[
FROM THE EDITOR
] Taking Charge
Warren Kimber can’t shake the image of Ryan Foley laid out on the turf. He won’t let us, either.
away from a scene that gripped him with primal fear. Notre Dame midfielder Ryan Foley lay still on the field, in front of a hushed crowd and angry teammates at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. Moments earlier, Foley stepped around a pick and buried a 13-yard shot from dead center to give the Irish a 9-8 lead over Virginia in the teams’ NCAA quarterfinal encounter. Virginia defenseman Scott McWilliams was late to slide and delivered a punishing hit to the head as Foley scored. Notre Dame players celebrated until they realized their teammate did not get up to join them.
W
For nearly 10 minutes, Foley
remained on the turf. Emotions swelled on the Irish sideline as
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6 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2013>>
paramedics strapped him to a stretcher and carted him to an ambulance.
Foley raised his arm twice to signal thumbs up, eliciting cheers from players and fans — and a significant sigh of relief from Kimber, the NCAA’s longtime supervisor of officials.
“I thought he was dead,” Kimber told me in February. “It just undid me.” Doctors cleared Foley to fly home with his team, which went on to defeat the defending NCAA champion Cavaliers 12-10 to earn
arren Kimber stood 15 feet
a trip to the final four in Foxborough, Mass. He was OK. He even played the next week, when Notre Dame fell to eventual 2012 champ Loyola 7-5.
But the events of May 20, 2012, stuck with Kimber as a warning sign of what could happen one day if high hits and violent collisions to the head are not eradicated from our sport.
“I thought he was dead. It just undid me.”
“Right then I said, ‘We have got to do something about this before somebody does get critically injured,’” said Kimber, who remained in contact with the team, doctors and Foley family until 1 o’clock the next morning and followed Foley’s progress for the next three months. “When I found out that he was OK, it was a big relief, but there was still the need to bring that to people’s attention. I serve on the NCAA committee on injuries and I serve on the Ivy League committee on injuries. Both of them have asked me to do whatever I can to reduce those opportunities.” At the US Lacrosse National Convention, presented by Champion, in January, Kimber made it a point of emphasis that starting in 2013, all multiple-minute fouls for
contact with or to the head must be reported directly to him. He said he encountered some resistance from the 500-plus college referees at the meeting.
But Kimber fought back with flashbacks of the Ryan Foley scare.
“They all respect what
I say,” he said. “They may not agree with it, but they respect it.”
One month into the
season, Kimber had received approximately 85 emails. Another thing happened at PPL Park during the NCAA quarterfinals that unnerved Kimber. It was not as scary as the Foley episode, but it resonated enough for him to raise a second point of emphasis: coach civility. “The bench areas in the stadium were fairly close to the lower-level seats, with a running track between them. A kid would come off the field, and the head coach gets in his face and starts using the F-word every other word he says,” Kimber said. “There are families in the stands. I just got embarrassed for our game.” Kimber emphasized to officials that if they hear the F-word on the sideline or the field, it’s an automatic one- minute, time-served penalty. No leeway. First offense? Doesn’t matter. There needs to be a punitive deterrent, he said.
I say we need more
Warren Kimbers in the lacrosse world. LM
— Matt DaSilva
mdasilva@uslacrosse.org
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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