2023 NCAA Tournament

[soccerpapa]

We can't keep placing blame on Amherst/coaching and their culture without also placing some blame/responsibility on the parents of these kids.

[PaulNewman]

Fwiw, I didn't have a big problem with the mock clapping.  I saw Conn at F&M and I didn't like that but I also didn't have a huge problem with it either.  I get that some fans and young alums can get brutal from the sidelines/crowd, so some reaction might be understandable.

What I think disappoints me the most is that after a game like that....and most of the games which were so good with so many going to OTs and PKs....is that the players first instinct after an initial celebration isn't automatically to go find the players on the other team and greet them, especially the ones you've played against for several years and perhaps have played against for the last time.  One would think there would be a modicum of respect for the high level of competition that you just participated in.

[SierraFD3soccer]

+k....Imo very well said.

What really hit home was your March Madness example.  Imagine the winner (or loser) of UK-Duke in the Elite 8...and several players do what happened today.  You're right.  Would be first headline story on ESPN and other places and dominate the news cycle for at least 2-3 days...and major repercussions would be felt for quite a long time.  In the NBA that would be a 10 game suspension and huge fine.

If there is any fallout I wouldn't be surprised if Amherst hangs out to dry the one kid who on the video appears to be the most egregious and offensive.  Has he played in the past six weeks?  Pretty confident for a kid that didn't play to get that aggressive as a cheerleader.  In any case, his actions were consistent with and a function of the culture.  He's accountable of course, but he's by no means the root or source of the problem.

Will be interesting to see how an institution as prestigious and elite as Amherst handles this.

Just reminded me of the Iowa-LSU bball game last year and Angel Reese's (Maryland transfer and from Bmore).  LSU played a great, great, great game to neutralize a very good Iowa team (who beat the odds on favor Univ of South Carolina). So what was talked about for weeks?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNExncGnc4 Forever, we'll think of what she did and not what great teams LSU and Iowa were.

What are we talking about now??  Amherst could have just waved goodbye and go shake hands. Also reminds me of the NCAA statement read by the announcer before each NCAA game.  From NESCAC site and most likely read out by the PA announcer -
https://nescac.com/sports/2020/7/14/about-Sportsmanship-Letter-091611.aspx?path=aboutnescac

Sportsmanship Statements

NESCAC SPORTSMANSHIP STATEMENT

The NESCAC and the NCAA promote good sportsmanship by student-athletes, coaches, and spectators. We request your cooperation by supporting the participants and officials in a positive manner. Profanity, racial, sexist, homophobic, or other derogatory comments, or other intimidating actions directed at officials, spectators, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the site of competition. Also, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited at the site of competition.

(Emphasis added)

[PaulNewman]

Sierra, I literally was going to post about Angel Reese.  Great example.  And I wouldn't go crazy if the players did that once or twice or did the "shush...quiet down" gesture.  But the genital gestures and aggressive moves like you're going over to physically engage and have to be held back are not OK imo.

[Rcjh2245]

Well, then I am glad no W&L players taunted anyone after oir PKs.

The postgame interview with Coach Singleton, Will Joseph the W&L GK, and PJ Ryan one of the CBs and a captain.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9UhAurUy8&embeds_widget_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fgeneralssports.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F11%2F19%2Fmens-soccer-joseph-stops-two-in-shootout-to-send-w-l-to-second-final-four-in-three-seasons.aspx%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2D3G1xz5RZ-Njh9-kyC30zupD6IwJ_mVIfYjOl48-s9bQj3OrUW0ZkHTE&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fgeneralssports.com%2Fshowcase%2Fembed.aspx%3Ftitle%3DJoseph%2520stops%2520two%2520in%2520shootout%2520to%2520send%2520W%2526L%2520to%2520second%2520Fi&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fgeneralssports.com&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Love this! Congrats to W&L - looking forward to match-up with Amherst. And also great interview with CC Coach Palguta, and players Burr and Ramirez that rolls out after the W&L video. They just lost the game but they couldn't be more gracious, grateful, and appreciative of the moment.

[walzy31]

Former Amherst Soccer player weighing in here on my first ever D3 Soccer post (used to have a lot more to post about in the D3Hoops forums, but for obvious reasons, that flame has flickered out like the Encanto house and I am ready for the rebuild). Familiar with Bucket and a couple other names that are loyal to D3 athletics.

