Syracuse University defenseman Steve Panarelli just saw the headlines blaring on his television screen regarding the Duke University lacrosse team rape allegations and he wanted an answer. He felt he could count on now-senior Duke attackman Matt Danowski, Panarelli’s high school teammate at Farmingdale, N.Y., for the straight scoop.

‘Are you guys in trouble?’ Panarelli asked Danowski on the phone.

‘No,’ Danowski answered.

‘Are you going to be in trouble?’

‘No.’

‘Do you need any help?’

‘No.’

Panarelli felt the definitive responses to all three questions meant everything would work out.

Rape charges on former Duke players Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans stemming from an off-campus party were dropped in December 2006. They are still facing kidnapping and sexual assault charges. But a year after the scandal, Duke lacrosse is back. It has a new coach and is an undisputed championship contender. Still, ‘The Duke Effect’ has left the actions of high-profile athletes under the microscope. Coaches have a perfect example of unruly off-the-field behavior becoming national front-page news.

Since the spring 2006 soap opera, no lacrosse programs have had any reported incidents – except Syracuse. SU midfielders Pat Perritt and John Carrozza were suspended indefinitely after they were arrested in downtown Syracuse on March 11 and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Sophomore defenseman Sean McGonigle was arrested Feb. 15 and charged with assaulting an SU male student in an off-campus incident Jan. 20. The team suspended McGonigle for the first two games of the season, but he returned to the field after Director of Athletics Daryl Gross lifted the suspension.

While none of the SU athletes have been convicted, and none of the offenses are to the degree of rape charges, the incidents are more black eyes for a sport that is trying to rehab its image.

The Duke scandal fueled racial tensions in Durham, N.C., and reinforced a long-standing reputation that lacrosse is a sport dominated by rich, white prep schooler. On Duke’s team last season, 46 of 47 players were white. The two accusers were black. The team’s composition overshadowed efforts in the lacrosse community to make its sport racially and geographically diverse. There is still a long way to go, and high-profile athletes continue to have their off-the-field behavior scrutinized.

PlayersSyracuse midfielder Danny Brennan and Panarelli understood why so many people paid attention to the Duke case last year. Rape charges are serious and weigh more importance than lacrosse scores. But with a sport that lacks the popularity of football and basketball, Panarelli and Brennan fear the only reason the general public knows anything about lacrosse is because of the Duke scandal.

Brennan insists the only defining characteristic of the sport is its competitiveness. But that’s like any other athlete. Any other characteristic, Brennan argues, dilutes the complex personalities that are involved with the game.

But Panarelli notices that part of lacrosse’s image problem is that he feels players, including himself, are still adapting to the realization that lacrosse is becoming more of a high-profile sport. It is not football or basketball, but the public grants more attention to lacrosse each spring.

‘Earlier in the days lacrosse wasn’t as serious and people just showed up to play and just had fun when it was over,’ Panarelli said. ‘Maybe guys didn’t do as much as we do now, but the game has changed so much that you can’t get away with the things you used to do. You don’t have as much time. Guys aren’t going out as much. It’s become a more serious sport like basketball or football, where it takes up a lot of time. You don’t have as much time to go out.’

Brennan and Panarelli both notice players generally go out less this year. But then situations like the ones involving McGonigle, Perritt and Carrozza appear that bruise the sport’s image.

Brennan said Desko has emphasized off-field behavior more than he did before the Duke fallout.

‘Make sure your noses are clean,’ Desko said, according to Brennan. ‘Lacrosse is under the microscope. If the slightest thing goes wrong, it’ll be blown up and people will see if there is anything else behind it. We have to stick together as a team on and off the field and make sure nothing happens.’

Bob Hartranft coached Panarelli, Brennan and Danowski at Farmingdale. Hartranft sees these situations extending beyond just any lacrosse team.

‘Our kids drink and I’m sure they do other things, but that’s unfortunately a society we live in,’ Hartranft said. ‘It’s done on a much larger scale than when I was 18 or 19 years old. But I don’t know if you can change it much. It’s more that society has to change. It’s not just lacrosse that has to change.’

CoachesNew Duke head coach John Danowski, Matt’s father, tries to avoid stopping by his son’s apartment. He admitted before coaching Duke he didn’t want his son attending Hofstra – where John Danowski coached for 21 years – because he felt knowing his son’s social life could be awkward and intrusive.

But John Danowski keeps his visits limited for a different reason now. Former Duke head coach Mike Pressler was known for his dictatorial approach, but the Duke fallout last year raised questions into whether that style was effective in promoting positive behavior. With emotions and feelings still raw, John Danowski provides positive reinforcement by not criticizing mistakes.

‘Right from the first day there have been political, social and academic issues,’ John Danowski said. ‘It’s busying sometimes to keep up with all of it. A lot of nerves are raw and you have to be sensitive to comments that are made and said. There are understandably different populations and you also have to juggle the alumni and recruiting aspect.’

