The Perfect Storm

Eyes widen, mouths drop and the buzzer sounds. St. Mary’s University students mourn the loss of the last Heartland conference game of the season.

Just moments after The University of Incarnate Word (UIW)  won the game in the final seconds of the game, the player that had made winning shot named Kelcey Solomon, jumped up on to the stats table and then proceeded to cuss out the students of St. Mary’s University (STMU).

For years there has been a rivalry between these two local colleges which students have been thriving on. For St. Mary’s University students nothing is bigger than a game against The University of Incarnate Word. From baseball to basketball and everything in between the must see games are the one where STMU plays UIW.

Although there has been a lot of losses, none will be as memorable as the loss again UIW on Saturday March 6, 2010.

Chief of Police, Paul F. Glowacki has been working for St.Mary’s University Police Department (UPD) since 2001, and he has reported that this is the first incident in his nine years of working at STMU where he has ever seen that level of aggression from The University of Incarnate Word.

Officer Glowacki states that “normally we never see a problem with UIW, do we staff for those games? Yes we do. Did we bring in extra? Yes we did, but in all honesty it’s just two cross town rival teams that play each other and the emotion is high.” 

According to NCAA regulations the “competition is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner that engourages enthusiastic support within the confines of good sportsmanship and fosters a positive attitude among spectators and participants in support of their teams.” This means that NCAA games have regulations on conduct that are deemed appropriate.

Although there are conduct rules in any and all NCAA games there are only penalties for players who are ejected out of the NCAA game.  Therefore it is up to the coaches to discipline the players after the buzzer has sounded.  

The Minnesota State University-Mankato has developed a slogan to help their fans remember the importance of respect, which they believe will help reduce the level of aggression that is found at the home games, and they  hopes that by taking these actions everyone will be in a safe environment.

The universities slogan is “Help us Promote a Positive Game Environment and Don’t Cross the Line” not only is this a slogan, but the university also has painted a yellow line next to the side lines of theirs courts that read the exact same thing.

Former student and now admissions councilor Christopher Cantu says that back in undergrad he has never experienced extreme levels of aggression from the University of Incarnate Word. Cantu had worked for the basketball team as the team manager/trainer and says that the coaches at St. Mary’s University never tolerate un-sportsmen like conduct from their players.

Cantu also says that “UPD did a great job at keeping the crowds under control at each game we played UIW, and especially at basketball games where they would escort them in and out of the basketball games to prevent incident from happing.”

This unexpected event left an unfriendly taste in the mouths of STMU students, not only because it was a loss to UIW, but also because it was the worst way for UIW players to show sportsmen like conduct in the last game that they will ever play STMU in.

“Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you can’t tell whether he has won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way” – Jim Courier

 

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