Davenport Has Left the Team

[Jacob 03]

Silly Greg!  Don't you know it's "the fan" that matters?  Why let relationships between players and coaches be dictated by...the players and coaches?  We can't have that, not when there are the rumormongering masses and overeditorializing sportswriters to think about!

[ugarte]

Let me be the first to just stand up for the poor kid.

Davenport's decision was not inappropriately selfish. He found himself on the bench behind a sophomore goalie who proved himself worthy of playing every minute of every game. It is actually more selfish of the team and its fans to expect that Davenport would sacrifice anywhere from one to three years of development at a crucial stage of his career in order to serve as an insurance policy. That isn't loyalty; it is suicide. He doesn't owe the team his continued services any more than the team owes him guaranteed playing time.

[billhoward]

Can't believe we're several screens deep in this discussion before you pointed out an obvious other possibility: the parents from hell.

We don't know if Davenport's parents are loving, caring, nurturing, and decent. Or not. But a statistically disproportionate number of sports parents believe their baby is the best catcher, quarterback, goalie, or pole vaulter to come out of Long Island or the Iron Mountain Range, and if he isn't starting in college, it's because the coach isn't coaching right, the refs are biased, the coach can't tell who has the obvioiusly superior skills set, the defense is buddies with the other goalie and conspires to make their goalie / wonder-son look bad, yada yada.

You've seen the PSA commercial during the college hockey games about the mother who stalks away when her little girl misses up on pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey at the birthday party -- "You get your own ride home now, Missy. I can't believe I missed Pilates for this" - and then you get the tagline, ~ "If it isn't right there, why is it right here [at the rink]?" There's a reason those commercials run, and should be running.

Again, this may not be the case at all with the Davenport family.

Girlfriends can be equally protective since a lot of them (okay, some of them) have their status wrapped up in whether he's a star, starter, or reserve.

Same thing with little ballerinas and teen actresses. There was an article a year ago with a very funny line, that Hilary Duff's mom sets the gold standard for stage mothers. It probably affects her ability to land some of the roles she wants.

One last time: We don't know Davenport's parents, we don't know the above describes them. But it's like with a homicide: Make sure you question the family.

[KenP]

So Bill, you agree then that his actions were inappropriately selfish, you just choose to not assign blame?  That sounds reasonable to me.  My main issue is with the people who feel his actions were appropriate.

[CowbellGuy]

Umm, didn't Davenport see McKee standing there when he decided to come to Cornell? This wasn't a surprise to him. If he wanted to leave early, the proper thing to do would have been to let the coaching staff know so they could find a replacement and at least finish out this season. Furthermore, I'm sure he was getting some nice grants and very favorable conditions to earn an Ivy League degree. It's not like he wasn't getting anything out of it.

[ben03]

By leaving his team mid-season monsieur davenport (a) serves only his interests (b) leaves his team(mates) in a percarious position (c) looks v. bad to future coaches (d) shows his true character. Like it or not, he's a freshman in a major college athletic environment who has a big head/ego (no matter what the coach may or may not have told him). It's public knowledge the best player plays, he had to have known that coming in. Troy wasn't #1 so instead of being a man about it and playing out the rest of this season, he upped and left his team.

[billhoward]

[Q]KenP Wrote: So Bill, you agree then that his actions were inappropriately selfish, you just choose to not assign blame?  That sounds reasonable to me.  My main issue is with the people who feel his actions were appropriate.[/q]

It's difficult to respond to a question where someone has reshaped the first person's comments and then asked for agreement or not.

It's too bad Davenport left the team. We don't know what's happened; there's only so much light that can be shed by Mike Schafer's two paragraphs worth of comments as quoted by the Ithaca Journal. (Somebody should call Davenport and talk to him. Ari?) Yes, Davenport let the team down because the team was counting on him to, ah, ride the bench. But no, I guess I don't feel he screwed over Cornell royally by departing. I think I and others might have felt that way a generation ago. A generation and a half ago, lots of people felt athletes let their team down by seeking free agency, or holding out for better pay. (Maybe they might have pointed to a real team player like Pete Rose. (Insert wry comment here.)) Not as many people feel that way now. As a practical matter, this reduces Cornell from three to two healthy goalies. We don't know if that entered into Davenport's thinking.