I have some answers to a few of the questions being tossed around on the boards:

Q: What happened in the 1H when Coach Serpone was upset with the officials and there was a prolonged stoppage?
A: One of Middlebury's players called Amherst's gay athlete the slur "fagg*t". As has been the case in the past, the most passionate version of Coach Serpone is when an opposing player uses hate speech directed towards one of his players. I don't remember what year or game, but ~5 years ago something similar happened in conference play with the n-word. The haters may say that this is a coaching tactic/antic to fire up his team... and they would be wrong. Coach Serpone has built an incredibly successful program that is built on love. The players love each other and the coach loves the players like his own children. Most of you are parents. If someone attacks your kid, you will probably be upset about it. Pretty sure the initiating slur also goes against that NESCAC sportsmanship statement.

Q: Why was the game chippy?
A: Because the NESCAC has become the overpowering force in D3 soccer for the past ~10 years after taking the torch from Messiah's epic run. Middlebury got one during Messiah's reign back in 2007 which started it, Amherst won one, Tufts was ridiculously good and impressive winning 4, and Conn took home a title. Williams and Bowdoin are perennially in the mix, and you can't sleep on Wesleyan or Trinity some years. 6 of the last 8 national champions are from the NESCAC and the last 3 runner-ups are also NESCAC. So when you get a NESCAC vs. NESCAC NCAA game, it may as well be the National Championship game, and all the players on both teams know this. Midd is always the most physical team in the league and it's not surprising their leaders committed hard fouls in the 1H. That works for them and I don't knock them for a second for their aggressive play. Let the referees handle the on-field action and hopefully no one gets hurt. But it is an absolute war for 90 minutes in an elimination game between conference opponents who both have what it takes to win it all. You go all out. The final whistle blows. You are happy to advance and send the other team home. I am sure all three of the remaining teams are amazing, but as a fan, I am relieved it is not a Midd->Tufts->Conn path. Had Midd won today, they would have to be favorites in Salem.

It sounds like Amherst was the better side today, stifling the Middlebury offense and winning 1-0 despite also not converting a PK. Soccer can be cruel, glad the better team won.

Post game activities
Appreciate the YouTube link! Three sections here:
1) In that video, you've got a handful of kids waving/clapping good bye to the Middlebury fan side of the field. This is trivial and takes place at every intense rivalry of every sport at every high level. Please watch this Saturday's Ohio St / Michigan game, which has similar stakes to today's soccer game. Whoever pulls away or wins it at the end will have 5 guys doing the exact same thing to the opposing fan section in the Big House. Watch Carolina/Duke in hoops and same thing. This is not a culture problem, parenting problem, or coaching problem. This is kids that work their butt off in a war for 90 mins and get to send their haters home. Good call on LSU/Iowa too (everyone loves Caitlin Clarke and no coaches were fired, players suspended, parents attacked, etc for the reciprocal clapping by the LSU squad). Good sports talk show and ESPN.com content. And apparently good message board content. This is sports.
2) Nuhu is heated. He is trying to cross the line and engage, potentially physically, with the Midd sideline, but is restrained. Glad he was restrained. Applause to the leadership and teammates that held back the first year from making a bad decision. Also, who knows what he endured throughout the game. I think it is fair to say from other testimonials on this message board that it was unusual behavior for him, so he's not a guy who psyches himself up by going crazy at opposing fans. Verbal on verbal back and forth that almost gets out of hand also happens sometimes across sports. At the professional level, it usually results in slap-on-the-wrist fines. At the D1 NCAA level, usually nothing. Players are subjected to all sorts of crazy hazing during games such as commentary about your sister/s, girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, mom, race, sexual orientation, and then the brute "you f-ing suck number twenty-one!" over and over again. This could have escalated, glad it didn't. I would be remiss not to remind folks that when Williams fell at the buzzer in the 2004 basketball National Championship game a year after winning it all in 2003, their senior 1st Team AA PG did not hug his brothers or shake opponents' hands, but rather Crotty ran to the Amherst cheering section and made gestures and started cussing back and forth with them. Amherst wasn't even in the title game that year. Still puts a smile on my face. Maybe today's Midd fans will smile knowing they got under the skin of Nuhu so much that they were priority #1 for him after the win rather than celebrating with his teammates. Moving on.
3) The air-jerk reserve for Amherst. Okay, yeah I am on the message boards side on this one...and apparently Amherst College is as well as he has already been suspended for the National Semi-Finals. That was dumb, classless, etc. Especially since he wasn't even marquee in the battle which means he wasn't getting it from the Midd students for 90 mins. Apologies to the Midd sideline (females especially) for that. College kids do stupid things sometimes.

