[media-credit name=”Ren Raun” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Senior midfielder Ken Tribbett pressures a Rutgers University player during Drexel’s 2-0 victory over the Scarlet Knights. Tribbett scored his second goal of the season to ice the match.

The Drexel men’s soccer team frequently used the adjective “quality” this past week when describing the team’s upcoming opponent, Rutgers University. But when the Scarlet Knights stepped onto Vidas Field Sept. 24, it was easy to see which team truly showed its quality: the Dragons.

With goals from senior midfielders Nathan Page and Ken Tribbett in the second half, Drexel put forth a team effort in a 2-0 victory over Rutgers. Freshman goalkeeper Tyler Afflerbach posted his third clean sheet in four career starts as the Dragon defense limited the Scarlet Knights to only two shots on goal.

“Any time you get a team with the quality of Rutgers … it’s easy to get up for [a game like] that,” head coach Doug Hess said. “Hats off to those guys. They didn’t make it easy; it was a very tight game.”

Each team had a few chances early on. Rutgers freshman goalkeeper David Greczek made simple saves on shots by senior midfielder Michele Pataia in the 15th minute and Page in the 24th minute. Sandwiched between those shots was a great opportunity by the Scarlet Knights, but Afflerbach made a save on a header from sophomore defender Mitchell Taintor in the 18th minute.

There was nearly a major momentum swing late in the half. Page missed the net wide-left on a one-on-one rush in the 36th minute, and then Rutgers sophomore midfielder Mael Corboz glanced a free kick off the top off the crossbar after a yellow card was given to Drexel senior defender Skylar Olson.

Still, the ball stayed out of the net, and the two teams went into halftime in a scoreless tie.

“You have to be able to adapt as the game plays,” Hess pointed out. “That’s the funny thing about soccer; you don’t get any time to adjust other than halftime. So [you’ve got to] be able to think and figure it out as the game goes.”

Coming out of the half, the Dragons looked poised to reward the packed crowd with a goal, or perhaps two. As it turned out, it took only about half an hour to reach that actualization.

“We had trouble getting it through our heads that we had to break the pressure fast or play over the pressure,” Hess said. “The couple of moments that we did, we found two goals out of it, out of nothing.”

In the 53rd minute, Pataia chipped the ball in to rushing senior forward Mark Donohue, who came into the match as a substitution in the first half. Greczek stoned Donohue’s original shot on goal, but that left the Scarlet Knight keeper out of position. The juicy rebound came out to Page, who deposited it into the back of the net for his third goal of the season, all coming in the last three matches.

Then Tribbett, who was a force all over the field for Drexel all night, cashed in right on the doorstep. Page played a give-and-go with freshman midfielder Adam Arana, who fed a shot that trickled through the Rutgers back line. As the ball rolled toward a wide-open cage, Tribbett tapped it in just inches from going over the goal line on its own.

“If I didn’t touch it, it was going in,” Tribbett admitted after the match. “But that’s what a senior does to a freshman.”

That put the Dragons up two goals with just over 21 minutes to go in the match, a lead they would not relinquish, as the home team clinched a 2-0 victory over the Scarlet Knights. The win extended their winning streak to four and the overall team record to 4-2-1. It also marked Drexel’s first victory against Rutgers since 1980.

“Usually Drexel — pfft, no one cares about Drexel,” Tribbett said. “Now that we’ve established ourselves, we’re able to get quality opponents to come in here. We keep winning, so fans better come out and support us.”

As the final 20 minutes ticked away, many of those in attendance filed out, most likely to catch an early trip back to campus on the Drexel shuttle. But all in all, the team was satisfied with the support shown by the Dragon faithful during the first week of classes.

“We had a great crowd tonight. … Hopefully it’s one of those things that we can keep building our student support here,” Hess said. “We [have] a good team, [and] we’re finding a bit of our rhythm now. Hopefully they’ll come out and watch us.”

Drexel hosts its second consecutive match Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. when Colonial Athletic Association play begins against The College of William & Mary. The Tribe is one of the hottest teams in the country right now, as their last three wins have been against ranked opponents. Two of those, Creighton University and the University of North Carolina, were both No. 1 in the country at the time.

Last season, the Dragons ended a four-match losing streak against William & Mary with a 3-0 victory. Drexel got goals from Page, midfielder John Grosh and forward Guido Pena, while former goalkeeper Tim Washam recorded six saves to post a shutout.

This time around, each team is coming into the match with a 4-2-1 record and a winning streak. Certainly, both the Dragons and the Tribe will want to record a “quality” victory to begin their respective CAA schedules.

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[media-credit name=”Ajon Brodie” align=”alignleft” width=”245″] Midfielders John Grosh (left) and Jared Girard (center) leap for a header during Drexel’s 1-0 victory over La Salle University Sept. 17 at Vidas Field. Senior forward Mark Donohue scored the match’s only goal with seven seconds remaining.

In an 18-game regular season, any signs of struggle early on could greatly affect postseason seeding or eligibility. Following a 0-2-1 start, including a loss to Sacred Heart University, the Drexel men’s soccer team remained composed and responded with three consecutive victories.

The Dragons began their season Aug. 30 at home against Fairleigh Dickinson University, a team that advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament last year. Junior forward Godfred Baafi of the Knights scored what Drexel head coach Doug Hess called the “shot of his life” in the 84th minute. Drexel was held scoreless, and Fairleigh Dickinson hung on for a 1-0 win with five saves from senior goalkeeper Jacob Lissek.

“We never really got settled into the game. That being said, we had plenty of opportunity to win,” Hess said. “As far as we go, I don’t know if we ever got on the ball and got the game moving the way we wanted to.”

Following a 7-2-1 record away from home in 2012, the Dragons hit the road for their second match of the season Sept. 1 at Seton Hall University. In the third minute, the Drexel defense and senior goalkeeper Pentti Pussinen had a miscommunication that allowed Pirates senior forward Max Garcia to score on a wide-open net.

Junior midfielder John Grosh responded for the Dragons with two straight scores in the 15th and 43rd minutes for the first two-goal game in his career. But one minute before halftime, Seton Hall tied it up on a free kick from freshman midfielder Samuel Geiler.

Early in the second half, senior midfielder Ken Tribbett converted a header off a free kick to put Drexel ahead, but it was short-lived, as Geiler scored his second of the day to tie the match at 3-3. That would be all the scoring for the remainder of the afternoon, as the teams went through two scoreless overtimes for a tie.

