Victory Cigars

We're through the prelims, but first there's a story out of Salem, Mass of a lacrosse team having to forfeit a playoff game because a bunch of kids were allegedly smoking cigars.

Right on cue, the Facebook experts were on top of it.

The rule on the Massachusetts books reads like so:

During the entire academic year, a student shall not, regardless of the quantity, use or consume, possess, buy/sell or give away any beverage containing alcohol; any tobacco product; marijuana; steroids; or any controlled substance. It is not a violation for a student to be in possession of a legally defined drug specifically prescribed for the student’s own use by his/her doctor. The year begins with the first day of fall practice.

I think we can all agree the rule comes from a good place. High school kids shouldn't be consuming alcohol anyway and certainly not if they're an athlete, but adults have been trying to legislate that for decades. Although, back in the 70's it was a little more voluntary...

But that's just the first glance look at this story: dumb kids do dumb things and break a clear-cut rule...right?

Well...

But Gianakakis and his friends knew they could not smoke real cigars. On Tuesday, their varsity lacrosse team was set to play Cohasset High School in the MIAA Division 4 Boys Lacrosse semifinal game. The student athletics organization has rules against tobacco use, which Gianakakis said he did not want to run afoul of. 

With the help of their parents, they went to great lengths to not smoke cigars. They tried to get fake cigars and when that failed, their parents rolled their own fake cigars and they "smoked" those for the traditional post-graduation photo. It sounds like they didn't actually break the rule? And yet, the school district (and not the MIAA), opted to suspend the graduated seniors, which left the team without enough players for their playoff game.

It's also a curious decision by the school district. They didn't seem to break a rule and unless the kids floated after being thrown in the water (as is the custom in Salem), it seems like they could have just let the kids play? If later it's determined they shouldn't have, they could have forfeited after the fact. There's also the question of when the academic year ends. If it starts on the first day of fall practice, I suppose it would end with the conclusion of the final game in the spring.

Regardless, they weren't cigars and weren't tobacco products.

They found one and brought it back to show school leaders. Upon receiving the evidence, Principal Jonathan Mitchell personally assured Gianakakis and his father that the students who smoked the cigars would be able to play on Tuesday, Gianakakis said. 

And yet, they were suspended. It's a mess.

There's more to this story to come. That much seems obvious.

‘Devastating’: Ipswich lacrosse team forced to forfeit semifinal over fake graduation cigars, teen says

Despite reassurances from the principal, one Ipswich player said the superintendent chose to bar nine recently-graduated seniors from playing in the state semifinal game.

Boston.comRoss Cristantiello

But this particular brand of witch hunt wasn't isolated to Salem. It spread to Edward Little, where several boys lacrosse players had to sit out EL's prelim game against Bonny Eagle for a "similar incident", a game the #12 seeded Scots won in an upset.

I was unable to get a comment from Edward Little, as my email late last night went unanswered (as expected), but the newsletter marches on.

You don't want to play the game of "well, they would have obviously won" because you just never know who steps into the void of a missing player and who just might have a bad game, but two people I spoke to with knowledge of the matchup were pretty confident the suspended players could have made an impact in an 8-7 final score. But you never know!

But back to the rule. It's a good rule. You don't need your point guard drunk at some Superbad party during the playoffs. Also they're underage kids and yadda yadda yadda. But a cigar at graduation? What are we doing here? Are we going to suspend a kid for having a little wine at Thanksgiving? Or a glass of champagne at their sister's wedding? Or a cigar when their little brother is born? (Do fathers still bring cigars to the hospital when a kid is born?) There's so many rules that are great in theory, but fall apart when tested in the real world and I suspect this is one of them.

Or maybe we can just use a little common sense.

Elsewhere

Fisher Tewksbury's 1-hitter helped Valley advance over Forest Hills. He struck out 12...Noble needed an extra inning to put away Massabesic...Kayson Cyr drove in Cam Dean in the bottom of the 7th to give Scarborough a 3-2 win over Marshwood...Falmouth's Cooper Bucci shutout Bonny Eagle...#10 Gardiner scored twice in the top of the 7th to eliminate #7 Lawrence...Tyler Emerson's 3-hitter helped Yarmouth squeak by Poland...Kya Douin's 2-run homer helped Cony rally past Nokomis...Kelsie Dunn's 2-hitter gave Erskine a shutout of Spruce...Adrianna Lombardi had 5 hits as Winslow won a 21-13 barnburner over Sumner...#14 Woodland stunned #3 Wisdom with a 14-5 win on the road...#4 Fort Fairfield held on for a 16-15 win in a wild D North softball...Quinn Simpson's homer helped Greely beat Yarmouth...Abby Trainor scored 7 goals as Windham cruised...Daisy Vining threw a 1-hitter as Buckfield knocked off Temple...Janessa Moffitt homered and struck out 15 from the circle in Forest Hills' win over Valley.

The first half of Game 4 was pretty, pretty, pretty ugly if you're a Knicks fan.

This is where it helps to bring some reading material to the game.

If you went to bed at halftime...that turned out to be a bad idea. The Knicks stormed back down 29 when the Spurs went ice cold in the second half.

The Spurs had a couple of chances where it looked like they had held on after Stephon Castle's hit 2 free throws to give them a lead.

And then.

This series has been incredible.

When Ethan Snow was on the podcast, he remarked that Windham wasn't exactly used to being this low in the standings, but they are used to being in big games. Today's 4/5 quarterfinal isn't big by Windham standards, but the Model thinks it'll be worth the trip.

They'll take on a Gorham team that beat them 10-5 back in mid-May. As for Gorham, they'd won 8 in a row before falling to Bonny Eagle in the season finale.

The winner very likely gets a date with Cheverus.

The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.