The rest of the NESCAC hates Coach Serpone, as evidenced by his 1 COY award. If that's the cost for building a program that has won ~40% of league titles, made it to the Sweet 16 100% of his time coaching, and now 5 Final Fours in 16 years, I think he is good with that tradeoff. His players absolutely love him.

I was at the 2019 and 2021 National Championship games were we lost to Tufts 2-0 and Conn 1-1 in PKs. Two wars. Great sportsmanship by both teams. Tufts couldn't have been bothered less to win another natty, so that was just a flat ending to the game and they deserved the W. The Conn ending was the same as today's ending. 3-4 Conn kids waving home our sideline and alum section as they ran to celebrate the winning PK taker. No fans on on our side cared. They won. They celebrated. They shook our hands and we shook their hands and then we consoled our brothers. That match was cruel.

Amherst and Middlebury soccer do not like one another. It has been this way for 20+ years and will probably be this way for another 20+ years. Thus, the beauty of sports.

[EnmoreCat]

Probably time to bring this back:

The following is spectator colour and opinion, it is not substantive analysis and is based only on public information.  Amherst MSOC has not been involved in the preparation of this information and the contents may be contradictory to the official view of the programme.

Amherst 1 Middlebury 0

Firstly, Waltzy31, thanks for turning up.  I am confident that many here will not be satisfied by your response, but I think you have summarized things well. 

I have been fortunate to spend time with CSO and meet other Midd parents and enjoyed the discussion and perspective and am sure had I been at today's game, something similar would have taken place.  I am confident that I would have had much less engagement with what may have been Midd alumni in attendance.  My understanding is that these particular "fans" were to quote someone from earlier today, "giving the players the business".  One person's "banter" might be another's xenophobic commentary.  This line is a fine one and once crossed, is hard to come back from.  That doesn't justify a player over-reacting, but I think it verges on hysteria to attempt to sanction someone for waving.  Would there be any internal monitoring from this group if someone was maybe stepping over the line?  I can't imagine that happened and the fact that some players responded the way they did, whilst completely inappropriate, suggests it wasn't.  If I had been there and heard some of the stuff allegedly being said, I would have tried to maybe take some of the Amherst Ultras (only the more articulate ones – with a focus on  family values) and perhaps a few hockey players and go stand nearby.  I haven't heard any mention of the Occidental "fan" who blew a vuvuzela directly in the face of an Amherst player, but that doesn't fit with the narrative, so we can just move on instead.  I have been to enough games at Amherst and away and not witnessed anything like today's events at game's end, and observed the warm post-game reception from Stevens supporters only a week ago.  I think it takes two to tango.   

Onto the game...

Congratulations to Middlebury on what has been a fine season, equal third most wins in programme history is an outstanding achievement and a credit to a fine squad.  In St Louis and Grady, they are graduating two highly talented exponents of their respective positions, who I expect will go down in Panther folklore.  I was a lot happier watching them as a neutral than against Amherst, but admired them nonetheless.

My prevailing thought on the likely outcome was that both teams would feel very confident they could win it.  The fact that eight of the sixteen all first-NESCAC combine were on show, spoke to the talent spread across the two teams, plus three more Panthers chosen for the second group.  My other, completely wrong as it turned out, thought, was that the Mammoths would need at least three goals to win.  Instead, I should have re-read my previous description of Amherst's efficiency, as that was what we got to see, yet again.  It was a calm and confident display from the white shirts and probably no real surprise when continued pressure led to the first goal.  The fact there wasn't a second before half time was entirely due to a fine penalty save from Midd's keeper.  On another day, that might have lifted the Panthers at the Mammoths' expense, but those with purple in their hearts appeared to take it in their stride.  When I have seen Midd play well against Amherst, it has often been associated with forward drives from their midfield interacting with their talented forwards and bringing the ball into the penalty area.  Today, Amherst's midfield skilfully got in the way of that, which when combined with the forwards doing a great job of maintaining possession higher up the pitch, made the defenders' collective job that little bit easier. 

