Post Magazine: The Agony of Victory

Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 30, 2007 12:00 PM

The girls' lacrosse team at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Md., had a nationally unsurpassed 102-game winning streak. What happens when the pressure not to lose finally explodes on the field?

Eli Saslow explores this question in this week's issue Washington Post Magazine.

Eli Saslow, a Post sportswriter, last wrote about golf pro Phil Mickelson for the Magazine.

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Eli Saslow: Thanks everybody for stopping by. I had a great time writing and reporting this story. I often write about high school sports for the Wash Post sports section, and I think Hebron's story was a natural fit for the magazine. It is so rare, in sports, to enjoy the kind of access I had during this process. The coaches and players let me stand with them in the huddle during timeouts, ride their bus before big games, tag along to school, become a fixture at practice, etc. No college or professional team would ever have been so generous.

Anyway, on to the questions, because it looks like we have quite a few. If I don't answer yours, or if you think of anything later, e-mail me anytime at saslowe@washpost.com. Thanks again for reading the story.

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Leonardtown, Md: This was a really great article, but the only complaint I have is that is seemed to revolve almost entirely around just two people: the coach and the goalie. The focus on the coach I can understand, but why so much about a single player? Sure, it's the most important single position, but it would have been useful to see how more of the other players dealt with the pressure. Singling out one girl as being emblematic of the team (and, by extension, the streak) would seem to amplify those same pressures that were taking such a toll on her.

Eli Saslow: Great question, thanks. When I started working on this story, I figured maybe I would focus on a few girls, or maybe even a few parents, or maybe even a teacher or two. Brooke became a pretty obvious character from the beginning, because of her personality and her obvious internal conflict about how to deal with the streak.

I guess, in the end, I chose to focus on only two characters because of space. It would have been hard to completely characterize more people in 7,000 or 8,000 words. Caitlin, I thought, was a compelling person to follow because the pressure of the season wore on her so much. So, hopefully, by focusing mainly on two people, you got to know those two people pretty well.

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Portland, Ore.: Where does the Hebron girls lacrosse team sit on the hierarchy of sports at the school? Does the school still treat the boys football team with more reverance even though the LAX girls have seen such success?

Eli Saslow: I went to school with some of the Hebron girls, sort of expecting to find exactly what you indicate: that football players were still more popular; that the girls didn't base their social status on lacrosse; that most of the student body didn't give a damn about the girls lax team, no matter how many games it won. But boy, was I surprised.

The girls at Hebron are really on the top of the totum pole. They've had so much for success than any other athletic team at the school, and their success comes with constant attention. Many other newspapers and television stations have done big pieces on the team. Their on-field success carries over into the halls at Hebron, where they're looked up to in that way that all "popular kids" always have been: They are at once admired and resented, because pretty much everybody wants to be one of them.

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Fairfax, VA: I coach a different sport in a different state, and I have to ask -- this team played many games with large leads. Couldn't the starting goalie have been pulled in these games to allow the #2, #3 and #4 goalies to develop? Then this super coach wouldn't have to leave a crying player on the field. I'm sorry, this is cruel. And please don't tell me the crying player would not want to leave the game. That's why we have adult coaches, to make the tough decisions and protect young players.

Eli Saslow: Hebron wins most of its games by maybe 15 or 20 goals, and Caitlin did come early in the second half during those kinds of blowouts. Brooke sent in a replacement, a talented-but-inexperienced sophomore who was on varsity for the first time.

But Caitlin tended to succumb to the emotion more during CLOSE games, and I don't think Brooke felt like it was an option to take her out. First of all, Caitlin was the team's best goalie, and Brooke wanted her in the game. Second -- and I'm guessing here -- I think Brooke felt like it would detract from Caitlin's confidence if she was pulled. She wanted to build Caitlin's confidence by showing she had faith in her. I don't think that was a coaching mistake, and I certainly don't believe it was cruel.

