Whenever a team wins a sporting event these days, there always seems to be a trip straight to Disney World to celebrate.
But what happens to the team that loses that championship game?
Or for that matter, what happens to the team that is upset in the first round of the tournament it had expected to do well in?
The answer for the Duke men's lacrosse team is simple--forget about the past and look to the future.
"We're finally over it," head coach Mike Pressler said. "Time is a great healer. We had a great season and you don't want to judge it on just one game."
The game in question occurred on graduation weekend as the fifth-seeded Blue Devils were downed by 12th-seeded Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The loss put a sour note on what should otherwise be considered the team's best season to date. The Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, went to the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years, had five players named All-American and at one point were No. 4 in the nation.
Now that the bad memories have finally subsided, the Blue Devils are faced with enduring the hazy months of summer before they can seek revenge for the loss. Off-season training is different for everyone, so Pressler has taken a hands-off approach and has simply told his players to stay in good conditioning.
"I want them to take some time away from the game," Pressler said. "But what they are all doing is living in the weight room. We want them to be in great shape when they get back."
Players have a wide range of beliefs when it comes to off-season training. Returning goalkeeper, senior Joe Kirmser, knows some players who play in as many as four summer leagues to maintain their skills, but he agrees with his coach on the need for rest and relaxation.
"I'm a big believer in getting a break, at least mentally," Kirmser said. "As a goalie my job is so much mental work that I need to get a rest from it."
Having Kirmser in peak mental and physical conditioning will be a top priority for the Blue Devils. Duke has always played a defensively-structured game and with the graduation of first-team All-American Matt Ogelsby and third-team All-Americans Scott Harrison and Ross Moscatelli from the attack and midfield, the Duke defense will have to lead the team, especially in the first part of the season.
"We will be a very new team offensively," Pressler said. "We lost a lot of players so there will be a new face to it. Defensively, we will be terrific. We have some great chemistry with these guys. On paper this is the best team we've had defensively and it all centers around Joe Kirmser."
Kirmser says that he likes Duke's defensive style of play and is looking forward to having the defense be the focal point. The memories of the loss to Notre Dame hang a little heavier over the head of Kirmser since he missed the game with a case of mononucleosis and was forced to watch from the sideline.
"I don't think goalkeeping was why we lost the game," Kirmser said. "But as a competitor you have to think that the team would have won with you in there."
As Pressler and his players begin to think less and less of the past and more about the future, they have quickly realized the potential that this team has. Besides returning a team with a strong defense and many younger players ready to take over on offense, the Blue Devils have used their recent success to bring in more great players. Of the 12 incoming freshmen, 10 were named high school All-Americans and two were part of the Under-19 National Team.
Duke will need all of this talent going into its 1996 schedule. Besides playing in what is regarded as the nation's top conference, Duke will also face ranked teams like Brown, Georgetown, Harvard and Hobart. Duke has also added a scrimmage against perennial contender Johns Hopkins.
As the Blue Devils glance over the schedule, they must also begin to set their goals for the upcoming season. Last year Duke achieved two of its three goals when it won the ACC championship and beat UNC for the first time since 1987. But the team fell short of its third goal of earning a berth to the Final Four. Pressler has said he has an idea of how good this team is, and what he thinks it can achieve, but he has deferred the decision of setting the goals to the players.
"[The coaches] never set the goals for the season," Pressler said. "We ask the players the type of things they want to achieve and then we outline what they tell us. We add up the things that the players are saying and from there we let the players set the goals."
With wins over Virginia and North Carolina in the ACC tournament and a win against Maryland in the NCAA tournament two years ago, Duke has proven it can play with all of the ACC teams. It appears now that one of its main goals will be to prove it can be one of the best in the nation.
"Every time you start a season, one of your goals has to be to win the national championship," Kirmser said. "But underlying all that is just winning games. The season is so long and lacrosse today is so competitive that you have to take things one at a time. I don't think we were overconfident last year, but as a senior my advice will be--let's just win the game."
Rarely would a team look back at a loss as the start of something good, but months from now the Blue Devils may be doing just that. With nearly a full year to think about the upset in the NCAAs, Duke will get a chance to take the next step.
"Every year has been a building block where we did something we didn't do the year before," Pressler said. "On the whole, with all of the accomplishments, this was our best year of the five, but it's still not good enough. We're looking forward to coming back in September and doing better than ever. We're going to come into this season fresh and hungry."
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