The Dragons returned to Vidas Field Sept. 6 and faced Sacred Heart, a team that held a 1-2 record coming into the match with a -5 scoring differential. Drexel outshot the Pioneers 21-4 but fell by a score of 2-1. Although the Dragons controlled the ball and spent the majority of the match in the Sacred Heart defensive zone, they were unable to capitalize on chances in close.

“We had a lot of the ball, and that’s great because we need that for the way we play, but if you don’t do anything with the ball, forget it,” Hess said of the Dragons’ offensive play.

The Pioneers, on the other hand, cashed in on their first two opportunities of the night. Senior forward Aaron Burrell scored off a rush in the sixth minute, and sophomore forward Jamal Vinson scored in the 53rd minute to give Sacred Heart a 2-0 advantage.

Drexel senior defender Skylar Olson gathered a failed clear in the 64th minute and fired a pellet from well outside the box for his first career goal, but the Dragons could not find an equalizer as frantically as they tried in the final 25 minutes. Following the game, the coaching staff — especially Hess — was visibly upset at the outcome, trying to figure out how their team lost to a clearly inferior opponent.

Hess was a critic of the team’s forwards: “We’ve played three games now, and there hasn’t been a single goal from our front line. I said to them, ‘What’s the point of playing with front players if you aren’t playing like front players?’

“The main focus at this point is like: Who are you [going to] be this year?” Hess said. “Do you want to be a collection of good players that keep the ball and look nice? Or do you [want to] be a team that wins games and finds ways to win games?”

After three games, Drexel seems to have found a way to win games this season. Hess made a few changes to the starting lineup, adding junior defender Maty Brennan and freshman goalkeeper Tyler Afflerbach. The moves paid immediate dividends just minutes into the Dragons’ Sept. 8 matchup against Stony Brook University.

Brennan rocketed a shot past freshman goalkeeper Jason Orban in the eighth minute, and it ended up being the game-winning goal in a 2-0 Drexel victory. Afflerbach made four saves to post a shutout in his debut, and senior forward Nathan Page ensured the win with a score with 31 seconds remaining; it was the first mark of the season for the Preseason CAA Player of the Year.

Next up for the Dragons was a short trip to Bethlehem, Pa., to face Lehigh University Sept. 12. The Mountain Hawks came in with an 0-2-1 record and no goals. After a scoreless first half, freshman midfielder Danny Gonzalez put Lehigh on the board in the 69th minute with a header from a free kick.

Facing a 1-0 deficit, Drexel finally got into gear late in the second half. In the 78th minute, senior forward Mark Donohue scored his first of the season with an assist from freshman midfielder Adam Arana. Three minutes later, Page netted the deciding goal past Mountain Hawks junior goalkeeper Kevin Motylewski.

“[Our forwards] have responded as of late. We challenged them after our first three games, as we struggled to make opportunities count and get shots on frame,” Hess said. “We have seen our front group respond. It’s a good little run for our guys to keep building on and continue to improve upon as the season progresses.”

In the Dragons’ most recent match, city rival La Salle University came to Vidas Field Sept. 17 for a game under the lights. In the 2012 season opener, the Explorers defeated Drexel 3-2 in overtime. In this year’s edition of the clash, the match looked destined to go past regulation time, as the teams were scoreless through 89 minutes.

But with just seconds remaining, Page rushed up the field and made a pass to senior Michele Pataia. The midfielder returned the ball to Page, who flicked it in the box. Donohue was waiting inside and was able to connect with a strong header past the La Salle goalkeeper to notch a 1-0 victory with seven seconds remaining on the clock.

Afflerbach made two saves for his second shutout in three games. He has made 11 saves on 12 shots on goal through three games, making sure that Hess’ faith in him was rewarded.

“Simply put, we needed a change — three games played, seven goals against and zero results,” Hess commented on the team’s goalkeeping situation. “Since Tyler has gone in the goal, we have played three games with one goal against and three wins. Results matter, and he has played a part in three now.

“Tyler has responded well to the opportunity and has taken on some big moments in each of the three games. Goalkeeping is so much about decision making, and Tyler is showing well in this area, being decisive and being confident in the decisions he makes.”

Drexel’s next game will take place Sept. 24 when the team hosts Rutgers University. The Scarlet Knights and the Dragons last played in 2011 in Piscataway, N.J., when Rutgers topped Drexel by a score of 3-1. In the game, then-freshman John Grosh scored his first career goal.

Both programs have been up and down in recent years. In 2011 the Scarlet Knights advanced all the way to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament, while the Dragons faltered to a 5-10-3 overall record. Last year, however, the tables turned, as Drexel made an NCAA appearance and Rutgers finished 7-7-1. This time around, expect a matchup of two hungry teams seeking a quality out-of-conference victory early in the season.

“It’s a great opponent for us to get at home. It’s not every day you have an opponent of the caliber of Rutgers willing to travel and play away outside of their conference slate,” Hess remarked on the level of his team’s upcoming opponent. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for our guys to be able to play at Vidas … against a [high] level team. We hope to see some solid support for the Dragons out there Tuesday night.”

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[media-credit name=”Ken Chaney” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Senior defender Tal Bublil works the ball forward against Northeastern University during Drexel’s 2-1 loss to the Huskies Oct. 3, 2012, at Vidas Field. Bublil was named to the Preseason All-CAA Team prior to the 2013 season.

One week from today, the Drexel men’s soccer team will begin the 2013 campaign with the highest expectations the program has seen in a long time. It will take an extraordinary effort from the Dragons in order to defend their regular-season Colonial Athletic Association title, but head coach Doug Hess is confident that his team has what it takes.

“We’re a deeper team and we’re a better team because of the experiences we have,” Hess said confidently, referencing the highs and lows of the team during his three-year tenure at Drexel. “I think it will be fun to watch it unfold.”

Many would consider last season a success for the Dragons, as they finished with a 12-4-3 record, including an 8-1-1 mark in CAA play. However, Drexel went 0-2 in postseason play, losing to Hofstra University in penalty kicks as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and as the host team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Brown University by a score of 2-0.

How will the Dragons’ success be measured this season? Hess explained that the answer is not so cut-and-dry.

“We’re trying to get our guys to understand that success for us … is the process,” he said. “In the process of building toward success, we want to get better at knowing and doing what we do to have success.”