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Falls Church, VA: After the loss, it seems like the team played with a lot more confidence and actually enjoyed the game of lacrosse. It seems it was better to lose to the West Genesee team than to lose the state title game. Even Caitlin seemed to be more relaxed in goal. How do you account for the team's transformation after the loss? Also, it must have been a really emotional scene when the team broke down after the loss.

Eli Saslow: Good observations. I guess, to make a sort of elementary analogy, I'd compare Hebron's winning streak/loss to the building of a storm. With each close game, with each landmark win, the tension at Hebron kind of swirled more and more. By the time they lost this season, they really needed the tension to be released. It had become too much. So, after that one massive storm released all of the tension, everybody on the team seemed to be able to relax a little and have more fun. They had so much less to lose. They could play without fear, because the worst had already happened.

The definitely broke down with emotion after that loss but, to Hebron's credit, they pulled together pretty quickly. That tension just needed to be released. They needed a fresh start, I think. And toward the end of the winning streak, the coaches believed that, too. Yes, of course they wanted nothing more than to keep winning, but they realized that the streak certainly had a downside.

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Harrisburg,. Pa.: I realize this is quite different, yet if you ever wish to do another story on atheletic attitudes towards streaks, our local minor league football team, the Central Penn Piranha, have a 119 home game win streak that is still ongoing.

Eli Saslow: Impressive. How are they doing over there? Do they seem daunted at all by the pressure?

I'd love to hear about other streaks, too. I've heard from several readers about teams that have gone years and years without losing. I think the benchmark, for a really great, historic streak, seems to be about 100 games or so...

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Columbia, MD: I'm a parent of a recent graduate of Hammond High School where Mrs. Kuhl (as she is affectionately known) teaches dance. There is no teacher more dedicated to her students than she, and the openness that she shares with her girls is fully reciprocated. Her passion has touched countless young women both at Hammond and at Mount Hebron, and I am sure that many would agree with me in saying that it is a gift to have her as a role-model for so many young women in Howard County.

Eli Saslow: Thanks so much for sharing. That all sounds exactly right to me. I think Brooke does a really good job, both as a coach and a teacher. What is evident about her, always, is how much she CARES. She is not getting rich coaching high school lacrosse at Hebron, but she devotes her life to it because she feels like she owes it to those girls. She never shortchanges her dances, either. She'll work 90-hour weeks to make sure she jams everything in.

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Stephens City, VA: Excellent article. The 2006 Clarke County High School (Berryville, VA) girls basketball team entered the state final undefeated (won something like 27 games) and heart-breakingly lost the state championship game. The following year, Clarke came back to the state title game (they lost two or three regular season games coming into the final) and won the 2007 state championship, beating a team that, like Clarke the previous year, was undefeated. The pressure to win is tremendous. It is doubly hard trying to maintain a winning streak as well.

Eli Saslow: Another nice note about a streak. I think, whether in Clarke County or at Hebron, the pressure to win in high school sports continues to mount. It's a complicated trend, I think, because I'm not sure the professionalization of high school sports is all bad. Now, high school athletes enjoy more exposure. They get to travel more. Female athletes certainly have more opportunities and enjoy more respect.

But then again, there is that other side: the pressure.

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Eli Saslow: Here's a comment from somebody who thinks the pressure outweighs the positives. Any other thoughts?

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Arlington, VA: You may be surprised by my reaction, but I found your story depressing. The word "fun" wasn't even mentioned until the end of the story, and even then it was only in a negative context. These are teenage girls playing a high school sport. Probably none of them will make a living that has anything to do with lacrosse, yet they seemed miserable about the possibility of losing a game. This will make me think twice about encouraging my son to play organized sports. If this is what it's come to, why bother?

Eli Saslow: I can understand this perspective, but I don't think it's all bad.

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Boston Mass: Did you get a sense that the self-esteem these girls may have derived from the lax team may have given them more self-confidence in their social lives (rather than being reliant for approval from others)?