Making the final four is a real achievement and something that hand on heart, I wouldn't have thought possible after late losses to very good Babson and Conn teams, but the subsequent run the team has been on since, has been impressive.  Six clean sheets in the last eight games, of which five were in play-offs is a notable achievement, as are the seven 1-0 wins.  Serious credit must go to Coach Serpone and his staff, for what has been a stellar season, with hopefully more to come. I don't know lots about the other teams and will do my best to learn more over coming days, but each deserves high praise for getting to this stage. 

Foul Count: Amherst 15 Middlebury 17 – these are big games and neither team was going to back down.

Oh and it's K A L I N A U S K AS  -  I know that guarantees more of the same, but Don Quixote did have a Lithuanian/Australian counterpart. 

[SimpleCoach]

I just watched the video and find this whole episode very disappointing.  Not that there will but think there should be some sort of punishment.

Now in my interview with Coach Serpone, he suggested that the reason why there is so much antipathy for Amherst is because traditionally "they didn't look like other teams."  Infer from that what you will.  But I would suggest the display on Sunday has more to do with the general amhate more than anything else.

SC.

[northman]

Let me put it this way...as a parent, I would be both extremely upset and extremely disappointed if either of my sons uttered a racist or homophobic slur, or made an obscene gesture...even in the heat of battle.  Our culture needs to be better than this.

I think several things can be true at the same time.  Serpone has built a culture of success in the Amherst men's soccer program, and many of his players do seem to revere him.  That said, creating a culture of chippyness and us against the world may work from a competitive standpoint, but there are kinder and gentler approaches that are equally successful.

[Another Mom]

Completely agree Northman.

I would add that I just looked at the Amherst roster. Good lord, it looks like every other roster out there. Extremely white, with a few kids of color.

Adding, to me, the post from the former Amherst player rings true.

[kevdog]

I just watched the video and find this whole episode very disappointing.  Not that there will but think there should be some sort of punishment.

Now in my interview with Coach Serpone, he suggested that the reason why there is so much antipathy for Amherst is because traditionally "they didn't look like other teams."  Infer from that what you will.  But I would suggest the display on Sunday has more to do with the general amhate more than anything else.

SC.

Amherst does not play the "beautiful game" as Pele would say but it works for them. I don't think they strung 3 passes together the whole game. It kinda of reminds me of North American ice hockey compare to European. Dump it in the zone and chase compare to moving the pick up through passing and skating. It works for them though. I have played against teams like that but one way we counter it was to let them have their third of the field and just picked off their passes. When we did that, the teams got confused because there was no place to go with the ball and it was too crowded.

[Hopkins92]

Former Amherst Soccer player weighing in here on my first ever D3 Soccer post (used to have a lot more to post about in the D3Hoops forums, but for obvious reasons, that flame has flickered out like the Encanto house and I am ready for the rebuild). Familiar with Bucket and a couple other names that are loyal to D3 athletics.

I have some answers to a few of the questions being tossed around on the boards:

Q: What happened in the 1H when Coach Serpone was upset with the officials and there was a prolonged stoppage?
A: One of Middlebury's players called Amherst's gay athlete the slur "fagg*t". As has been the case in the past, the most passionate version of Coach Serpone is when an opposing player uses hate speech directed towards one of his players. I don't remember what year or game, but ~5 years ago something similar happened in conference play with the n-word. The haters may say that this is a coaching tactic/antic to fire up his team... and they would be wrong. Coach Serpone has built an incredibly successful program that is built on love. The players love each other and the coach loves the players like his own children. Most of you are parents. If someone attacks your kid, you will probably be upset about it. Pretty sure the initiating slur also goes against that NESCAC sportsmanship statement.