Hess listed some of these attributes, like the understanding of the game and growing in the game physically. But most importantly, he said, has been the dedication of the program and the players to improved fitness.

Since he arrived at Drexel in 2010, Hess has stressed the importance of being a physically fit team. By instituting a fitness program that tracks progress during the offseason, his players have been able to buy into the fact that strength and endurance are key components to how Hess wants the Dragons to play the game.

Along with being superior physical specimens, the coach wants Drexel to play as a supremely selfless unit on the field. Hess admitted that his ideal type of play is dependent on the ability of the team to share the ball.

“As long as we can buy into [being unselfish] and not be so worried about who gets the credit, we’re [going to] accomplish a lot of things,” Hess said. “I think the more we recognize that and live that, the better we will be.”

One of the reasons Hess believes that his team has bought into this thought process is the closeness of the Dragons. Drexel lists a roster of 27 players, including nine newcomers, but the coach described the group as “tight” even though they have not been together for very long.

The team has nine senior leaders, but three players in particular will lead this cohesive unit as the season begins. Defender and team captain Tal Bublil, midfielder Ken Tribbett and forward Nathan Page were all named to the Preseason All-CAA Team, as voted on by coaches within the conference.

Page, who led the team with nine goals last season, was tabbed as the CAA Preseason Player of the Year, the first Dragon ever to earn the honor. But even though Hess admitted that it is a big step forward for the program, there is still plenty of soccer yet to be played before anything is actually determined.

“Preseason teams are great, but postseason teams are what matter in the end,” he said. “It means that our opponents are aware of our team and we’re not going to sneak up on anyone this year.”

Northeastern University was picked as the top team in the CAA preseason poll, with Drexel in second place. Hess said he felt this was appropriate, considering that the Huskies have defeated the Dragons four consecutive times; you have to beat the best to be the best.

It is with that same reasoning that Hess organized the nonconference schedule. First up for Drexel is Farleigh Dickinson University, a team that advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament last season. Some other opponents in the first month of the season include Rutgers University, Seton Hall University, Stony Brook University and La Salle University.

“We have a lot of tests as we get through September,” Hess said. “Going into the opening game, we’re [going to] have a good idea of who we are, and the first one is a good test.”

With expectations through the roof, look for Drexel to face every one of its challenges head-on. This fall, the spotlight will surely shine on Vidas Field, and the Dragons will have bull’s-eyes on their backs; Hess and his confident crew would not have it any other way.

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[media-credit name=”Phil Masturzo Akron Beacon Journal/MCT Campus” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Tiger Woods takes up some turf with his shot on the sixth fairway during the final round of the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, Aug. 4.

You cannot explain true greatness; you just know it when you see it. True greatness stepped up to the plate and hit a home run on his 22nd birthday. True greatness teed off at 8:35 a.m. in hopes of winning his 15th major championship three days later.

Mike Trout is great. Tiger Woods is great. Not only are these athletes great at their respective sports, but they are great for them, too. Major League Baseball needs a premier player like Trout to emerge as a star, and golf is exponentially more interesting with Woods in the mix.

Trout has shown us that greatness lives up to expectations. The Millville, N.J., native was underestimated going into the 2009 MLB Draft, as he was selected 25th overall by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. After 44 minor league games at the end of the 2009 season, Trout was named the No. 2 prospect by Baseball America by the beginning of 2010.

Fast forward to 2012, when Trout had one of the most jaw-dropping seasons in history. He hit 30 home runs, batted .326 and produced an on-base plus slugging percentage of .963. In addition, he led the American League with 129 runs, 49 stolen bases and 10 wins above replacement. This was all after not being called up to the major leagues until 20 games into the season.

Even though Trout finished second in AL MVP voting behind Miguel Cabrera, he had already announced his presence with authority. As the 2013 season has unfolded, it is hard to believe, but Trout has actually improved at the plate.

As of Aug. 8, Trout has 20 home runs, 24 stolen bases and an OPS of 1.004. He is once again leading the league in runs with 80 and has 67 walks, which is already equal to his number from last season. Trout has been able both to sustain his greatness and to expand upon it.

Not only do Trout’s numbers jump at you from the page, but his presence on the field also jumps at you. His at-bats are must-watch events; the way his long strides span the outfield is nothing short of spectacular; and his 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound frame is built like that of a pristine thoroughbred.

Although there is no singular statistic to measure greatness, Trout just exudes it from every pore.

Woods, meanwhile, has shown that greatness does not disappear. The pinnacle of his career was in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, when he finished 12 under par, 15 shots ahead of two players tied for second place. He would go on to win the next three majors and complete the “Tiger Slam.”

After he won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, Tiger stood at 14 majors, four shy of Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record of 18, at the age of 32. But after five years, a reconstructive knee surgery and an infidelity scandal, he remains stuck on 14 major victories.

That has not stopped Woods from winning nonmajor tournaments. His recent win at the Bridgestone Championship marked his fifth win of the season and 79th of his career, three shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82.

Although greatness is ultimately measured at the most prestigious tournaments, Tiger’s success at nonmajors cannot be ignored. At this point in golf history, the field is as talented as ever. For one player to rise above the pack shows nothing short of greatness week in and week out.

So if you choose to watch the PGA Championship this weekend, try to appreciate the greatness of the player wearing red on Sunday. And if you choose to stay up late to catch the underwhelming Angels in a West Coast game, try to appreciate the greatness of No. 27 flying around the ballpark. You shouldn’t have to try too hard.

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[media-credit name=”Photo Courtesy Richard Phibbs/ESPN The Magazine” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is featured in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue. Kaepernick, along
with 20 other athletes from various sports, were pictured in nude poses sporting athletic stances.

Gary Player is one of the greatest golfers ever to play the game. He accumulated 25 career wins on the PGA Tour, including nine major championships that tie him for fourth all-time with the legendary Ben Hogan.

In 2012, Player earned the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming the 10th individual to receive such an honor. Now, at the age of 77, Player designs golf courses all around the world and … poses for ESPN The Magazine in the nude?!

For the fifth consecutive year, ESPN The Magazine has produced its Body Issue, which is an annual look at athletes and their bodies in the nude. The premiere issue featured boxer Manny Pacquiao, running back Adrian Peterson and tennis star Serena Williams. This time around there is the aforementioned Player, baseball outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, boxer Marlen Esparza and many others.

