Lacrosse season of promise gone, Yale’s Shay waits
Yale was on spring break, so that meant the lacrosse team was practicing at 1 o’clock at Reese Stadium on the afternoon of March 11. The program’s sports administrator called the team’s trainer to let him know that he and athletic director Vicky Chun would arrive shortly.
“I knew right then and there,” coach Andy Shay said. “It wasn’t good.”
The Bulldogs were working on a drill. Half the team at one end, half on the other end when the two administrators walked across the field.
“The guys saw them,” Shay said. “They tried to stick with what they were doing, but they knew.”
Chun asked Shay if he had a second. They went into the team room off the field. The previous day the Ivy League had taken the lead in reacting to the coronavirus outbreak by canceling the winter tournaments. Now here was Chun telling Shay that the Ivy League had also canceled 2020 spring sports. The lacrosse season was over. There would be no run through the NCAA Tournament for Yale. There would be no run at another national championship.
“A few guys were looking in, looking at me,” Shay said. “I didn’t want them to twist in the wind any longer.”
So the coach went out, called his players together and told them. It was over.
“Instantly, a couple of guys threw their helmets,” Shay said. “A lot of guys burst into tears. Guys swearing. Anger and tears were the response.”
Yale beat Duke at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. for its first NCAA lacrosse title in 2018. The Bulldogs fell to Virginia in the national championship last spring at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The program is riding on a high plateau.
After beating top-ranked Penn State on Feb. 22, Yale moved into the No. 1 spot in the college polls before, in turn, being upset by UMass. A victory over Michigan left the Bulldogs at No. 5. Only four games had been played, it was early, yet this was another spring of considerable expectation.
Now gone.
Chun addressed the team and when she left Shay asked, “What do you guys want to do?”
They wanted to keep practicing.
“I was pretty proud at that moment,” Shay said, softly.
So they did the next drill on the practice plan and continued to go hard for another 40 minutes. Not much coaching was done.
“I wandered around the field, got choked up a number of times looking at the seniors,” he said. “It was a difficult moment.”
Shay stayed out there with his players for two hours. Who knows where a football came from, but they started throwing one around. They played minigames of lacrosse. They wrestled.
“We sat there on a relatively warm day and talked and laughed and cried,” Shay said.
And when the coach left, the players stayed out there well into the night. They didn’t want to leave each other.
Text messages flooded into Shay, expressing sympathy. Over the next day or two, the team went out on the field and fooled around. There was a team meal. And then the players left to go home. Within 48 hours, Shay saw the rest of the country canceling season after sports season. He stopped feeling all alone.
“With every passing day, you see how necessary it was,” Shay said. “But in the moment, it’s hard. You don’t want those kids to have to deal with it. Look, college lacrosse is not that important right now. Sports never will be relative to other things that are happening. Still, you have a Mama Bear instinct where you feel awful for your guys.”
Shay had 11 seniors. Two years ago, those seniors had the glorious opportunity to storm the field and celebrate a national championship. It raises interesting questions. Does it hurt less this spring knowing they had won it all? Or does it hurt more knowing exactly what they are missing?
“They absolutely wanted to do it again,” Shay said. “It’s hard to get that moment in 2018 out of your head. It’s hard to shake that. Having gone through it, I think you have perspective of what a void it leaves. If we never went through it maybe we’d never know.
“If those guys decide not to come back, they can wear their rings every day and hold their heads high. That’s a great thing.”
On Monday, the NCAA Division I Council gave all spring athletes an extra season of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the right decision and the NCAA is to be commended, especially since spring sports are not moneymakers. The NCAA is allowing the schools to determine how much scholarship aid they will give to those returning for a final season. Schools can exceed existing scholarship limits to take care of those athletes, but that doesn’t mean every school, especially ones without major football revenue, can afford it. With the pandemic, schools are going to be pinched financially and everything from playing time to locker room space to meals must be addressed. There obviously are incoming freshmen athletes to consider, too.
The Ivy League is a whole separate story. Athletes are not to play sports while attending graduate school. They are required to play in eight semesters while working on an undergraduate degree. That’s why you see Ivy League basketball players becoming graduate transfers. There is a way around this. Princeton’s Michael Sowers, one of the nation’s premier lacrosse players, withdrew from his spring semester in order to return to Princeton and play next season, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
There are no athletic scholarships in the Ivy League. So the financial burden for an extra season of springs sports eligibility can be heavy. Yet to not follow along with the NCAA’s decision for an extra year of eligibility — especially when you are an elite program like Yale — is wrong. Yes, academics are paramount. We’re also talking about elite student-athletes.
In a statement, the Ivy League said it supported the NCAA proposal and “is considering the implications of this decision in order to appropriately counsel student-athletes currently evaluating their options.”
“The administration is on top of it, they’re meeting and talking every day,” Shay said. “I’ve been told to hang in there and wait. I don’t know what the league will do.”
“My first instinct is for these guys to have the best experience possible in a Yale lacrosse jersey. I want them to get a year and have it with the least amount of heavylifting as possible. I don’t know what that would look like.”
Shay said he has some sense of who would want to return.
“When it was first recommended (by the NCAA on March 13) everyone was instantly, ‘I’m coming back, I’m coming back,’ ” Shay said. “You get a little distance and you realize there are other people to consult. Namely your parents. The guy who offered you a job.
“The further distance you get, your perspective might change a little bit. We want to support anyone who decides he still wants to be part of the program any way we can. I don’t know if it’s possible, roster size and everything else. We’re going to find out in the coming days.”
In the meantime, Shay has talked to his recruits about filling their time, preparing on-line workouts. Remember, those high school and prep school players aren’t playing, either. Roster size, who’s leaving, yes, that will affect decisions by incoming freshmen athletes all over the nation.
“I sent a letter to our alums saying it’s very difficult to take off the (game) jersey a last time,” Shay said. “I can’t imagine how painful it is to take the practice jersey off and that’s it. The last time. I keep thinking about that. I don’t want that to be the case for any of the spring athletes.”
Andy Shay also has a sense of priorities.
“I’m spending more time with my family, we’re all healthy,” Shay said. “Look, our grandparents were asked to go to war. We’re asked to sit on our couch. We can wait.”