Sun Stroke: Arizona State MCLA Team Suspended
by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
|
| Eric Nelson and the rest of the Sun Devils will have to
wait for the appeals process to take its course before the season
is officially over. For now, however, there is no men's lacrosse at
Arizona State until next August. © Dirk Dewachter |
The Arizona State club men's lacrosse team has been suspended
until August of 2009 after a four-person committee at the
university found the program to have participated in hazing and
underage drinking earlier this month.
The decision was handed down on Thursday morning.
Ranked No. 3 in Lacrosse Magazine's preseason Men's Collegiate
Lacrosse Conference (MCLA) rankings, the Sun Devils were forced to
forfeit games against UCLA and Oregon State that were to be held at
Stanford last weekend - costing the program over $11,000 in
unrecoverable funds - as the university conducted an
investigation.
After concluding its investigation, which included meetings with
players, but not head coach Chris Malone, the school gave the team
verbal confirmation that the remaining 10 games on the regular
season schedule would not be played. Further, the team could not
practice until August.
Reached for a comment on Friday, Malone said he was "stunned" by
the decision.
"The players understand they did something wrong; they made a
mistake," said Malone. "But I'm not sure if the punishment fits
this situation.
"Our program has never been in trouble before and I feel like we
have represented the school in a very positive way and haven't cost
the university a cent. It seems like they came down kind of hard on
the kids."
The incident occurred at an off-campus house on Jan. 31 and
involved almost the entire team, according to sources familiar with
the event.
The season is not yet officially over for the Sun Devils. The team
president, senior Ben Zils, and Malone expect to receive a written
notification of the program's suspension on Monday and then start
the protocol for an appeal of the verdict.
If an appeal hearing is granted, the case will be heard by a
different four-person board than the one that rendered the initial
suspension, according to Malone.
Malone had a meeting on Friday with his team to discuss immediate
plans and next week the coach will sit down with every player on
the team individually to assess their future with the program. None
of the players will have this season counted against their
eligibility, but there are eight seniors on the roster.
It was unclear what Malone's future holds. A two-time All-American
at Maryland and a former assistant coach at Penn, Malone was
unwilling to discuss his situation.
"It's not really appropriate to talk about me at this time. I'll be
fine," said Malone. "I'm just frustrated. I'm frustrated this
happened and I'm frustrated that the seniors will have this as
their final collegiate lacrosse memory."
The first conference game scheduled for Arizona State - a road trip
to UNLV - was scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 21, but the remaining
league games aren't slated until late March. The Southwestern
Lacrosse Conference has not issued any statement on how a potential
permanent ASU suspension would impact the league.