Of course, private parts are not shown in the issue, as the photographers ensure that they are covered up with arms, hands or items; for example, starting pitcher Matt Harvey poses with his orange baseball glove covering his private area. As a sports fan, it is truly breathtaking to see athletes and their intricate muscles at work.

In the 2013 issue, there are more creative photo poses than in years past. For example, Elena Hight is shown snowboarding down a mountain in the nude and, later, eating a hamburger next to a grill at the bottom of the slope.

Motocross racer Tarah Geiger, pictured doing jumps on a dirt track, admitted that riding her bike nude was not something she had ever done before. “There’s a lot of stuff to remember. … [I was] just trying to not crash without a helmet on or anything else on,” she said.

Perhaps some of the most stunning photos are of the male athletes in the issue. Stanton, listed at 6 feet 6 inches in height and 250 pounds, is pictured jumping with water splashing his private area. It is unbelievable to see the sheer size of his body, which surely has helped him to blast 100 home runs over his first 420 games in Major League Baseball.

Two San Francisco 49ers, quarterback Colin Kaepernick and tight end — no pun intended — Vernon Davis, probably have the most chiseled features of them all. Kaepernick’s entire upper body, which has to hover around zero percent body fat, is covered entirely in tattoos with prominent six-pack abs. Meanwhile, Davis’ pectorals and lat muscles are truly jaw-dropping.

“The body is art,” Davis said. “I just think back [to] when I was in college when I was an art studio major. … We would have models come through, and we would have to draw them.”

That sounds cool and all, but why do the athletes really do it?

Most likely because they have rockin’ hot bodies and want to show them off, but there are also other reasons. ESPN undoubtedly pays a hefty sum to any athlete willing to pose nude in its premier issue of the year. Superficial reasons aside, some of these athletes did it for their own self-esteem, whether it was high or low, and some did it with hopes of inspiring fans to strive to be physically fit.

For example, Davis explained the primary reason for his involvement. “It represents being healthy. … When people see this issue, maybe I can inspire them to go and work out and eat right and things like that,” he said.

Possibly the most inspirational model for the Body Issue was volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings, who posed while nine months pregnant and then again two months after giving birth to give a side-by-side comparison of her body’s true transformation.

“I hope people find inspiration. People can look at me and say, ‘Oh, you can get your body back at some point after postpartum,’” Walsh Jennings explained. “When people see me pregnant and then post pregnancy, I just hope they realize how much power there is in the female form.”

Some athletes were exceedingly confident, like basketball power forward Kenneth Faried, who struck a dunk pose in midair and is also pictured dribbling a basketball, both with his dreadlocks flailing behind him.

“Just to pose naked is basically to me like taking a shower,” Faried said. “I know I have a great body. I work it out, I eat right, and I do the little things I need to do to make sure my body stays in great shape. … I really do believe I’m a handsome young man.”

Female soccer player Sydney Leroux also felt very comfortable with her body and how her life experience had shaped it into something she felt like she should show off.

“My body is something to celebrate, and our bodies are something to celebrate,” she said. “It’s been through a lot, and it’s been a lot of places. It’s traveled the world and it’s been beat up. It’s felt good and it’s felt bad. It’s been a crazy ride with this body I have.”

Player was undoubtedly the most confident, as a senior citizen holding a golf swing pose in the nude. As the first professional golfer to lift weights and adopt a constant workout regimen 60 years ago, it was important to him to be able to show the world that he is still a fit individual and worthy of his nickname of “Mr. Fitness.”

“I’ll show you what I can do with my body at 77, and very few people in the world can do that,” Player said. “I see [current golfers] working out, and I walk in the gym with great joy. … I definitely played a role in this, and it makes me feel good.”

A worry that someone may have when nude in front of a camera — not that I would know is how one’s parents will react. For athletes in the Body Issue, there were mixed emotions. Harvey said his first thoughts were “What would my dad think?” and “What would my mom think?” while Leroux claimed her mom “was more excited than I was.”

As cool as it is to see this type of athleticism once per year, ESPN’s reason for producing the Body Issue is not as innocent as it seems. Sex sells, plain and simple. Back in 2009, the Magazine was struggling to compete with Sports Illustrated, the most famous publication in the genre, and its annual Swimsuit Issue.

By creating the Body Issue, ESPN brought a new and more socially acceptable reason to look at near-naked people in a magazine not named Playboy or Hustler. According to Darren Rovell, formerly of CNBC, the 2009 Body Issue sold 35 percent more advertisements than the issue a year before and sold two times the amount of an ordinary issue of the Magazine.

“It’s not my style, but I saw the issues and I saw the website and it wasn’t raunchy,” Esparza explained. “Being an athlete is kind of like when I do my Cover Girl commercial. It was like, ‘Oh, girls can be pretty and they can box at the same time.’”

Even though the primary reasoning for creating an annual issue such as this is to make money, it really does seem that ESPN has an honorable focus for the Body Issue. It is difficult to make seminude photos appealing to the general public in a tasteful way, and some publications, such as Sports Illustrated, do not even try. I am sure that athletes in such a vulnerable situation appreciate not being used completely as eye candy.

The post ESPN Mag publishes Body Issue appeared first on The Triangle.

On June 18, 2007, the lowly Philadelphia Flyers lost the NHL Draft Lottery despite being the worst team in the league. The Chicago Blackhawks, only the fifth-worst squad that year, drafted a highly regarded American right wing with the No. 1 overall selection. His name was Patrick Kane.

On June 9, 2010, Kane squeaked a shot through the five-hole of Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton in overtime of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals to give the Blackhawks their first Cup since 1961.

Kane led the Blackhawks to another Cup run June 24, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the process.

One is bound to consider what might have happened had the favored team won the draft lottery. Would Kane have led Philadelphia to its first Cup since 1975? Would the Blackhawks’ Cup drought be 52 years long and counting? We will never know.

Draft lottery systems are partially flawed. All teams who do not make the playoffs are involved in the draft lottery. The last-place team has the best odds of winning the top pick, the second-to-last-place team has the second-best odds, and so on. Even though a team is the worst in the league, its future is ultimately decided by pingpong balls popping about in an air-propelled gumball machine.

The draft lottery, which exists in the NHL and NBA but not in the NFL or Major League Baseball, theoretically deters teams from losing games deliberately to earn the No. 1 overall pick. However, a team is sometimes so bad that it deserves the top selection without the drama of a lottery. The 2006-07 Flyers were such a team.

