LaxPower Back-Up Stick

There is a 10 year void to fill. Not an easy task for someone to just come in and have camps and NESCAC
prospect days and recruit at the JT level...The brand has been significantly damaged- not the school
per se but the men's lacrosse team and it's not a buying situation the shares haven't yet fallen enough.

One guy that maybe overlooked based on the shortened NESCAC season is Tufts D Coordinator Toomey. He was an assistant at Harvard in 2019, and has an impressive D1 resume.
High quality guy who would be a great fit at Amherst.

Manup wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:34 pm One guy that maybe overlooked based on the shortened NESCAC season is Tufts D Coordinator Toomey. He was an assistant at Harvard in 2019, and has an impressive D1 resume.
High quality guy who would be a great fit at Amherst.

Why would anyone with options want to accept a job at Amherst that's literally one additional episode of lax-bro behavior away from extinction of the men's program?

Wow. Times have changed. NESCAC jobs were "die with your boots on" in the day (Darr, Grube, Lamb, Jackson, Lapointe, Daly and many others). Sad to see JT in this situation, hard to say or know if he had his day/s in court or what actions he took. Reprehensible behavior, no place for it in any aspect of our society, athletics or otherwise. Hope we can address this and not see it fade in light of our COVID 19 struggles.

It was addressed when Biddy gave JT the axe...that is addressing it big time following playing in NC
It is literally the perfect storm

LibertyL wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:31 pm All I cared about (if you look back in this thread) was to get Amherst to act and they have.

It may be an attractive job at some point but recruiting is going to suffer a massive blow.
Kids of this age are extremely sensitive to stigma and embarrassment on social media etc and
would just rather be recruited by another NESCAC team. The impact will be years IMO.

Coaches likewise will be reluctant to jump into this experiment. Many parents will surely
guide their player away from the stigma as well.

If the recruiting trouble raises the bar for acceptable behavior and sportsmanship
(especially between teammates) then this mess will have served a purpose. Change
from this needed and the embarrassment to our entire community is real on this one.

If men's xc is any indicator, recruiting won't suffer much at all. After the suspension of the xc season and the termination of the coach, the xc continued to attract top talent and perform at high levels.

Regarding the XC comparison, Coach Nedeau was allowed to resign for “personal and family reasons” in January of 2017, about a month after the story broke.

Looking at the men’s XC archives, rosters for all 4 years of the 2016 graduating class (16,15,14,13) are not available on the site.

Wonder if that was part of the punishment, individuals being scrubbed from the team’s history, as prior and following rosters are all available...

I read the letter Amherst President Martin sent. She, the administration, and anyone involved with the crafting of the letter, must have great disdain for JT and the lacrosse program at Amherst. It came across to me as throwing JT and the whole team under the bus. I think this is unjust, and if I were a player or parent, I would be extremely upset.
To imply JT is solely responsible for the culture of the team, or any college coach is solely responsible for the culture of their team, is unjust. Unless the coach has 100% authority or influence over the team, you cannot make him or her 100% accountable. School policy, faculty, staff and administrators all have influence over every student, and as such all have accountability.
Implying that the that the team as a whole is at fault, or as many of you have done here that they are all racist, is equally unjustifiable. It would be like saying you met three members of the team who had black hair and green eyes and concluding that the team is made up of black haired, green eyed players.
President Martin characterized the whole team as being a problem within the community. Those returning will now live under a stigma at the college and will certainly be treated as pariahs. Their future at Amherst is certainly dim, not to mention an unfair stigma that has been attached and will follow them beyond college. I am sure their are many players and parents looking to transfer, as opposed to returning to an institution that clearly does not want them. I imagine many of them are good people and clearly fine lacrosse players, and I wish them success.

PicLax wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:31 am To imply JT is solely responsible for the culture of the team, or any college coach is solely responsible for the culture of their team, is unjust.

Come on man. Coaches are responsible for the culture of their team. Should they be responsible for the ACTIONS of individual members, that's up for debate.

JT was on Jamie Munro's podcast not too long ago extolling the great culture he had developed in the locker room. He went into depth about being a sports psych PHD student, how he's a better leader than he is coach, how he's got a great pulse on the team, yadda yadda yadda.

If you asked JT 3 weeks ago if he should be held responsible for his teams culture, he would have said yes...

This weren't 3 freshman who were bad apples who JT didn't have time to weed out. These were upperclassmen in leadership roles.

Anyone care to explain how the culprits can't and couldn't be identified by the team or other bystanders in the dorm? Tons of rumors on social on who it was, through other people that were in the dorm when it happened (or just looking at the box score). Seems like a sketchy scenario and they're holding back some details.