A better solution? If Davenport had told Schafer, "Look, coach, this isn't working out. Either McKee is better than you and I thought, or I'm as good in my mind and I don't have your confidence, but I need to move on from this place ... after the season ends ... which gives you time to find a different backup for the fall who doesn't mind being No. 2 or who's so good in your mind he'll make McKee be No. 2." That magnamonious gesture of course would have guaranteed any mop-up duties would go to Chabot unless McKee got hurt bad. Goalie is an odd position, maybe like quarterback in football, where if you're not No. 1, you're not going to play. If he was the No. 2 defenseman (even No. 6), he'd see playing time. Even at No. 7, he'd have the ability to play by working hard and by improving (and waiting for No 1-6 to go down or get another game DQ).

The guys who've let their teams down? The drunken (apparently) team captain at North Dakota who may be lost for the season if ND has any spine and says, "Sorry, Matt [Greene], we don't want you representing the university if you put people's lives at risk with your actions." Or the guys at Clarkson who broke rules and got tossed / suspended. Or the ones who didn't hit the books hard and are ineligible for spring semester. That's selfish, inappropriate, and inexcusable.

[KenP]

Maybe I'm just getting caught up in the shades of grey.  There's different levels of letting the team down.  Making a mental mistake that leads to a goal is a "minor" offense.  Quitting halfway through the season, regardless of your role is a more serious letting down.  Ditto for not making grades, breaking team rules, and so forth.

Maybe Davenport's family can't afford his tuition and needs him to work to support the family.  Maybe the guy who went drinking was consoling a friend who just learned they had 2 weeks to live.  Maybe Brendan Fraser didn't hand in his thesis on time because he had to bury Joe Pesci (With Honors,1994).  Desparate times call for desparate measures.  The law don't consider someone a murderer if they kill in self defense.

My point?  A more serious offense better have a damn good reason or it reflects poorly on the individual.  IF Troy's logic was that it's okay to look out for his best career interests and leave because he wanted play time now now now, then I take exception.

[q]The guys who've let their teams down? The drunken (apparently) team captain at North Dakota who may be lost for the season if ND has any spine and says, "Sorry, Matt , we don't want you representing the university if you put people's lives at risk with your actions."[/q]Just read on USCHO that he's been suspended for the next two games...against Bemidji.  That'll teach him!  ::nut::  ::nut::   http://www.uscho.com/news/2005/01/26_009727.php

[JohnnieAg\'99]

[Q]KenP Wrote:
Quitting halfway through the season, regardless of your role is a more serious letting down.  [/q]
We've blamed him, him, him, his parents, his girlfriend, etc.  Back to Coach for a minute -

Coach's win-at-all costs mentality has obviously paid huge dividends.  But it's hypocritical to get all sanctimonious when those costs occasionally have to be paid.  

I've always been troubled by the fact that he (usually) plays his back-up very little (Lenny as a frosh was obviously different).  Unlike SLUt, Sucks, & others, we've had a cupcake schedule this season (Sacred Heart & Canisius??).  To pretend that Davenport was only good enough to get in for half a period against Army is ridiculous.  Any goalie who is good enough for us to want at Goaltender U is going to have to have an ego.  Coach needs to do a better job of developing his #2, for the good of the TEAM.  Does anyone here want to go to Albany if McKee has the flu?  

[KeithK]

Well, it could have been worse.  He could've stayed the season and then decided to jump ship next August.  

[ugarte]

IIRC, NCAA transfer rules exact a semester's worth of delay in going somewhere else if he sticks it out and spends this semester on the Cornell bench. Leaving early doesn't just get him out of an uncomfortable situation, it allows him to move on with his career and makes him more attractive to any other teams interested in him.

Schafer is entitled to think that he isn't good enough to play and Davenport is entitled to find a place where they think he is. Davenport just doesn't owe the team that much.