Philadelphia featured declining veterans, such as Peter Forsberg and Derian Hatcher, as well as some burgeoning young talent like 21-year-old Mike Richards and 22-year-old Jeff Carter. However, with a shoddy defense, subpar goaltender Antero Niittymaki and an early-season coaching transition — John Stevens replaced longtime head coach Ken Hitchcock after eight games and a 1-6-1 record — Philadelphia was well on its way to a season full of struggles.

The Flyers were the worst team in the NHL by a long shot that year, as the team went 22-48-12 and earned a league-low 56 points. The next-worst team was the Phoenix Coyotes, who finished 31-46-5 with 67 points. It was the first time since the 1993-94 season that Philadelphia did not make the playoffs, let alone finish dead last in the league.

As mentioned before, the Blackhawks finished fifth-to-last in the standings in 2006-07, which meant they had an 8.1 percent chance of winning the draft lottery. The Flyers, on the other hand, had the highest probability of winning the lottery, a 25 percent chance.

Kane was not unanimously considered the best player available in the 2007 NHL Draft. Kane, American left wing James van Riemsdyk and Canadian center Kyle Turris were the best candidates to be drafted No. 1 overall by Chicago on June 22, 2007, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Of course, the Blackhawks chose Kane, then Philadelphia followed by drafting van Riemsdyk, and the Ottawa Senators took Turris with the third overall selection.

While Kane jumped straight into NHL play, van Riemsdyk decided to attend the University of New Hampshire after the draft. After two years, van Riemsdyk joined the Flyers and made his debut Oct. 2, 2009, against the Carolina Hurricanes, tallying an assist in his first career game.

Kane had two full seasons under his belt at that point and had 46 goals and 96 assists for a total of 142 points in 162 games. In his rookie season of 2007-08, he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best first-year player. Kane had his best year yet in the 2009-10 season, tallying 30 goals and 58 assists in 82 games.

By the time April came around, Chicago was the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, just squeaking into the postseason bracket.

In his rookie season, van Riemsdyk showed some promise, recording six goals and 12 assists in his first 16 games, but he finished with only 15 goals and 20 assists for the season, accruing only nine goals and eight assists in his final 62 games.

The Flyers surprised many when they upset the second-seeded New Jersey Devils and the sixth-seeded Boston Bruins and then defeated the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Finals. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks took care of business on the other side of the postseason bracket, most notably sweeping the top-seeded San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals.

Over the course of the playoffs that season, Kane rose to the occasion while van Riemsdyk fell back into the role of a supporting player. Kane had 10 goals and 18 assists in 22 games, and van Riemsdyk produced a disappointing three goals and three assists in 21 games.

Kane was especially impressive in the Stanley Cup Finals, scoring three goals with five assists in the final four games after being shut out in the first two. Meanwhile, van Riemsdyk had one goal and one assist in four games, including being a healthy scratch for games 2 and 3. Chicago’s superstar capped his incredible series by scoring the Cup-clinching goal in overtime of Game 6, cementing his name in the history books forever.

As the Blackhawks hoisted the Stanley Cup in the Wachovia Center (now the Wells Fargo Center), Philadelphia’s only two championship banners, from 1974 and 1975, hung in the rafters. Perhaps some of the stunned fans in attendance pictured Kane kissing the cup suited in black and orange instead of Chicago’s red and white away uniforms.

Three years later, Kane hoisted another Cup, this time on the TD Garden ice of the Bruins, and the Flyers were as far away from competing for a championship as they were in 2007. Meanwhile, van Riemsdyk, who was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Luke Schenn before the 2012-13 season, recorded his best point-per-game rate of his career — 18 goals and 14 assists in 48 games.

Although Kane does not have the point-producing prowess of players such as Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos, the 25-years-old’s postseason production is already among the most notable in NHL history. On the other hand, van Riemsdyk might peak as a 30-goal scorer, which is a very respectable number but not what is expected from a No. 2 overall pick.

As the 2013 NHL Draft is set to begin June 30, there are two top prospects: American defenseman Seth Jones and Canadian center Nathan MacKinnon. In this year’s draft, the second-to-last Colorado Avalanche will pick No. 1 rather than the last-place Florida Panthers. These two teams might experience a repeat of the Flyers-Blackhawks franchise-altering draft in 2007.

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Dave Casale and Victoria Hanks began cycling together while they studied at Drexel. After dating for seven years, Casale proposed to Hanks between the women’s and men’s races at the Philly Cycling Classic June 2.

Not many names have more clout in the sport of cycling than Lance Armstrong. Regardless of his performance-enhancing drug usage, he was one of the world’s most dominant athletes for nearly two decades. This past Sunday, June 2, three Drexel University alumni raced in the Philly Cycling Classic, the same event that Armstrong won back in 1993.

When Armstrong won his title, the event was called the Philadelphia International Championship, and the first American cyclist to cross the finish line was crowned the national champion. This time around, it was the Philly Cycling Classic and the stakes were not quite as high, but that does not take anything away from Dave Casale, Victoria Hanks and Brett Kielick.

Casale, Hanks and Kielick all met and competed collegiately as Dragons, and they each had a different path to where they stand as cyclists today. While at Drexel, Casale studied mechanical engineering, Hanks studied fashion and merchandising as an undergrad then earned an arts administration graduate degree, and Kielick studied architecture.

Hanks came to Drexel to play on the softball team and met Casale when the two lived on the same floor of Calhoun Hall as freshmen. Coincidentally, they also lived on the same floor of North Hall the next year and began dating. After her softball career was over, Hanks wanted to get involved with another sport to stay active during graduate school. Casale had a background in cycling, so Hanks bought a bike, and the two joined the Drexel Cycling Team together.

Meanwhile, Kielick came to Drexel to row on the crew team. After a few years on campus, he moved into a house with some of his teammates who had mountain bikes. Kielick competed in weekly time trial races for a while and then joined the Drexel Cycling Team after his rowing career was over. The Drexel Cycling Team allows newcomers to the sport to get acclimated to racing without being intimidated by the upper-level riders in high-pressure situations on the racetrack.

“There are categories A, B and C, as well as the introductory category in collegiate cycling,” Casale explained. “The intro category is basically the best thing ever invented. Intro riders go around with coaches and are coached during the races.”