Leadership is taking responsibility for things within your oversight. It is about accountability. You make your top leadership accountable so that successive leadership and those below are in turn held to account. Without accountability, leadership is hollow and becomes merely an entitlement. It becomes functionally ineffective.

As for the team, it would appear that neither the coaching staff or the players cooperated with the investigation by the school administration. As I've said before, you can't necessarily fault team-mates for not cooperating against one of their own, but in doing so, the team as a whole must accept the consequences based on their choices. Plain and simple...

isaacwright22 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:26 am Anyone care to explain how the culprits can't and couldn't be identified by the team or other bystanders in the dorm? Tons of rumors on social on who it was, through other people that were in the dorm when it happened (or just looking at the box score). Seems like a sketchy scenario and they're holding back some details.

The three individuals have been identified. Trust me. The school community knows who they are. It’s no secret.

jerseyman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:16 am

isaacwright22 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:26 am Anyone care to explain how the culprits can't and couldn't be identified by the team or other bystanders in the dorm? Tons of rumors on social on who it was, through other people that were in the dorm when it happened (or just looking at the box score). Seems like a sketchy scenario and they're holding back some details.

The three individuals have been identified. Trust me. The school community knows who they are. It’s no secret.

The involved individuals will be going in front of a panel this week to determine if they should graduate from Amherst or be expelled. Unfortunately for the school's narrative, they are not all Caucasian … much easier narrative for the school if they were. It will be interesting to see what the public hears about those kids since Amherst appears to have with great glee jumped the gun on firing the coach and putting the team on probation. Again - because there are students of color as part of the accusatory equation the narrative isn't so easy, is it?

I will not make an argument about accountability because every college coach in America knows full well that their paycheck can be taken away by the behavior of a bunch of college aged kids at 3 in the morning. Thompson knew that in the same way that coaches everywhere do. Comes with the territory.

Lax3 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:42 amBecause there are students of color as part of the accusatory equation the narrative isn't so easy, is it?

Why's that? Are you/the committee making an assumption that blacks can't be racist? Jews can't be antisemitic? Gays can't be homophobic? Etc.

Matnum PI wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:47 am

Lax3 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:42 amBecause there are students of color as part of the accusatory equation the narrative isn't so easy, is it?

Why's that? Are you/the committee making an assumption that blacks can't be racist? Jews can't be antisemitic? Gays can't be homophobic? Etc.

The committee, the school … not me. I am in your camp - I think - but for a school that likes to shame and slam so easily, it is difficult to adjudicate when two of the students are persons of color. Just saying … not agreeing!

I'm hopeful that they won't have this perspective. Though obviously more complicated, being a black racist isn't so complicated. Racism is racism.

I don't know who is involved in this. But if the persons being accused of racism are in fact black, that will be interesting.
The public narrative has long been that the N-word is off limits for all...except some.
Taking the next step that the word is entirely off limits would be in line with Amherst's progressive agenda and have some interesting repercussions.

On a much different topic, in just a very short season it seems as though some teams are primed better than others considering who will be lost to graduation. Teams that seem most impacted:

-Middlebury: 4 of top 5 scorers, 7 of 8 players who started every game, all 3 starting Defenders and all 3 starting attack, top face off guy
-Amherst: 5 of top 7 scorers, face off guy, starting goalie, starting LSM and one starting pole
-Bates: 4 of top 5 scorers, 4 of 5 players who started every game, 2 of 3 who started 5 of their 6 games, starting goalie and obviously Chlastawa
-Wesleyan: Lose 3 defenseman who started every game and their starting goalie, top face off guy


I'm sure others will take a big hit but those 4 in particular seemed to take the hardest hits statistically. with the uncertainty at Amherst moving forward who knows what will happen there but the other 3 need to have guys grow up fast next year

LibertyL wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:31 pm There is a 10 year void to fill. Not an easy task for someone to just come in and have camps and NESCAC
prospect days and recruit at the JT level...The brand has been significantly damaged- not the school
per se but the men's lacrosse team and it's not a buying situation the shares haven't yet fallen enough.

The shares won't bottom out until the next head coach is named. I have no insight into this issue other than what I read and no connection to Amherst but my instinct is that the type of recruit and parent who are attracted to Amherst take into account the benefits of the entire experience not just the lax program. As a result, it will continue to attract interest from top players. Will Amherst sign all those who JT would've signed? No but that might not be a bad thing if one is looking to drive cultural change. Is this still a plum job? Yes, there are plenty of coaches who would love to have this opportunity despite seeing all the downsides very clearly. Will the program continue to enjoy the level of success it has known recently? One has to expect a near-term dip but that is highly dependent on the next HC.

Does the NESCAC have formal fall ball lead by the head coach?