Rob Enright and Wells Stanwick will play for Johns Hopkins in Friday night's rivalry game vs. Princeton at Homewood Field. Both did not play last weekend against Michigan because of a violation of team rules.
Their suspensions stemmed from a larger event involving the team, and Hopkins will rotate players sitting out games throughout the season, a team spokesman told Inside Lacrosse on Thursday. Any update to a player's status for a particular game will be released on gameday, the spokesman said.
Rob Guida also did not play because of an undisclosed injury. His availability for Friday's contest is unclear.
Junior Rex Sanders started in Guida's place on Saturday and scored two goals. He will start against Princeton, coach Dave Pietramala told the Baltimore Sun.
“You’d like to upset the apple cart as little as possible, and Rex has done that,” Pietramala said. “I think he’s fit in well. He gives you a guy that can get to the goal. He’s shown that he can score with both hands. So if you can put a guy in for another player and not feel like you’ve got to change things, then that’s a positive, and with Rex there, nothing is off the table. We’re able to continue to run the same things that we would have run if Rob was there.”
I was curious what others thought? My personal opinion is, when a player violates team rules there is a consequence. If multiple players do it, then multiple players are punished. If this puts your team in a lurch where perhaps your best players are sitting out, so be it. The reality is, we are not here for just winning and losing. We are here to teach young kids life lessons and sometimes, those lessons suck more for us than they do for the kids. However, it is our duty as coaches to not let them down, because the easy way out is not how to live your life.
I always though Petro was a guy who expected a lot from his players. This does not necessarily take away from that because I don't know all the circumstances, but this sure smells like a "win at all costs" type of mentality. Tufts set the bar. Suspended 27 players for 1st two games. Those of us should all strive to be such excellent mentors to young men, so they can learn these lessons when the impact on their life is minimal.
If it was my team, those kids sit. All of them. Their teammates step up and pick up the slack as best they can. There are no shortcuts and you aren't going to get one on my watch, but maybe I am too strict. My dog never talks back, so hard to tell
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