Without the “nurturing experience” of collegiate cycling, as Hanks called it, a cyclist would be “thrown into the fire” of Category 5 racing, as Casale described it. In the cycling circuit, riders begin at Category 5 and are moved up to Category 4 after 10 races. At that point, they must perform well enough in sanctioned races to move up to Category 3, then Category 2, and finally Category 1, which is the highest level in the country.

All three of these former Dragons classified as Category 1 racers through their ascension up the ranks over the past five years or so, and this enabled them to take part in the Philly Cycling Classic. According to Casale, there are only two women and 30 men who qualify as Category 1 cyclists in New Jersey. Although Hanks made it from intro to Category 1 in just a few years, it is not a common occurrence for a cyclist to climb up the ranks so quickly.

“You have to be dating someone who is racing every weekend,” she joked of her relationship with Casale, who proposed to Hanks after she completed her race on Sunday. The two are now engaged after dating for seven years since meeting at Drexel.

Of those 30, only about 10 are professional, while the remaining 20 live somewhat normal lives, working day jobs and things of that nature. Casale followed his course of study and works as a mechanical engineer in Northeast Philadelphia. Hanks works two jobs, including one with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training. It is a nonprofit organization that raises money for blood cancer treatment through participation in endurance sports.

Her other job is as program director for the Cadence Cycling Foundation, which teaches inner-city kids in Philadelphia how to ride and race bikes. Along with Hanks and others, Kielick works for Cadence as a coach, mechanic and salesperson. He also works part-time for an architecture firm, per his education at Drexel.

Although all three lead very busy lives, they trained as hard as ever to prepare for the Philly Cycling Classic. Expectations were pretty much the same for all three, as this would be one of the biggest races of their cycling careers to this point.

“My anticipation is that it’s going to be the hardest race I’ve ever done,” Casale said the night before the race. “This is a rare occasion where I will be nervous before the race.”

Hanks had similar feelings that day. “Once you race so much, you don’t get nervous anymore. But tomorrow it is weird to be nervous because usually it’s more nonchalant,” she said.

The riders put all words aside Sunday morning, when they went out on the course. Hanks finished 69th out of 110 female riders, while Casale and Kielick each recorded DNF (did not finish) results. Early in the race, Casale crashed his bike at a low speed and never got back up to the pack before being removed from the course by the officials. Meanwhile, Kielick fell behind the main pack, completing seven of the ten laps before officials called him off the course.

“It was definitely as hard as I thought it would be,” Kielick recalled after the race, where he estimated that he finished around 120th out of 190 male riders. “I didn’t finish well, but the accomplishment was being able to start and seeing how long I could hang.”

It was the first time he and Casale competed in the race, while it was the third time around for Hanks. This year’s edition of the Philly Cycling Classic was unique because the male and female riders were on the course in two separate races rather than all clumped together. Also, the men’s and women’s prize money was equal for the first time ever.

Perhaps the most intriguing change in the event was the placement of the start-finish line at the Manayunk Wall rather than on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Wall is a steep uphill climb on Levering Street in Manayunk, where many spectators watched on their porches and tailgated on Sunday morning to cheer on the cyclists as they passed.

“I’ve watched from the Wall before and had an idea of what it would be like,” Kielick said. “The couple of minutes I went up the hill with everybody cheering for me and screaming my name was probably one of the coolest moments I’ve ever experienced in a race.”

Although their finishes were not among the top of the bunch, all three Drexel grads expect better results next year, thanks largely in part to the experience they gained this time. With another year to compete and another year to improve, their next opportunity at the Philly Cycling Classic is sure to be a special one once again.

“I finished about seven laps, so I was pretty happy with that,” Kielick, who is a two-time Pennsylvania trial champion, said glowingly. “Hopefully next year I’ll be able to race it again and be a bit stronger.”

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[media-credit name=”Ken Chaney” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Senior Syracuse University midfielder JoJo Marasco drives to the net against sophomore Duke University goalie Kyle Turri. Duke won the 2013 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship.

Sports teams are often compared to cars. It is certainly not a surprising phenomenon, considering the growth in popularity of sports coinciding with the growth of the automobile industry in the United States. Analysts, coaches and fans throw around terminology like “well-oiled machine” and “firing on all cylinders” from time to time as appropriate accolades for dominant teams and dominating performances.

Now, picture a championship lacrosse team as a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500, considered to be one of the most highly regarded muscle cars of all time. The attack and the midfield are its back wheels, driving the high-powered team toward its goal. The defense and the coaching staff are the front wheels, holding the powerful machine steady while guiding the team in the right direction.

But the goalie is the engine. Without a superior engine, such as the V-8 of the Mustang, the automobile has no superiority; it is just a nice-looking shell of a car that is not built for the long run. After attending the NCAA Division I semifinals May 25 — hosted by Drexel University — it became blatantly obvious that a championship-caliber team needs a championship-caliber goalie to drive it to a title.

This was ever so apparent in the matchup between Syracuse University and the University of Denver. In the first half, the Orange absolutely dominated the Pioneers in all but two statistical categories: saves and goals. Although Syracuse held a 15-7 advantage in shots on goal, Denver led 5-2 at halftime thanks to 13 saves — yes, 13 saves — from sophomore goalie Ryan LaPlante.

In the second half, Denver head coach Bill Tierney stuck with his team’s seasonlong strategy and replaced “first-half” LaPlante with “second-half” junior Jamie Faus, and Syracuse came back to win by a score of 9-8. Faus saved only four of the Orange’s 11 shots on goal in the second half, although Tierney did not regret the decision.

“Honestly, we were thrilled with the way [LaPlante] was playing, but this is what we’ve done … [Faus] is our closer,” the head coach with a 28-year track record said. “[Faus] is the guy who comes in and has done a great job over the year. I think instead of blaming a 21-year-old kid, you look to Syracuse and say that was a heck of an effort.”

And Tierney is right, in a sense, as both of his goalies had above-average seasons in the cage. Including the semifinal game, LaPlante boasted a .576 save percentage and Faus a .554 mark of his own. But hindsight in coaching decisions aside, the fact remains that LaPlante was the sole reason why the Pioneers had more than a deer’s chance on the Pennsylvania Turnpike of winning the game at all; he truly carried his entire team for 30 minutes.

In the other semifinal game between Duke University and Cornell University, solid goalie play was at a minimum, hence the 16-14 final score in favor of the Blue Devils. However, Duke sophomore goalie Kyle Turri was just good enough to put his team over the top and help them advance to the championship game.

