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http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/apps/pbc...0/APN/701103439

Duke lacrosse players want more than just a return to the field

By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer

Forget all the talk about Duke's embattled lacrosse players being happy just to return to the field after their season was canceled amid rape allegations last spring.

With a goal that once seemed so distant now only weeks away, the Blue Devils are talking like any other team hungry to win a national championship. And the focus seems to be more on returning the program to its lofty perch than dwelling on the criminal case against three teammates.

"It's important to realize that we're not just out there sort of as a display of returning to the field," senior midfielder Ed Douglas said Wednesday, the first day of the spring semester at Duke. "We actually want to get out there and prove ourselves in terms of athletic competition as well.

"The fall was a great opportunity to sort of prepare ourselves, and our mentality was very much about rehabilitation. Now it's really about proving ourselves."

The team began fall workouts on Labor Day, its first practice since March 27, the day before the university suspended the team from play following the rape allegations. The Blue Devils begin spring practice Jan. 27, scrimmage a week later and open the season against Dartmouth here on Feb. 24.

And while some of his players sound eager to get going, coach John Danowski - who left Hofstra during the summer to take over here - is still watching closely to make sure the Blue Devils don't put too much pressure on themselves.

"You can't make somebody want to be great," he said. "You can't make somebody want to win. That's something that's got to come from them.

"I just want to take it one day at a time. I want to do the things that will help them and put them in position to be successful, but I don't want to make this an all-or-nothing, a 'Gee, we didn't win so we weren't successful.'"

Before last season, the Blue Devils were coming off an NCAA-record 17-win season and an appearance in the NCAA championship game in 2005. They were a favorite to return to the finals on the way to becoming one of the sport's perennially elite programs.

That ascension, however, ended abruptly. A woman told police she was raped at a March team party where she had been hired to perform as a stripper and within weeks a grand jury indicted lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong eventually cleared the rest of the players of wrongdoing. But by then, the school had canceled the rest of the season and coach Mike Pressler resigned. In addition, the university faced widespread criticism of the program and the players' behavior, which included alcohol-related criminal charges.

But in the months since, defense attorneys, bloggers and legal experts have criticized Nifong's handling of the case, which has numerous problems including a lack of DNA evidence, an apparent alibi for Seligmann and the accuser's shaky credibility. That intensified after she wavered in her story last month, prompting Nifong to drop the rape charges.

Nifong has also been charged with ethics violations from the North Carolina State Bar, which said his numerous early comments - including referring to the players as "hooligans" - were misleading and inflammatory.

Still, senior defenseman Tony McDevitt said the team doesn't feel vindicated since the remaining charges could carry more than 30 years in prison for his teammates.

"In the beginning, everybody just kind of wanted to find out anything possible that we do wrong and why we are like this terrible bunch of 'hooligans,'" McDevitt said. "We just sat back and we knew what we were about and we weren't talking at the time. Now you get back, you're playing lacrosse and the case is kind of moving along as we thought it would."

That's why Douglas, McDevitt and senior attacker Matt Danowski - the coach's son - sound so determined to get back on the field and win right away.

"I think (the spotlight is) completely on us," Danowski said. "I think it's going to intensify because the season's starting now and everybody wants to follow the story and 'How are the Duke guys going to do?' We know that and we're prepared for it. We're not worried about it. If we play like we can play, it will be a good thing for us."

Danowski, Douglas and McDevitt said they would follow the case as much as possible, but they also want to focus only on what they can control: the sport they were recruited here to play.

Regardless, they know the scrutiny will be inescapable.

"It would be lying not to say I pay attention," McDevitt said. "You open up our school newspaper and it's - boom - right across the front cover: 'Tide turns in lacrosse case.' And you see it on the news and on 'Saturday Night Live.' You see it everywhere."