the win over UNC Greensboro and was floored by how good Georgetown's young team was. I sat down behind Roy Hibbert, equally impressed by how accommodating Hibbert was with fans in the crowd and how impressive Georgetown's freshman class looks on the court. For those who were paying attention, the Hoyas remarkable run at the Maui Invitational wasn't wholly unexpected -- indeed, on the strength of the Greensboro game I stayed up to watch the Kansas opener live because I thought that Georgetown had a decent opportunity to pull the upset win. Although this year was written off as a down year for the program, the chances now are better than fair that the Hoyas will once again be among the nation's elite.
And none of the foregoing even begins to account for the insane level at which prep sports are played in this region: DeMatha's soccer team went undefeated and was generally considered the number one or two high school team in the entire country. The last ESPN ranking I looked at had Good Counsel's football team placed at sixth nationally.
Yet, even with these overflowing blessings, the accepted storyline is the paucity of compelling sports storylines this fall.
I don't get it.
On almost any weekend day over the last couple of months, anyone could easily have taken themselves over to watch world-class athletes compete in high-level sporting contests. Those of us in this region are privileged to have before us a bountiful cornucopia of excellence across fall sports -- football, basketball, soccer, and field hockey -- and yet the complaints about what we don't have register the loudest.
There are many, many more important things that I am thankful for. Nevertheless, the simple fact is, as a massive fan of sports, I am thankful for what D.C. offers. And, in my own selfish way, I'm thankful for all the empty seats around us that facilitate going to these matches with an infant and toddler in tow.
The view of Comcast that my girls had at both games was roughly the same, as the stadium was largely devoid of fans for Mark Turgeon's second home game of the year. The thousands of empty seats led the Baltimore Sun's Don Markus to observe:
One more thing. I have never seen the Comcast Center as empty as it is tonight. I know it's Thanksgiving break, but the marketing department should have done a better job getting tickets out to youth groups, etc. to try to fill the student section behind the basket.Of course, if Markus ever wants to see Comcast more empty, he need only show up to a women's basketball game.
Hamilton's frivolous lament stuck with me during the game because it seemed to so perfectly reflect the ethos of what it means to be a Washington-area sports fan. It also encapsulates why midwesterners (among others) have such difficulty sympathizing with the fickle nature of the DC-area sports fan.
Washingtonians behave as if this is an anointed city of Champions. And not just run-of-the-mill "we're ridiculously, phenomenally blessed in these particular areas of sport" but Champions in things that will earn the attention of important people around the globe. What matters is the Redskins competing for the Super Bowl, the Wizards marching towards the Eastern Conference finals, the Nationals stirring towards a wild-card spot, the Capitals hoisting the Stanley Cup, and the Terps in play for a BCS bowl or yet another Final Four men's basketball tournament appearance.
The complaints about the dire status of Redskins and Terps football, Wizards and Terps men's basketball, and Washington sports generally comes at a time when my enjoyment of local sports -- particularly those at the University of Maryland -- is at an all-time high. And the incongruences between the way sports are covered in this region and what actually takes place become all the more remarkable.
The best example I can give is from two weekends ago beginning with Veterans Day.
The weekend began with a trip to Ludwig to watch the Maryland women open up their NCAA tournament games against a La Salle team that had given up seven goals all season. Led by a fantastic performance by sophomore transfer Hayley Brock, the Terps put five in the back of the net against the Explorers in one game. There were probably more La Salle students in the stands for the game than Maryland students, but those Maryland supporters that showed up were treated to a terrific showing by an extremely talented Terp team that had sputtered a bit through ACC play.
After the game, we walked down to Comcast to watch the women's basketball team open the regular season by blowing out Loyola. And, as usual, the student showing was even more sparse than at the soccer game. Even with few eyes on them, Coach Frese's team served notice that this year's squad is much stronger than last year's version.
Saturday night, we traveled over to FedEx Field to catch Maryland get whacked by Notre Dame. There were probably better ways to spend the evening and there's little doubt that the Terps are not a good football team, but, for us, we're not going to do a lot of traveling with the team and sitting down on the field engulfed by Notre Dame supporters afforded us a level of intense fan support that is unmatched at Byrd on gameday. Plus, despite being pounded on the scoreboard and pummeled in the stands, we got to watch solid linebacker play out of Demetrius Hartsfield and freshman Alex Twine.
And Sunday, I went to Comcast twice -- first for the Maryland women's prolific beat down of a very, very good Georgetown team (a team that embarrassed Georgia's women tonight in Las Vegas) and later for Coach Turgeon's inaugural win as head coach of the Maryland men against UNC Wilmington. For both games, the Center was largely empty. And the massive line from community supporters waiting to meet the Maryland women's players and coaching staff after the Georgetown upset was piteously juxtaposed with the short wait I endured to get into the men's game as students got their tickets scanned, then turned around and walked out of the stadium (something I've never previously seen first hand).