Q: Why was the game chippy?
A: Because the NESCAC has become the overpowering force in D3 soccer for the past ~10 years after taking the torch from Messiah's epic run. Middlebury got one during Messiah's reign back in 2007 which started it, Amherst won one, Tufts was ridiculously good and impressive winning 4, and Conn took home a title. Williams and Bowdoin are perennially in the mix, and you can't sleep on Wesleyan or Trinity some years. 6 of the last 8 national champions are from the NESCAC and the last 3 runner-ups are also NESCAC. So when you get a NESCAC vs. NESCAC NCAA game, it may as well be the National Championship game, and all the players on both teams know this. Midd is always the most physical team in the league and it's not surprising their leaders committed hard fouls in the 1H. That works for them and I don't knock them for a second for their aggressive play. Let the referees handle the on-field action and hopefully no one gets hurt. But it is an absolute war for 90 minutes in an elimination game between conference opponents who both have what it takes to win it all. You go all out. The final whistle blows. You are happy to advance and send the other team home. I am sure all three of the remaining teams are amazing, but as a fan, I am relieved it is not a Midd->Tufts->Conn path. Had Midd won today, they would have to be favorites in Salem.

It sounds like Amherst was the better side today, stifling the Middlebury offense and winning 1-0 despite also not converting a PK. Soccer can be cruel, glad the better team won.

Post game activities
Appreciate the YouTube link! Three sections here:
1) In that video, you've got a handful of kids waving/clapping good bye to the Middlebury fan side of the field. This is trivial and takes place at every intense rivalry of every sport at every high level. Please watch this Saturday's Ohio St / Michigan game, which has similar stakes to today's soccer game. Whoever pulls away or wins it at the end will have 5 guys doing the exact same thing to the opposing fan section in the Big House. Watch Carolina/Duke in hoops and same thing. This is not a culture problem, parenting problem, or coaching problem. This is kids that work their butt off in a war for 90 mins and get to send their haters home. Good call on LSU/Iowa too (everyone loves Caitlin Clarke and no coaches were fired, players suspended, parents attacked, etc for the reciprocal clapping by the LSU squad). Good sports talk show and ESPN.com content. And apparently good message board content. This is sports.
2) Nuhu is heated. He is trying to cross the line and engage, potentially physically, with the Midd sideline, but is restrained. Glad he was restrained. Applause to the leadership and teammates that held back the first year from making a bad decision. Also, who knows what he endured throughout the game. I think it is fair to say from other testimonials on this message board that it was unusual behavior for him, so he's not a guy who psyches himself up by going crazy at opposing fans. Verbal on verbal back and forth that almost gets out of hand also happens sometimes across sports. At the professional level, it usually results in slap-on-the-wrist fines. At the D1 NCAA level, usually nothing. Players are subjected to all sorts of crazy hazing during games such as commentary about your sister/s, girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, mom, race, sexual orientation, and then the brute "you f-ing suck number twenty-one!" over and over again. This could have escalated, glad it didn't. I would be remiss not to remind folks that when Williams fell at the buzzer in the 2004 basketball National Championship game a year after winning it all in 2003, their senior 1st Team AA PG did not hug his brothers or shake opponents' hands, but rather Crotty ran to the Amherst cheering section and made gestures and started cussing back and forth with them. Amherst wasn't even in the title game that year. Still puts a smile on my face. Maybe today's Midd fans will smile knowing they got under the skin of Nuhu so much that they were priority #1 for him after the win rather than celebrating with his teammates. Moving on.
3) The air-jerk reserve for Amherst. Okay, yeah I am on the message boards side on this one...and apparently Amherst College is as well as he has already been suspended for the National Semi-Finals. That was dumb, classless, etc. Especially since he wasn't even marquee in the battle which means he wasn't getting it from the Midd students for 90 mins. Apologies to the Midd sideline (females especially) for that. College kids do stupid things sometimes.

The rest of the NESCAC hates Coach Serpone, as evidenced by his 1 COY award. If that's the cost for building a program that has won ~40% of league titles, made it to the Sweet 16 100% of his time coaching, and now 5 Final Fours in 16 years, I think he is good with that tradeoff. His players absolutely love him.

I was at the 2019 and 2021 National Championship games were we lost to Tufts 2-0 and Conn 1-1 in PKs. Two wars. Great sportsmanship by both teams. Tufts couldn't have been bothered less to win another natty, so that was just a flat ending to the game and they deserved the W. The Conn ending was the same as today's ending. 3-4 Conn kids waving home our sideline and alum section as they ran to celebrate the winning PK taker. No fans on on our side cared. They won. They celebrated. They shook our hands and we shook their hands and then we consoled our brothers. That match was cruel.

Amherst and Middlebury soccer do not like one another. It has been this way for 20+ years and will probably be this way for another 20+ years. Thus, the beauty of sports.

