The student news site of Dickinson College.

The Dickinsonian

The student news site of Dickinson College.

The Dickinsonian

The student news site of Dickinson College.

The Dickinsonian

Letter from the Editor: Storming the Court

I am not a sports fan.

That doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of sports. I enjoy watching sports, especially the one with the kicking and the ball and the grass and the expensive stadiums. What I mean is that I am terrible at getting excited about sports. (It’s an admission that I know my father, who must read these at least occasionally, will probably disown me over.)

Now, I’m not a sports fan. But even I was able to get excited when I heard about the Red Devil’s carrying the first NCAA victory. We are a D III school, nearly the lowest on an already low rung, that was able to not only claw our way over our peers, but also to beat one of the big, bad D II schools. It was an accomplishment for us. And, it seems, it was a big deal for the rest of the nation.

I’m less excited about that second part.

If you watch sports shows (or, in my case, watch what people link to on Facebook), you know the score already. The orderly court storming, not the win, made national news, appearing on nearly half a dozen news programs and websites in the week since the game.

Reactions were mixed. Some people hailed it as a demonstration of polite, civil students. Other people called it out as just another case of college administrators working to keep negative attention off their school. They all, however, gave it plenty of attention.

The whole media blitz over the timely, ordered Dickinson court storming came about because Duke University was a little bit too quick to celebrate and that got a bad reaction from the press. They did it wrong and, when we did it right, people held it up for praise. And yes, it should be praiseworthy: Dickinson College’s DPS officers and the coaches helped keep the students back until the losing team was safely off the court. It was good. It was right. But was it worthy of all the attention?

The players did an extraordinary thing when they won the game. The administration did an ordinary thing when they helped keep order. Praise the extraordinary, not the ordinary.

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