Eli Saslow: Ahh, here's a chance to talk about a positive result of the pressure. Thanks. Yes, I definitely think the confidence on the field spills into the classroom, into jobs, into personal relationships, and just about everywhere else.

It's interesting, actually, how far the Hebron lax team goes in destroying so many old feminine stereotypes. At Hebron, it's OK for girls to be fierce, to be competitive, to be angry, to cuss, to spit, etc. On the lacrosse team, all of this is encouraged. There were so many scenes from the pregame huddles that I couldn't put in the story simply because the profanity was overwhelming -- girls cursing at each other, firing each other up, etc. That kind of energy is OK at Hebron, which is cool. It definitely redefines all kinds of gender stereotypes.

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Maryland: As a mother, I found it absolutely enraging to read about two girls, running around on the roof of the school, only to be caught and then have the administrator JUST LET THEM GO. Is it just me, or is this crazy? Right now, we're reading all of these stories about athletes who behave like they're above the law. Hmmm... I wonder why. Maybe it starts because, at schools like Mount Hebron, athletes really are above the law. You did that administrator a favor by not using a name, because otherwise, he/she should have been FIRED!

Eli Saslow: It was a pretty amazing thing to watch first hand. I had heard some other kids at Hebron talk about how the lax players were treated differently, but I didn't really believe it until I watched these girls climb onto the roof. Both of the girls up there are really well-rounded kids -- good students, great athletes, nice to just about everyone. But in this situation, they knew they probably wouldn't get in trouble, even if somebody saw them breaking the rules.

I decided not to use the administrator's name because, really, it hardly mattered. That action was indicative of how these girls were sometimes treated. MANY administrators could have been the one dismissing these actions. I guess that's the point.

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Annapolis, Md: How did you view the sportsmanship the girls displayed when they were winning games by 20 goals? I went to school in Annapolis and we had a dominant girls lax team (mid 1990's), and the girls would routinely run up the score. I even saw some girls crying as they walked off the field if they didn't score goals. I guess it was the pressure, but they were merciless sometimes, and it made me sick to watch. Good article though.

Eli Saslow: Actually, I think Hebron acts with pretty good sportsmanship in lopsided games. Brooke takes out her starters very quickly, and she lets her reserves play for much of the game. She does not want to humiliate these teams at all -- she remembers what it felt like, way back when, to be humiliated by Hebron -- but it's a pretty hard thing to avoid. Some readers have suggested to me that Hebron should simply not let its girls score when the game gets lopsided. But, really, is that any better? What's more humiliating? To watch a team's reserves score a lot of goals against you? Or to watch them run around and play keep-away, refusing to even shoot at the goal out of pity?

I'm guessing most coaches would rather have the score lopsided everytime.

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Reston, Va: I play girls lacrosse, and I think nobody will ever win 102 games again. It's too hard now, because everybody's so good. Even in Virginia, girls lacrosse is getting good. The end of Hebron's streak was the end of an era.

Eli Saslow: Yeah, I agree with you. Parity is sort of the name of the game now, even in high school sports. Brooke recognized that at Hebron, even before her streak ended. It is harder to be dominant now than it once was, because more girls play club lacrosse all year and more teams care about winning. I think, 5, 10, or 20 years ago, one team could dominate in high school sports simply by CARING the most. The majority of schools were happy to participate, even if they were losing. Now, everybody wants to win. I think we care more about winning in general, especially in high school. The stakes of being good are higher -- money, scholarships, attention, etc.

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Arlington, Va: I'd like to second the comment by Arlington, VA, about how depressing this article was (though well researched and well written -- I'm not criticizing the author). The pressure these kids are forced to place on themselves is unreal, and I felt sorry for every one of them. How are they going to react when they get out of the pressure cooker of lacrosse and actually have to think for themselves?

Eli Saslow: I can see this side, certainly. But most of Hebron's players go on and do well. Some graduates talked about playing for Hebron like surviving law school. Yeah, it's hard and sometimes miserable. But when you finish, you've learned how to work hard and handle pressure. Everything else seems easy.

