Stick-to-itiveness

Duke perseveres after hideous scandal

Two springs ago, the program that had taken Mike Pressler 15 years to build was on the verge of collapse.

Pressler had been the coach of the Duke lacrosse team, forced to resign in April 2006 in the wake of a rape scandal that divided a region and brought national headlines. After eight games, the season had been canceled. Indictments were looming. Players were given their releases while recruits were free to sign elsewhere. The existence of the program was in doubt.

Only two years later, Duke lacrosse has risen from the rubble, stronger than ever. Tomorrow, the top-ranked Blue Devils (18-1), long absolved of rape and kidnapping charges, play No. 5 Johns Hopkins at Gillette Stadium in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, poised to capture their first championship.

The valley-to-mountaintop turnaround was aided by a 2007 NCAA ruling that restored a year of eligibility for each player whose 2006 season was cut short. Because of the ruling, delivered two days after Duke lost to Johns Hopkins in the final last season, five players who would have graduated returned for a fifth year, including standout attacker Matt Danowski and goalie Dan Loftus.

But perhaps the more critical reason for the team's revival stems from a team meeting called that fateful April by members of the junior class.

"I'll never forget it," said Loftus. "We sat there and said to each other, 'Let's finish this out. Even if we don't play lacrosse, we're going to finish our degrees and stay.' It said a lot about the guys and their character. It would have been very easy to pick up and leave; other places would have taken us. Any of us would have been taken somewhere else with open arms."

In 2005, the program was peaking. Duke won 17 games, an NCAA-record 13 more than it had the previous season. Pressler, on the job since 1991, took Duke to the title match against Johns Hopkins and was named the National Coach of the Year.

Then crisis struck. Suddenly, all the Blue Devils' accomplishments became an afterthought. Faculty members called for expulsions. Students held campus demonstrations holding "Castrate Them" signs. When the outlook was at its darkest (David Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty would be indicted on rape and kidnapping charges), the meeting took place.

"There were all kinds of points in the spring of 2006 where we didn't even know there'd be a program," said interim athletic director Chris Kennedy. "A lot of kids came in to talk to me. 'Should I get a release? Who should I talk to?' Other institutions were very leery of talking to them while that cloud was still hanging over their heads. There could have been an exodus. But the one thing was that junior class - the current fifth-year guys - who got together as a group early on and said, 'No matter what, we're going to stay. We're going to graduate from Duke even if there isn't a lacrosse program.' That had an impact on the younger guys. Nobody left. But yes, at one point, things could have fallen apart."

Said Pressler, now the coach at Bryant University, "Forget about lacrosse for a second. We're in the business of raising young men. They play lacrosse, become young men, then become men down the road. For me, the proudest moment was that in the worst of it, when every talking head was trying to take them down, they never lowered themselves to their level; they took the high road. They stayed the course. They knew the truth. And they did that without me."

Around the same time, Max Quinzani was in his senior season at Duxbury High School. Quinzani, perhaps the most accomplished high school lacrosse player in Massachusetts history, was one of seven recruits who had committed to Duke. Quinzani, a three-time All-American and three-time state champion, considered Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania once he was released from his national letter of intent.

But Quinzani, along with two other recruits, kept his promise to Duke.

"The reason I decided to come originally was that great things were going to happen," said Quinzani, now a sophomore. "We were going to compete for national championships."

A voice with perspective

For 21 years, John Danowski led the Hofstra lacrosse program.

But since 2003, when son Matt arrived in Durham, N.C., the old man was just that at Duke - one of the fathers.

"The first time I came down here was for orientation when Matt was a freshman," said Danowski. "I came once in the fall to see him. I caught four or five games that spring on campus. Every time I came, it was for fun as a tourist. 'Where are the hot restaurants? Where should I go? Should I go see a basketball game this weekend?' You were an outsider, one who appreciated everything about the place."