In between all of that, I also attended my first ever field hockey games, watching Maryland beat Iowa in their first round NCAA tournament game and then sitting through most of a thrilling, tense affair that concluded with the Terps upending Syracuse to advance to the Final Four.
Of all the Maryland events I went to that weekend, the Syracuse field hockey game was the single-best sporting event; although I had little idea of what was going on in terms of rules or playing strategy, the contest was so engrossing I forewent a large part of the Maryland-Georgetown game. And the timing could not have been better... the next weekend, for entirely bizarre and providential reasons, we toured the Field Hockey Hall of Fame housed in Collegeville, Pennsylvania on Saturday and then my three-year old and I watched, through a live feed, Maryland's stunning comeback win over the Tar Heels in the National Championship game on Sunday.
I may not have any ability to appreciate the subtlety of the sport, but even my three-year old could appreciate the drama of a two-goal comeback with four minutes in regulation and the exhilaration of Jill Witmer's determined run in overtime to give the Terps yet another National Championship.
But an NCAA field hockey championship is not a real championship and Kevin Anderson still deserves to be fired and Debbie Yow remains the worst person in the world. And *yawn* we've got another top ten women's basketball team in College Park. And *shrug* Maryland's men's soccer team absolutely obliterated West Virginia -- with a hat-trick from future professional Casey Townsend -- in their opening game of the NCAA tournament, roughly a week and a half after Maryland alum Omar Gonzalez was named MLS defender of the year and shortly before he and fellow Maryland alum A.J. DeLaGarza would start together and secure a clean sheet MLS Cup win.
Of course, all of the above relates only to Maryland.
After skipping the Georgetown men's home opener to watch field hockey, I went to Verizon that Monday to see the win over UNC Greensboro and was floored by how good Georgetown's young team was. I sat down behind Roy Hibbert, equally impressed by how accommodating Hibbert was with fans in the crowd and how impressive Georgetown's freshman class looks on the court. For those who were paying attention, the Hoyas remarkable run at the Maui Invitational wasn't wholly unexpected -- indeed, on the strength of the Greensboro game I stayed up to watch the Kansas opener live because I thought that Georgetown had a decent opportunity to pull the upset win. Although this year was written off as a down year for the program, the chances now are better than fair that the Hoyas will once again be among the nation's elite.
And none of the foregoing even begins to account for the insane level at which prep sports are played in this region: DeMatha's soccer team went undefeated and was generally considered the number one or two high school team in the entire country. The last ESPN ranking I looked at had Good Counsel's football team placed at sixth nationally.
Yet, even with these overflowing blessings, the accepted storyline is the paucity of compelling sports storylines this fall.
I don't get it.
On almost any weekend day over the last couple of months, anyone could easily have taken themselves over to watch world-class athletes compete in high-level sporting contests. Those of us in this region are privileged to have before us a bountiful cornucopia of excellence across fall sports -- football, basketball, soccer, and field hockey -- and yet the complaints about what we don't have register the loudest.
There are many, many more important things that I am thankful for. Nevertheless, the simple fact is, as a massive fan of sports, I am thankful for what D.C. offers. And, in my own selfish way, I'm thankful for all the empty seats around us that facilitate going to these matches with an infant and toddler in tow.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Student Athletes
For Maryland (and, more directly, University of Miami) football fans, the fallout from "The U"'s latest heinous scandal is a matter of great interest in advance of their September 5th opener up here in College Park. As yet more Miami athletes are accused of receiving improper payments and benefits from a crooked booster, the academic aspect of collegiate athletics seems entirely absent.
There are a number of reasons why making the trek over to Ludwig for Friday night's huge matchup between the two elite women's soccer teams of Stanford and Maryland (it ended up being a fantastic game fraught with tension on a beautiful night), but what stood out to me the most was the play of Stanford's Chioma Ubogagu.
Maryland boasts some impressive talent -- Jasmyne Spencer is a very entertaining player (and should have been awarded a penalty that would have determined the game) -- but Ubogagu is a special player. The freshman had a brilliant first half and I spent halftime trying to learn more about her on the wireless: from Coppell, Texas; fresh off a team that won the Class 5A state championship; the granddaughter of a former Tottenham Hotspur and Nigerian national team player and one of the most heavily recruited female soccer high school athletes from last year's class.
Chioma was so heavily recruited that she turned down an offer from the elite women's program in the country at the University of North Carolina to play soccer at Stanford. Why?:
I am deeply ambivalent about big time college football and men's college basketball. While the poor academic achievements of the majority of Gary Williams' and Ralph Friedgen's players may not have bothered many supporters of the college's athletics programs, it has been, alongside the abusive nature of student support for those two teams, a major factor in keeping our family away from their games.
But when the balance is right -- when athletics is something clearly and intrinsically tied to the academics of a university -- there's no ambivalence in the stands. Chioma Ubogagu would seem to be the living paradigm of all that collegiate athletics aspires to be.
