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Duke lacrosse team writing another chapter

By Patrick Stevens
May 8, 2008

Fifth-year senior Matt Danowski on the Duke men's lacrosse team: "This program won't be normal for a couple years."

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DURHAM, N.C.

The signs were impossible to miss while driving onto Duke's campus late last month, reminders driven into the sod in front yards and at street corners of looming change.

"I was pulling up to a light, and I saw the same thing — 'Freda Black for district attorney,' " midfielder Michael Ward said. "I'm thinking, 'Why couldn't we get this lady in back then?' "

Then was two years ago, when three of Ward's Duke lacrosse teammates faced rape accusations and the Blue Devils' season was canceled after only eight games.

So many of the major names from that spring either have left their jobs — district attorney Mike Nifong, police investigators Mark Gottlieb and Benjamin Himan, Duke athletic director Joe Alleva — or will retire by the end of June (John Burness, Duke's senior vice president for public affairs).

The three players wrongfully charged with rape are gone, too: David Evans graduated. Reade Seligmann transferred to Brown and Collin Finnerty to Loyola.

But many players remain, some longer than anyone would expect. The NCAA granted the remaining players from the 2006 team an extra year of eligibility last spring.

Ward is one of five fifth-year seniors on Duke's roster this year, a group writing another chapter to their careers while irritating many in the lacrosse world who view the Blue Devils as an all-star team.

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