Thank you very much for taking the time to put another perspective and additional context to what we saw.

I think clapping off the visiting sideline is pretty abrasive and as I said it feels odd (to me) that the first instinct of a set of players is to IMMEDIATELY after winning go taunt the opposing sidelines. BUT, and this is important, you are correct that in rivalry games a lot of that stuff (what is said) can be over the line from fans and obviously it got under certain players skin. As you say, that's just not something I'd consider punishable.

If you are correct and the one guy grabbing his crotch is suspended... Feels like punishment earned and delivered.

[PaulNewman]

So crotch grabbing and masturbation gesturing on camera vs off camera is the bar.

As suggested earlier, I won't be surprised if the only action is a suspension of that one player, which imo does not scream integrity or full accountability on the program/institution side.

Nice for the Amherst alum to jump in with a vigorous defense of the program but does not answer why it is always, always, always, always Amherst. In theory us haters should hate Tufts even more, but we don't even though we know Tufts (and a bunch of other schools including my own) aren't beyond a little taunting and celebration exuberance.

[Newenglander]

Former Amherst Soccer player weighing in here on my first ever D3 Soccer post (used to have a lot more to post about in the D3Hoops forums, but for obvious reasons, that flame has flickered out like the Encanto house and I am ready for the rebuild). Familiar with Bucket and a couple other names that are loyal to D3 athletics.

I have some answers to a few of the questions being tossed around on the boards:

Q: What happened in the 1H when Coach Serpone was upset with the officials and there was a prolonged stoppage?
A: One of Middlebury's players called Amherst's gay athlete the slur "fagg*t". As has been the case in the past, the most passionate version of Coach Serpone is when an opposing player uses hate speech directed towards one of his players. I don't remember what year or game, but ~5 years ago something similar happened in conference play with the n-word. The haters may say that this is a coaching tactic/antic to fire up his team... and they would be wrong. Coach Serpone has built an incredibly successful program that is built on love. The players love each other and the coach loves the players like his own children. Most of you are parents. If someone attacks your kid, you will probably be upset about it. Pretty sure the initiating slur also goes against that NESCAC sportsmanship statement.

Q: Why was the game chippy?
A: Because the NESCAC has become the overpowering force in D3 soccer for the past ~10 years after taking the torch from Messiah's epic run. Middlebury got one during Messiah's reign back in 2007 which started it, Amherst won one, Tufts was ridiculously good and impressive winning 4, and Conn took home a title. Williams and Bowdoin are perennially in the mix, and you can't sleep on Wesleyan or Trinity some years. 6 of the last 8 national champions are from the NESCAC and the last 3 runner-ups are also NESCAC. So when you get a NESCAC vs. NESCAC NCAA game, it may as well be the National Championship game, and all the players on both teams know this. Midd is always the most physical team in the league and it's not surprising their leaders committed hard fouls in the 1H. That works for them and I don't knock them for a second for their aggressive play. Let the referees handle the on-field action and hopefully no one gets hurt. But it is an absolute war for 90 minutes in an elimination game between conference opponents who both have what it takes to win it all. You go all out. The final whistle blows. You are happy to advance and send the other team home. I am sure all three of the remaining teams are amazing, but as a fan, I am relieved it is not a Midd->Tufts->Conn path. Had Midd won today, they would have to be favorites in Salem.

It sounds like Amherst was the better side today, stifling the Middlebury offense and winning 1-0 despite also not converting a PK. Soccer can be cruel, glad the better team won.