John Danowski said he has yet to receive one negative e-mail or phone call about the program. At Duke’s home opener against Dartmouth on Feb. 24, 6,485 fans greeted – not protested – the lacrosse team. Despite John Danowski’s positive reinforcement, he requires his players to maintain a minimum 3.45 GPA and attend community service at Ronald McDonald House charities.

But last year’s fallout doesn’t just affect Duke. Princeton head coach Bill Tierney and Desko said they’ve used last year’s situation as a spring board to tell players that any incident will further perpetuate the negative impression people have on lacrosse.

Last fall, Rob Edson, Syracuse’s senior associate director of athletics, specifically pinpointed Duke lacrosse rape allegations as part of a triggering point that caused the athletic department to tell SU coaches to raise awareness about the use of social Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

‘I never got into (Facebook),’ Perritt said in September. ‘I didn’t want to get into it because I didn’t want people to know what I’m doing. I want to keep my personal business to myself.’

No longer are actions isolated. Instead, every time a lacrosse player shows up on the police blotter, it’s representative of the sport. Every time a high-profile athlete makes headlines for the wrong reason, images of the three Duke players are evoked. The perception isn’t a college student gone off course, but instead college athletes with discipline problems.

‘That certainly can be the appearance of it all,’ Desko said. ‘It’s very disappointing because of the amount of time that we’ve addressed the team as far as what can happen in these types of situations. For it to happen when they’ve been talked to so much is disappointing.’

StereotypesNot all lacrosse players may be party regulars who have run-ins with the law, but there is a notion that lacrosse players are white prep schoolers as noteworthy off the field as they are on it. A run through most college teams’ rosters shows that the majority of lacrosse players are, indeed, white. Many of the high school lacrosse powerhouses are, indeed, prep schools. But when analyzed further, the reputation is not entirely accurate.

Though the Central New York hotbed may reside in suburban areas, the top programs are public schools in middle-class areas. A wide influx of Canadian and Native American box players is an exception to the stereotype, as well. Schools such as Georgetown Prep, Boys’ Latin and McDonogh – all prep schools in the Maryland/Washington D.C., area – make up much of high school’s top teams. Other schools like Huntington, Farmingdale and West Genesee – public schools in middle-class areas in New York – experience success as well. Virginia-bound recruits Rhamel and Shamel Bratton, both black, lead No. 1 Huntington this year.

Donnie Brown, who founded Blax Lax, Inc. in 2001, has started inner-city programs in Baltimore to help black lacrosse players like himself. Since it’s an affiliate program under the Bridge program sponsored by U.S. Lacrosse, Brown receives equipment from U.S. Lacrosse.

‘It lets a lot of African-American kids play this game and it builds some awareness in the lacrosse community that we are their future base,’ Brown said. ‘It’s mostly white prep school. It’s the biggest growing game in the inner cities, but there are drawbacks because lacrosse is not a cheap sport to play.’

Brown also coaches the club lacrosse team at Morgan State University, which had its first game against Howard University last year. The schools consisted of all-black lacrosse teams. There are 15 other Bridge programs under U.S. Lacrosse that are designed to teach inner-city youth about the game. Tierney and his team participated in the Campbell Lacrosse Foundation in Trenton, N.J., last year.

Despite all Baltimore city schools fielding lacrosse teams, the college game lacks black players. Notable black lacrosse players include 2005 Tewaaraton winner Kyle Harrison of Johns Hopkins University and 2005 Virginia University graduate John Christmas. Through Brown’s program, Terence Dorsey played for Maryland University after attending Essex Community College.

Title IX is part of the reason why there’s a delay, because it’s difficult for schools to add men’s lacrosse programs, considering women’s programs must be added, too. But most of the delay links to academic success, Brown said, because students in the inner-city aren’t as prepared for college as prep schoolers. Brown is trying to recruit Baltimore city youth and improve their grades so they can then attend a local prep school, thus maximizing their chance of entering the college scene.

‘It’s easier to have coaches teach these kids and play them in private schools,’ Brown said. ‘The Baltimore city schools are not preparing them for life or college. It would be better to send them to prep school because as a parent you want the best opportunity possible for your children. Unfortunately, to do that, it dilutes the public school system of academic talent. But it’s a price they have to pay for not stepping up to the plate.’

The Duke EffectRace and off-the-field behavior shouldn’t be related. But ‘The Duke Effect’ has brought that relationship together. Unfair or not, they are two components that have cast image problems for the lacrosse community.

Player arrest stories continue to feed the notion that the lacrosse culture breeds trouble. Minority representation in lacrosse casts an impression that this sport is welcome only to one race and the well-off. It’s part of a reputation the lacrosse community continues to try to change. Whether the sport likes it or not, the Duke case is synonymous with lacrosse,

‘Most people didn’t know lacrosse as well until this happened,’ Panarelli said. ‘Their only image and only perspective is the Duke case. They don’t know the years, the Native American tradition of the game and where its roots are. It’s a shame that’s what most people think. But I’m sure the people in the lacrosse world will do a good job of getting us back.’

Published on March 20, 2007 at 12:00 pm