After the first half ended with the Blue Devils leading the Big Red by a score of 7-6, Duke scored seven goals to open the third quarter and stormed out to a 14-6 lead. Cornell added a tally near the end of the quarter, but by then the damage had been done. Turri was a big part of the hot streak, as he stopped four of five Big Red shots during the third quarter and finished with 16 saves out of 30 shots on goal for the game.

“This is as good as we’ve seen [Turri] play. … He saw the ball well; he made some clutch saves,” Cornell head coach Ben DeLuca said of the goalie who finished the season with a 13-1 record despite just a .496 save percentage. “That was probably the difference. … [Turri] really stood on his head and kept us off the board in some crucial situations.”

Although Turri is no perennial All-American, he played his best under the bright lights. As 28,444 were in attendance at Lincoln Financial Field and thousands more watched on ESPN, he stepped up to the occasion. And even though Turri allowed seven goals on 11 shots in a fourth quarter that almost saw the Big Red make a jaw-dropping comeback, his teammates did not help him out much; the Blue Devils had nine turnovers in the final frame alone.

Speaking of turnovers, another noticeable trait of the stellar goalies at the NCAA Division I semifinals was that they were forcing them. No goalie was more active outside of his crease than Syracuse junior Dominic Lamolinara, as he routinely challenged for out-of-bounds possession and attempted to intercept passes close to the net. In the championship game against Duke, Lamolinara fought for a loose ball near the sideline and was body checked out of bounds by a Blue Devil. After seeing that no penalty would be called, he bounced right up and safely scurried back to his crease in a matter of seconds.

Having a goalie beat out an offensive player for a ground ball can be very deflating for the opposition. On the contrary, watching your own goalie create a turnover can energize a team to a fast break the other way. In fact, that is just what Cornell senior goalie AJ Fiore did in his game Saturday afternoon. Although he had a poor performance overall — saving only 10 of 26 shots on goal — he kept his head in the game as time winded down.

In the middle of the Big Red’s fourth-quarter run, Duke had just scored to extend its lead to 15-12 with just over six minutes remaining. The Blue Devils won possession off the ensuing faceoff and controlled the ball within the Cornell zone. Then, out of nowhere, Fiore left his crease and lunged at a Duke pass intended to go behind the net. He intercepted the pass with one hand on his stick and fed his team the other way. The Big Red scored two consecutive goals to pull within one but ultimately could not notch the tying tally.

Blue Devils head coach John Danowski had the following praise for Turri after his team’s 16-10 championship victory over Syracuse: “He makes plays, intercepts passes, picks up ground balls, has got great touch in the clearing game, and he does more than just stop the ball.” This rings true for any lacrosse goalie aspiring to make a difference.

That is easier said than done, of course, especially when a heavy rubber ball is flying at your seemingly unprotected body at speeds nearing 100 miles per hour. But that is the game, and that is what these brave individuals have signed up for.

“One of the toughest things to do, I think, in college [lacrosse] now is to be a goalie,” Danowski said, seemingly to confer a warning to any young lunatics out there. “I’m not sure why anybody would want to be a goalie, and I’m sure most parents would agree with me.”

But lacrosse is a funny sport. It is a sport of speed, physicality and excessive amounts of face paint. In a sport where teams routinely score 10 goals per game — sometimes nearing 20 — a goalie who saves only half the shots he faces can be the hero. Because when a team is “firing on all cylinders,” there is usually only one player who can stop his team from being the roadkill of a Mustang: the goalie.

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Senior midfielder Ken Tribbett leaps with the Hofstra University defense in an attempt to produce a scoring chance. Tribbett netted three goals last season, all of which were of the game-winning variety.

Never have expectations been higher for the Drexel men’s soccer team. After eight seniors graduated from a squad that won the regular season Colonial Athletic Association title, the Dragons will defend that title in every one of their seven conference matches this fall. After reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 40 years — losing to Brown University in the first round — the team is hungry to return and do some damage on the national stage.

Case in point: the 2013 recruiting class for head coach Doug Hess was ever-so-crucial.

After graduating zero seniors following the 2011 season, the recruiting process was back to business as usual this year for the coaching staff, with a number of open roster spots. Of those eight seniors that graduated this year, three were full-time starters; defender John Boswell, goalkeeper Tim Washam and midfielder Brandon Zeller. As Hess said, all things considered, a solid foundation still remains.

“We lost guys in our senior class, but we also have guys that are ready to fill spots,” Hess pointed out. “I feel like we have a very good core of returning players right now. We add a competitive recruiting class, and hopefully you just keep going from there.”

The coach, who will be entering his fourth year at the helm of the program, responded with a strong incoming class of seven. They include keepers Tyler Afflerbach and Bardia Asefina; midfielders Adam Arana, Felipe Fagundes, Colin McGlynn and Connor Ryan; and defender Mark Matula.

As Hess mentioned repeatedly, all seven of these players come from a winning background. Whether it is Fagundes — the transfer who helped the University of Massachusetts Lowell to the Round of 8 in the NCAA Division II Tournament — or Afflerbach, — who has a Pennsylvania State Championship under his belt — these guys are proven winners, and that is unlikely to change at Drexel.

“I look at an incoming class of guys that all come from kind of winning traditions and winning programs; that’s what they’re coming into,” Hess affirmed. “They’re not coming into a team that lost the year before; they’re coming into a team that won the year before.

“It’s a team expectation now at this point. … The expectation is… we won the league [once]; can we win the league again?”

Perhaps the biggest blow to the team possibly repeating as champions was losing Washam. The Warminster, Pa., native started the final 18 matches for Drexel and played in every minute of the season other than the first contest, posting eight shutouts and a .835 save percentage in the process.

In response, Hess went out and secured his two keepers; Afflerbach from Harleysville, Pa., and Asefina from Raleigh, N.C. Even though they will both be freshmen this fall, the starting job is technically up for grabs.

“They don’t need to play right away but they’re going to be in a mind of competing for it right away,” Hess noted. “Everybody’s competing for the starting position; every year is a new year. [Keeper] is a position that needs competition all the time and we think it will be the competitive spot.”

Senior Pentti Pussinen, who started 13 matches as a freshman and played every minute of every game as a sophomore before bowing to Washam and serving as the backup last season, will be the favorite to win the job over the two newcomers. The Finnish keeper is currently rehabilitating an anterior cruciate ligament tear he suffered in December and five months later, he is back on his feet and running.

