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No More Goodbyes
May 2, 2008
by Brian Delaney, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online GENEVA, N.Y. - An exhausted Matt Kerwick sat down at Friday night's post-game press conference, somehow looking equal parts exhausted, disappointed, proud and relieved. And that's probably not the half of it. Considering what Kerwick, now in his seventh year as Hobart men's lacrosse coach, and his program have been through over the last week, Friday's 15-7 loss to Upstate New York rival Cornell stung less than it would have two weeks ago. "There was other stuff going on?" Kerwick asked, too fatigued to laugh at his own joke. Or as junior attackman Jeff Colburn said: "I'm just very fortunate that I can come back here and do it again next year." That feeling was palpable Friday night at Boswell Field, where 1,700 orange-clad fans turned out for what was no longer Hobart's final Division I men's lacrosse game. At 9 p.m. Thursday, the Statesmen were informed that the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Board of Trustees had reversed its controversial April 26 decision to reclassify the men's lacrosse program to Division III. In a letter released Friday morning, the board cited an "outpouring of letters, e-mails and phone calls" from alumni and the surrounding community as its primary reason for changing course. "It was the right decision to switch it," Kerwick said. "And I think the alumni spoke and that's important, that people at a school like this listen to the people that come before them." The sequence of events was still very fresh on the minds of Hobart fans. Two Hobart fans, one a parent of a player, refused to comment on the situation for the same reason - their emotions were still "too raw." Geneva resident Chuck Orego, who couldn't remember missing a home game since he started following Hobart lacrosse in 1994, said he was devasted by the original announcement. "I was on the phone with my best friend today, talking for a half hour, and he picked up the newspaper and was like, `You won't believe it. They're staying D-I,'" Orego said. "And I was totally elated. We were screaming over the phone at each other like, `Yes! Yes!' I was like, 'Now I can go to the game happy tonight, and not down.'" Down was where Hobart quickly found itself on the scoreboard. Admittedly overhyped, the Statesmen showed all the signs of playing with too much emotion - over-committing on defense, over-running ground balls and earning repeated trips to the penalty box. In all, the Statesmen committed 12 penalties for a total of 13 minutes, handing Cornell 10 extra-man opportunities. The Big Red converted three of those chances. "We were all pretty riled up," Hobart senior attackman Daryl Veltman said. "We lost our heads on a couple of those scrums there." Cornell jumped out to a 3-0 lead. It stretched to 5-1 after the first quarter, and 10-2 at halftime. Kerwick was concerned with his team's emotional state before the game, for obvious reasons.
"The preparation side was tough," he said. "There were distractions, and I can't even count the amount of e-mails and phone calls that we've been receiving in support of these guys. And it's well-deserved. I don't know how these guys kept it together, because I'm an old man...and it was tough for me. But these 18-, 19-, 20-year olds did a fantastic job." The win solidified Cornell's resume for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament, should Princeton claim the Ivy League's automatic qualifier with a win Saturday at Brown. At 11-3, the Big Red likely has more lacrosse to play. So does Hobart - next year at the Division I level. "I'm relieved with the decision," said Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni, a 1992 Hobart graduate. "I think it is the right decision. Hobart belongs in Division I." Kerwick echoed that sentiment. "We want to continue to play the best teams at Hobart College that we always have," he said. "It was the right decision to stay here."
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