Post game activities
Appreciate the YouTube link! Three sections here:
1) In that video, you've got a handful of kids waving/clapping good bye to the Middlebury fan side of the field. This is trivial and takes place at every intense rivalry of every sport at every high level. Please watch this Saturday's Ohio St / Michigan game, which has similar stakes to today's soccer game. Whoever pulls away or wins it at the end will have 5 guys doing the exact same thing to the opposing fan section in the Big House. Watch Carolina/Duke in hoops and same thing. This is not a culture problem, parenting problem, or coaching problem. This is kids that work their butt off in a war for 90 mins and get to send their haters home. Good call on LSU/Iowa too (everyone loves Caitlin Clarke and no coaches were fired, players suspended, parents attacked, etc for the reciprocal clapping by the LSU squad). Good sports talk show and ESPN.com content. And apparently good message board content. This is sports.
2) Nuhu is heated. He is trying to cross the line and engage, potentially physically, with the Midd sideline, but is restrained. Glad he was restrained. Applause to the leadership and teammates that held back the first year from making a bad decision. Also, who knows what he endured throughout the game. I think it is fair to say from other testimonials on this message board that it was unusual behavior for him, so he's not a guy who psyches himself up by going crazy at opposing fans. Verbal on verbal back and forth that almost gets out of hand also happens sometimes across sports. At the professional level, it usually results in slap-on-the-wrist fines. At the D1 NCAA level, usually nothing. Players are subjected to all sorts of crazy hazing during games such as commentary about your sister/s, girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, mom, race, sexual orientation, and then the brute "you f-ing suck number twenty-one!" over and over again. This could have escalated, glad it didn't. I would be remiss not to remind folks that when Williams fell at the buzzer in the 2004 basketball National Championship game a year after winning it all in 2003, their senior 1st Team AA PG did not hug his brothers or shake opponents' hands, but rather Crotty ran to the Amherst cheering section and made gestures and started cussing back and forth with them. Amherst wasn't even in the title game that year. Still puts a smile on my face. Maybe today's Midd fans will smile knowing they got under the skin of Nuhu so much that they were priority #1 for him after the win rather than celebrating with his teammates. Moving on.
3) The air-jerk reserve for Amherst. Okay, yeah I am on the message boards side on this one...and apparently Amherst College is as well as he has already been suspended for the National Semi-Finals. That was dumb, classless, etc. Especially since he wasn't even marquee in the battle which means he wasn't getting it from the Midd students for 90 mins. Apologies to the Midd sideline (females especially) for that. College kids do stupid things sometimes.

The rest of the NESCAC hates Coach Serpone, as evidenced by his 1 COY award. If that's the cost for building a program that has won ~40% of league titles, made it to the Sweet 16 100% of his time coaching, and now 5 Final Fours in 16 years, I think he is good with that tradeoff. His players absolutely love him.

I was at the 2019 and 2021 National Championship games were we lost to Tufts 2-0 and Conn 1-1 in PKs. Two wars. Great sportsmanship by both teams. Tufts couldn't have been bothered less to win another natty, so that was just a flat ending to the game and they deserved the W. The Conn ending was the same as today's ending. 3-4 Conn kids waving home our sideline and alum section as they ran to celebrate the winning PK taker. No fans on on our side cared. They won. They celebrated. They shook our hands and we shook their hands and then we consoled our brothers. That match was cruel.

Amherst and Middlebury soccer do not like one another. It has been this way for 20+ years and will probably be this way for another 20+ years. Thus, the beauty of sports.

Thank you very much for taking the time to put another perspective and additional context to what we saw.

I think clapping off the visiting sideline is pretty abrasive and as I said it feels odd (to me) that the first instinct of a set of players is to IMMEDIATELY after winning go taunt the opposing sidelines. BUT, and this is important, you are correct that in rivalry games a lot of that stuff (what is said) can be over the line from fans and obviously it got under certain players skin. As you say, that's just not something I'd consider punishable.

If you are correct and the one guy grabbing his crotch is suspended... Feels like punishment earned and delivered.

Easy to make an example of the bench player....sounds like more than one person involved.

[Ejay]

I attended a small high school that in my state was classified as Group 1 (smallest enrollment). We were playing in the County Tournament against a larger Group 3 school that was ranked in the state Top 20 and therefore heavy favorites to win our game.  Several of my club teammates were on that larger school roster including the son of my club coach.

Before the game, my club coach was telling me there is no way a sh!tty little school was going to beat a top 20 ranked team. As fate would have it, my sh!tty little school did win that game. 

I was a 15 year old HS sophomore. I LOVED my teammates, but my first reaction at the whistle was to run to my club coach and loudly proclaim in front of their entire parent-base "Not bad for a sh!tty little school, huh?".

It was not my proudest moment and I regretted it pretty quickly. From that day forward I took the high road and found killing them with kindness was a lot more satisfying.

So I'm not all up in arms about the behavior. I just think Amherst players have some maturing to do, as do those from other unnamed schools with boorish sideline antics. And not that they care, but neither school's program has my respect regardless of how successful they may be.