Sports talk with Evan Michaud

While students have been getting back into the swing of things, Castleton sports teams are in midseason form.  The women’s ice hockey team destroyed Nichols College 11-1 with Nicoline Jenson, Anna Daniels, and BriAnna Norodowy each netting two.  The men, after not losing a game in January, fell off with four straight losses to start February.  

In basketball, there is no stopping the Lady Spartans.  They have won an astounding nine games this year by at least 30 points, and are one game behind Colby-Sawyer, who comes to town for the regular season finale on Feb. 16t.  It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the men with two players kicked off the team for off the legal issues. Maybe I’m wrong, but if players are making questionable decisions off the court, are they really the people you want running your offense? 

In the wide world of professional sports, a few noticeable events caught my attention.  Phil Mickelson shot a 60, 12 under par, in the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open last week. Attempting to become only the sixth player to shoot a 59 in PGA Tour history, he came up short on the 18thgreen where his final birdie putt circled the cup 270 degrees and then popped out, leaving his caddy on his knees as his celebration was cut short.  It was a brilliant first round for the future Hall of Famer on his way to his first win in nearly a year.  Being a Tiger Woods fan, it was tough to watch Phil waddle up the fairway towards victory, however only a week after Woods lifted his 75thcareer trophy, I was okay with it. 

Unfortunately, the “steroid cloud” over baseball continues to grow.  New information that trainers allegedly injected players such as Alex Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez has become the off-season buzz.

Being one of the biggest A-Rod fans there is, this news was hard to take but not completely shocking. HGH and other hormones have been a massive part of our national pastime since Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased down Roger Maris’ home run record in 1998.  The league can issue as many random drug tests as deemed necessary, but the sport little to no chance of ever being completely clean.  So what can we do with that inevitability?  Should we be suspicious of every record since the rise of performance enhancing drugs following the players’ strike in 1994?  Excluse players like Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds from the Hall of Fame? When will people realize, in high stake situations, there are those who will risk whatever is necessary to succeed?  And with the amount of money on the line for professional athletes, can you really blame them?  

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