When Pressler resigned, Danowski was coming off a 2006 season that was his best - a 17-win year, a Colonial Athletic Association championship, and a march to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. But in another way, 2006 was one of his worst years, as he waited out whether Matt would be indicted.

"We went through a fairly long period of time where it was clear that [Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong] was going to indict somebody, and that it was going to be a random act," Kennedy said. "We had 46 families waiting to see if their kid was going to be indicted. Imagine the strain that puts on parents who sent their kids off to this school. They're proud of them. They're great kids. They've been achievers all their lives. All of a sudden, your kid is going to be indicted for this horrible crime that can send you to jail for decades."

Danowski was one of four finalists to replace Pressler, but the only one who was a parent of a team member. He was hired July 21, 2006.

"He brought a breadth of experience, but he also had an understanding of what this place is about," Kennedy said. "There was that extra layer of having been a parent during the whole fiasco. He had an understanding of what happened here and the impact it had on the kids that the other candidates couldn't possibly have had. That's not a negative on the other guys. If you weren't here, you don't get it. You can't understand what it was like."

During his time on Long Island, Danowski never sent his résumé anywhere, figuring he'd retire at Hofstra. But when he was contacted by Duke, Danowski considered it an opportunity to accomplish something more than implementing X's and O's.

"It was a chance to help my son and his friends," Danowski said. "A lot of parents struggled at that time. They still struggle. I had a chance to do something about it, be part of some healing, and do something I felt was right."

Return of a powerhouse

On Dec. 22, 2006, Nifong dropped the rape charges. Later that month, the North Carolina Bar Association filed ethics charges against Nifong, accusing him of making misleading statements about the defendants. On April 21, 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the three players innocent of all charges.

While the legal process unfolded, the Blue Devils rolled to a 17-3 record last season, dropping a 12-11 decision to Johns Hopkins in the final May 28.

"That game was very emotional for tons of reasons," Loftus said. "The whole season was pretty emotional. We were strung out on an emotional roller coaster because of our situation. I think that's the difference this year from last year. There was a little revenge factor last year. We wanted to show the world something. This year, it's not even mentioned in our locker room."

Two days later, Loftus and the rest of the seniors learned that the NCAA had granted Duke's appeal. Earlier that spring, Duke had gained approval from the presidents of every Atlantic Coast Conference school to file the motion.

"There were a bunch of kids in a really difficult situation who were suffering," said Kennedy. "I couldn't do anything for them. It was very frustrating. We had to wait for the truth to come out. This was something concrete I could do about that season, even though I didn't believe it would happen. It was a way for the university to do something for the kids - to make a gesture."

Loftus, who was considering Wall Street job opportunities, decided to return for a fifth year, and is currently pursuing a master's in arts and liberal studies. The current seniors and juniors, who also lost the 2006 season, are eligible to return for fifth years in 2009 and 2010.

"One team has five classes and the rest of us have four," said Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan. "They're the team to beat. Their fifth class includes some of the absolute best players in the game. Maybe in the history of the game."

Model behavior

Off the field, the scandal continues to resonate. On Feb. 21, 38 players (including Loftus and senior Zach Greer, the NCAA's all-time leading goal scorer) and family members filed a lawsuit against the university and the city of Durham for emotional distress. The lawsuit is pending.

On campus, the players have performed community service the last two years, centering their efforts at the Ronald McDonald House in Durham. They have honored the code of conduct they wrote two years ago following the incident. Kennedy said there have been no behavioral issues outside of the ordinary for college students, although he noted a recent complaint about players throwing flour-covered water balloons at each other.

"Did they have a party? Yes, they did," said Danowski. "Did they accept responsibility? Yes, they did. Did they apologize? Yes. They did everything asked of them. They were run out of town but chose to stay. It took unbelievable courage for them to stand up to the world, to the people on campus, and to the DA and say, 'You can think whatever you want and say whatever you want. We're not hiding and running from everybody.' That was really powerful. It became more important than lacrosse. I think that typifies the character of this group."

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com.