A few random unrelated additional notes riffing on Maryland alums:
This household was very happy to see the news that Rodney Wallace has been called in to the Costa Rican national team. Listed as a midfielder, he'll get a chance to play on the wing alongside or behind Christian Bolanos -- one of our favorite international footballers. We'd have much preferred to see Wallace get a shot in the U.S. men's national team, but it is hard to see how he'll be able to generate enough buzz off of his performances for the Portland Timbers to catch Jurgen Klinsmann's eye.
I love nearly everything about the Timbers' entry into the MLS, but the team is not exactly developing Maryland talent. And, for that reason, we were similarly very happy to see Jeremy Hall move to FC Dallas. We had hoped that getting away from Red Bulls would allow Hall to show his terrific talent and while that may not have worked out, early returns for Dallas have been promising. If nothing else, Hall's change of address led to me watching a phenomenal performance tonight from Brek Shea in Kansas City.
On the other side of the spectrum, we noted that the Harrisburg City Islanders beat the Rochester Rhinos in a USL Pro semifinal and will face Orlando in the championship on September 3rd. Neither Jason Herrick nor Drew Yates will take part in the game, as both were lost to season-ending injuries early on. Herrick reportedly suffered a concussion that killed an already disappointing first professional season, and Yates injured his ACL. I've not been able to locate information discussing either's progress (or lack thereof) in recovery, but we hope that it is swift for both.
There are a number of reasons why making the trek over to Ludwig for Friday night's huge matchup between the two elite women's soccer teams of Stanford and Maryland (it ended up being a fantastic game fraught with tension on a beautiful night), but what stood out to me the most was the play of Stanford's Chioma Ubogagu.
Maryland boasts some impressive talent -- Jasmyne Spencer is a very entertaining player (and should have been awarded a penalty that would have determined the game) -- but Ubogagu is a special player. The freshman had a brilliant first half and I spent halftime trying to learn more about her on the wireless: from Coppell, Texas; fresh off a team that won the Class 5A state championship; the granddaughter of a former Tottenham Hotspur and Nigerian national team player and one of the most heavily recruited female soccer high school athletes from last year's class.
Chioma was so heavily recruited that she turned down an offer from the elite women's program in the country at the University of North Carolina to play soccer at Stanford. Why?:
“It was just the best of both worlds, educationally and soccer-wise,” Ubogagu said. “I kind of wanted to go a place that I could start a tradition. Stanford has never won a national championship, and I'd love to be a part of that as opposed to just being another ring.”Ms. Ubogagu's profile notes that she boasted a 4.975 GPA in high school. In a February 2010 interview, Chioma was asked what some of her goals were in her junior year in high school. Her answer:
Academically, my goal this year was to make all A’s [every] 6 weeks which I have kept up with so far. Soccer wise, I would love to win another state championship.Per a nice profile on ESPN Rise, prioritizing academics comes from her parents and the opportunity to play soccer is conditioned on excelling in the classroom.
I am deeply ambivalent about big time college football and men's college basketball. While the poor academic achievements of the majority of Gary Williams' and Ralph Friedgen's players may not have bothered many supporters of the college's athletics programs, it has been, alongside the abusive nature of student support for those two teams, a major factor in keeping our family away from their games.
But when the balance is right -- when athletics is something clearly and intrinsically tied to the academics of a university -- there's no ambivalence in the stands. Chioma Ubogagu would seem to be the living paradigm of all that collegiate athletics aspires to be.
A few random unrelated additional notes riffing on Maryland alums:
This household was very happy to see the news that Rodney Wallace has been called in to the Costa Rican national team. Listed as a midfielder, he'll get a chance to play on the wing alongside or behind Christian Bolanos -- one of our favorite international footballers. We'd have much preferred to see Wallace get a shot in the U.S. men's national team, but it is hard to see how he'll be able to generate enough buzz off of his performances for the Portland Timbers to catch Jurgen Klinsmann's eye.
I love nearly everything about the Timbers' entry into the MLS, but the team is not exactly developing Maryland talent. And, for that reason, we were similarly very happy to see Jeremy Hall move to FC Dallas. We had hoped that getting away from Red Bulls would allow Hall to show his terrific talent and while that may not have worked out, early returns for Dallas have been promising. If nothing else, Hall's change of address led to me watching a phenomenal performance tonight from Brek Shea in Kansas City.
On the other side of the spectrum, we noted that the Harrisburg City Islanders beat the Rochester Rhinos in a USL Pro semifinal and will face Orlando in the championship on September 3rd. Neither Jason Herrick nor Drew Yates will take part in the game, as both were lost to season-ending injuries early on. Herrick reportedly suffered a concussion that killed an already disappointing first professional season, and Yates injured his ACL. I've not been able to locate information discussing either's progress (or lack thereof) in recovery, but we hope that it is swift for both.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)