<p>As the mother of a BU student, I am very impressed by the swift and decisive action taken by Boston University Head Coach Jack Parker and the Boston University Police Department. In this day and age, when sports stars are often put on a pedestal and feel they are above the law, Coach Parker has sent an important message load and clear, not only to Boston University athletes and students, but to all of college athletics.</p>
<p>I am glad to see this action. Last weekend just before the end of the Xavier-Cincy basketball game, punches were thrown by a Cincy player and a huge brawl errupted between the two teams. It was all probably initiated by Xavier’s trash talking- including to coaches by a Xavier player- but the first punches were thrown by a Cincy player.</p>
<p>The Cincy coach said all the right things at the immediate post-game (game was called due to the fight with 9 seconds remaining) press conference. The Xavier players did a press conference out of the presence of the Xavier coach, and were a giant embarrassment. They sounded like thugs and referred to their team as “gangstas”. It was truly awful. </p>
<p>Anyway, despite the remorse of the coaches and the big talk, the suspensions handed down were VERY minor- 1 to 6 games, none of which are very important games. </p>
<p>Not to downplay what happened between Cincy and XU, those are two entirely different situations - facing a crosstown rival, battling throughout the game and finally blowing up vs. sexual assault.</p>
<p>That’s a five-time national championship team at BU and a top Olympic and pro feeder program. Gotta give props to the coach for giving his top player the boot. If more coaches (and college administrators) would do that, you’d see a lot fewer problems.</p>
<p>PS for MOWC: Mike Boyle is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for that team. I’m guessing that the entire coaching staff has little tolerance for nonsense.</p>
<p>Trivino was a second round NHL draft pick, which means he was thought to be likely to become a player in the NHL. All too often these highly talented athletes are coddled. Glad to see that this kid was jailed when he (allegedly) got drunk and assaulted a woman.</p>
<p>MOWC, re the basketball game: where were the refs? Shouldn’t it be in their power to warn/eject players who verbally assault opposing players and coaches? Is this against the prevailing custom in basketball? I assume so, since one often hears of trash-talking in bball.</p>
<p>As a veteran of many youth soccer games, I’ve observed that a good ref who keeps tight control of aggressive behavior makes a big difference in how a game is played…and in what players and coaches think they can get away with. On the other hand, I’ve seen bad refs allow coaches to berate them from the sidelines for 10 minutes at a time, sending the wrong message to all concerned. Invariably, the out of control coach has a team that has obviously been coached to push the envelope of inappropriate physical aggression on field.</p>
<p>I think this whole thing starts young.</p>
<p>BTW, it seems clear from the article that the coach already had Trevino on warning for alcohol-related offenses, and it was that that caused him to take immediate action. Good for him, in any case. I am also impressed that the remarks of all concerned focused on the young woman, instead of how bad this was for the hockey team.</p>
<p>The refs did not do a very good job in the Cincy-Xavier game, but the players and the rivalry were out of control. I’m pretty obsessed with college basketball, and I followed this all week on Twitter and in the blogs. The Xavier players (espec pro-prospect Tu Holloway) really embarrassed themselves and their team in the post-game press conference. They tried some stuff when they came to Vanderbilt the week before, but their big guy (the one who got bloodied by the Cincy player, but not the one who was doing the worst trash talking) got hit with a technical and then had the crowd on his back the rest of the game for saying “F You” to the fans seated nearby. Lovely.</p>
<p>He’s been given a lot of chances, probably more than he should have (that’s my impression from an alumnus who follows the hockey team). I wouldn’t exactly consider this the shining example of accountability that some people think it is (although it looks great in comparison to what we’ve seen recently). It’s the final straw for some one who has received a lot of breaks.</p>
<p>Yes, but at least BU did something. I, too, feel that it probably did in part because the attitude towards sweeping this sort of thing under the rug has changed recently. </p>
<p>One of the BU stars in the 1980 Olympic hockey game in which the US team won the gold killed a young woman I knew.</p>
<p>Three young women had gone to Boston for a night out and were driving home, shortly before midnight. His car was going the opposite way and hit theirs. He killed her and critically injured the other passenger. The police said there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol, but local talk at the time was that there was. The cops decided not to give him a sobriety test or breathalyzer. He refused to go to the hospital. </p>
<p>Initially, he was only charged with driving to endanger. After a ton of adverse reaction,he was also charged with vehicular homicide, but was acquitted in a bench trial. He testified that the other car cut in front to them. The two survivors testified he came straight at them . Despite the fact the evidence clearly showed he crossed the median, the judge apparently chose to believe the hockey star. </p>
<p>She had been living a pretty awful life caring for her parents–one was senile and the other was dying. The night out was rare for her. As the youngest, unmarried daughter she got “stuck” caring for her parents. </p>
<p>Anyway, talk at the time was pretty bitter. I don’t know what the truth was, but certainly failing to give a sobriety test or breathalyzer to someone who is seen as responsible for a death in a car crash was an unusual decision and many locals thought the fact he had helped win an Olympic gold medal a couple of years earlier had something to do with it.</p>
<p>Anyway, this incident reminded me of her death. I hadn’t thought of her in a long time.</p>
<p>jonri- What a tragic story! I agree that there are many, many instances where prominent people, whether they are athletes or other people of “fame” are not treated the same as John Smith.</p>
<p>When was the last time that John Smith helped deliver a crucial victory over Communism? I’m fine with an olympic gold-medal winning hockey star being treated differently. Because he is different.</p>