Also, look forward to former teammates running on the same field together once again. Fagundes, a Brazilian-born midfielder who is transferring to Drexel after two years at UMass Lowell, and Dragons junior forward Fabio Machado played on the same New England Revolution Academy team a few years ago. And it was no coincidence that Fagundes exercised his transfer rights to University City when he was released from his scholarship.

“Felipe reached out to us after his release, but, I mean, they know each other,” Hess admitted. “He’s a kid of character and he’s a guy that aspires to play at the highest level he can. He’s a nice passer and he’s a lefty; we don’t have a lot of lefties on our team.”

Another player that approached Hess in the recruiting process was Matula, a defender playing for Seattle Sounders FC Academy. Although the Drexel back line is a bit crowded at this point, the coach thinks the Sammamish, Wash., native is a seemingly perfect fit for the program.

“He’s just a real steady player; simple pass, simple choices, doesn’t complicate the game,” Hess lauded. “[If] you’ve watched us play, that’s the way we play. I think Mark’s [going to] be good in that realm.”

In the same trip to see Matula, Hess also took at look at Arana, a Southern California midfielder who the coaching staff had an eye on while playing for Chivas USA Academy. Arana has started all 26 games this season and is a player that is built to play in Hess’ system.

“The West Coast, in all honesty, is probably the best place in the country for youth soccer,” the coach said. “I think Adam’s [going to] be a very good college soccer player over his four years. He’s a kid that understands the game and understands all the positions.”

The final two players in the 2013 recruiting class are local midfielders; McGlynn from Jamison, Pa., and Ryan from Horsham, Pa. Both add depth to the Dragons roster that currently has returning players like senior Jared Girard, sophomore John Grosh, senior Nathan Page and junior Michele Pataia at midfield.

Not to mention, Hess also gets senior Phillip Hagerty back in the mix. The senior from Dayton, Ohio, is back in action after missing all of last season and redshirting following ankle surgery. So far this spring, he has been a welcome addition to a deep and talented roster, which now includes a potential breakout star, freshman defender Jameson Detwiler.

“He’s one of the few left-footed guys we have on our team, so we slid him in left back for Boswell, who played there last year,” Hess said of Detwiler, who redshirted last season after playing in only one game. “Jameson was fantastic through the spring, really good and just [kind of] gaining awareness of the position and growing and so forth.”

The coach also mentioned that Detwiler was the only player on the roster to play every minute of every game during the spring practice season, including both sides of a doubleheader in April. Although Drexel produced a draw in the majority of its exhibition games, Hess was very satisfied with his team’s performance.

“We had a very competitive spring,” Hess recalled. “A lot of good soccer played with building kind of what we want to do and trying to press teams. [We try] to have the ball as much as we can and [try] to take the game to [our opponent].”

With approximately three months until the Dragons first regular season game of the fall, many players are currently at home or on co-op. This includes senior Ken Tribbett, who is currently serving as a jack-of-all-trades for the Ocean City Nor’easters, a United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League team in Southern New Jersey.

Tribbett works as an intern for the team by day and scores big goals by night, including a game-winning goal in the Nor’easters 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds May 22. With the win, the team will advance to play the Philadelphia Union in the third round of the Open Cup May 28 at PPL Park.

Not bad for an offseason gig, eh? The midfielder from Centennial, Colo., surely knows how to take care of business. There is no doubt that Tribbett and the rest of the remaining Dragons from the 2012 history-making squad will accept their roles as leaders and mentors to all of the incoming players. With the 25-man roster set, they are about ready to begin the encore of one of the greatest seasons in Drexel men’s soccer history.

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I love sports. Trust me, they are the light of my life. Some of my most cherished memories involve sports, both as a fan and as an “athlete.” I am currently the assistant sports editor here at The Triangle, and I am set to graduate with a degree in sport management next March. Sports do “transcend,” as Micah Watanabe mentioned in his article in last week’s op-ed section, but it is important to realize that they are not perfect.

Sports might seem larger than life, but they are not. Life itself is complex, but sports are relatively simple. Athletes play games that result in wins and losses. This can bring people together or tear them apart. Fights between rivals in the parking lot balance the scale of high fives between pals at the bar.

Whether friend or foe, there have been, and will always be, moments in sports that anyone can appreciate. Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier showed that the nation’s pastime could finally be integrated. Michael Oher making it to the NFL showed that anyone can succeed in sports, no matter what background he or she comes from.

Yeah, sports sure do have some great stories to fall back on, and some even better moments. The 1980 Miracle on Ice and the David Tyree catch in Super Bowl XLII, among many others, are unforgettable. However, these special occasions in sports are the exception, not the norm, and sometimes we lose sight of that fact. For every comeback win there are countless wire-to-wire victories, and that is just fine.

Not every athlete is special, either. People have good qualities and bad. People do the extraordinary and underwhelm. Athletes are the same way because athletes are people. We should not glorify the athlete, just as we should not glorify the person who makes a meatball sandwich at Subway. Too often we put an athlete on a pedestal only to realize that he or she is not perfect in every way.

Athletes are made into gods, just to be broken down when they do not live up to those unrealistic expectations. Roy Halladay does not owe you an apology for being injured while playing a game that you casually watch while eating nachos on your couch. Ryan Howard does not deserve to get booed because he is not “living up to” a $125 million contract.

Philadelphia fans are a prime example of this, but we are all guilty in one way or another. Morality does not spawn from talent; good players are not always good people. Tiger Woods can be the greatest golfer of all time and still be the worst husband. Floyd Mayweather can be the greatest boxer of his generation and still be the biggest stooge. Really, it is OK.

A defendant is innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, but an athlete is wonderful until proven inadequate. Should it not be the other way around? It is that way in basically every other part of life, but why not sports? Is it the stage? Is it the money? Is it the media influence? I do not know.

However you care to evaluate it, the ultimate conclusion is that our view of sports is skewed. We do not allow great things to happen in sports; we make them happen through predetermined storylines and heightened expectations. If they are to “transcend,” we must make sure they actually deserve to do so. Sports should be celebrated for what they are, not for what we want them to be.

Bryan Fyalkowski is the assistant sports editor at The Triangle. He can be contacted at bryan.fyalkowski@thetriangle.org.

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