Following the events of Colorado Mesa University’s Men’s Lacrosse game in which CMU beat Johsnon and Whales (JWU) 52-0, Head Coach Vince Smith gave a comment in regard to the anger, saying that while CMU’s team made a mistake, it’s now in the past.
“We’re over and we’ve learned from it,” Head Coach Vince Smith said.
Colorado Mesa University Co-Athletic Director Bryan Rooks released a statement following CMU’s victory.
The statement responded to lacrosse fans and associates accusing the university of unsportsmanlike conduct.
“Colorado Mesa University coaches and student-athletes sustain high expectations for player and coach conduct when it comes to sportsmanship,” the statement said. “We believe in training and performance that puts forth the best from players and promotes the legacy of the sports we all love.
Fans and observers have rightly expressed frustration over the lopsided scoring from a recent game between Colorado Mesa and Johnson and Wales lacrosse teams.
CMU Athletics takes full responsibility for our role in the game’s outcome and the unsportsmanlike nature of the final score. We must have protocols in place to address these issues in the future as games unfold in real-time. Allowing scores and outcomes to unfold that do not enhance the sport or contribute to the growth of student-athletes works at cross purposes to our mission. We are working closely with our coaching staff to identify, specific to the sport of lacrosse, triggers and thresholds that in the future will be in place to keep something like this from happening.
Importantly, leadership from the athletic departments of both universities have been in close contact regarding the matter. We are working collaboratively to take responsibly for our respective roles in the game’s outcome and are coordinating to improve both programs in the future when it comes to sportsmanship and protocols. These conversations have been constructive, instructive and will continue in the coming days and weeks.”
“At the end of the day, the world we live in today is a lot different than the world we lived in 20, 40, 50 years ago,” Head Coach Vince Smith said. “You got people on one side of the spectrum that says that was terrible sportsmanship and then there are people on the other end of the spectrum asking, ‘Well what’s the big deal?’”
Rook’s statement did not mention the efforts CMU took during the game to create a more sportsmanlike competition. CMU pulled its starting players in the first half of the game and offered a running clock, which JWU declined. The running clock would have shortened the game.
“What I can say as a coach is ultimately we didn’t really play the game the way the game needed to be played down the back stretch,” Smith said. “If we got into the game and we got that situation again I think we would’ve conceded a lot more possessions by throwing the ball into the corner. It was a tough situation we can hear and talk about it all night but at the end of the day it is in the past. We’re over it and we’ve learned from it.”
Brianna Nicole, a spectator at the game, commented on KKCO’s Facebook post about the game. According to Nicole, JWU was the university with unsportsmanlike behavior. “JWU players played aggressively and violently with numerous penalties and a concussion to a CMU player,” Nicole said in her comment. “The CMU lacrosse team is a group of good men and great athletes who are now having to defend their character.”
Several individuals commented on the statement over the weekend. Most agreed with Nicole that a statement of apology for winning was unnecessary.
I think it is cool that CMU broke a record for Men’s Lacrosse with their points. And I follow the sport well and see that the average game might have about 20 goals scored for a team, so looking over the Men’s Lacrosse scores we do have an above average team. I definitely agree with the decision for CMU to apologize to JWU however for their massive victory, not because of their victory because the players did earned it, but rather even if the CMU players let JWU score 1 point or only made it to like 30 points I think it would be a little more “acceptable”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think our players should have played down, because I am also a college athlete for another sport at CMU and know these players are students working hard and also wanting to enjoy the game and have “fun”, but I think at one point this game just gets out of hand and “boring” to watch or play for either team, especially the team being demolished. It was 29-0 at halftime. But, I know our lacrosse team did not have the greatest start to their season; however, looking over the past scores we beat Notre Dame (30-5 at Notre Dame on Feb 22, 2019 and 34-7 at CMU one month later on March 27, 2019 which is also a really great well-known school)) and some other really top notch schools earlier in the season so I am not refuting our team’s ability to play well, but I do think for the joy of the sport, everyone should have a fighting chance and JWU is a smaller school than CMU but the reason I believe the CMU apology was justified because of how outrageous the score did get.
However, on the other note that did not get as much attention in the above article is that I still think both teams are in the wrong and JWU should apologize for their “unsportsmanship-like” conduct also, for the major injury that ended the game early in the 4th quarter and brought our CMU player to the hospital with an extreme injury. This game was overly aggressively played by both teams.