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Fairfax, VA: According to your article, the goalie was crying on the field at more than one game. Leaving a crying player on the field is not building her confidence in any way, shape or form. This tactic is placing winning above the player's emotional well being. This is cruel. A coach should be able to handle a loss, regardless of any streak, to protect the physical and emotional well being of the players. The super coach should have shown some interest in developing the confidence of the back-up goalie and put her in the game when the starter broke down emotionally.

Eli Saslow: I appreciate the coaching perspective, although I politely disagree.

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Alexandria, Va: Brooke seems so conflicted with her job as head coach. When is she going to just quit? Or is she in for another few centuries, like some of the real great coaches?

Eli Saslow: I don't think Brooke is going to stick for centuries...or even decades. In fact, I thought she might call it quits this year. Her husband, Tommy, told me that he sort of tried to convince her to leave after this year, having accomplished so much. Brooke said she was tempted, but she decided to come back because she felt like she owed that to her underclassman. Obviously, that's a pull that could bring her back year after year.

Tony, the other assistant coach, did decide to leave this year. He has a young child, and he coaches basketball at Hebron. He loved coaching lacrosse, but just decided that it was really a job with no upside. An undefeated season and a state title only meets expectations at Hebron.

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Cleveland Park, Washington, DC: There are so many articles and studies now about the pressure on teens--young women especially--to have a sparkling resume, get into a great college and have perfect grades. Do you think the Hebron lacrosse players have additional, unnecessary pressure? Or do the benefits of being on a sports team (camaraderie, confidence, etc.) outweigh the pressure?

Eli Saslow: Certainly I think they have additional pressure, and I think Caitlin -- and some other girls on the team -- suffered because of that. In the long term, it might yield some benefits. But certainly, Caitlin and her peers had what felt, at times, like a little too much to deal with last season: She had a few proms, college decisions, high school classes, etc. -- plus the weight of the winning streak. That's a lot.

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Kensington, MD: I thought the article was great. I have questions on two topics:

When you set out to write about this team, was the story always about the pressure to win and the possibility of losing? Did you first approach this with a different perspective? How did the story change once the team lost the game?

Obviously, the loss had a great effect on the team. From an outsider's perspective, do you view the loss as having a net positive impact? Were there any other effects of the loss not mentioned in the article (e.g. how the girls were treated at school, how the coaching staff was treated professionally)?

Thanks.

Eli Saslow: Good questions, thanks.

This was an interesting reporting experience, because when I set out to write the article, I really had no idea where it would go. I guess I thought Hebron would probably go undefeated, and that I would write about that. Mainly, we set out to examine what the streak meant, and how it effected competition for these girls at Hebron. We didn't know yet how the story would evolve.

The loss, of course, changed everything. At first I thought it was an end-of-the-world calamity that Hebron lost, of course, during the one season that I planned to write about how they never lose. But now, I can't imagine the story without the loss. It resolved so much tension. And yes, in the end, I think it was a net positive. I think the coaches probably believe that, too.

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Quebec: Do you know how the Mount Hebron alumnae (probably LAX college players now) reacted to the end of the streak? Great article!

Eli Saslow: I think everybody was disappointed, but they realized that this streak would end sometime. And it's not like being a Hebron lacrosse alum wasn't something to be proud of this season: The team still won another state title, and it beat a handful of great teams with national rankings. So I guess I would characterize the general fan reaction as tempered disappointment.

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Virginia: I can't believe anyone thought this was a depressing piece. Yes there was pressure on the girls, but if you don't want pressure don't play organized sports. The article focused on the pressure but that makes for drama and a good magazine piece. I bet the girls had tons of fun overall, even before the streak was snapped. Tell me I'm wrong.

Eli Saslow: Well, here's the other side of it. Thanks for sharing.

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Alexandria, VA: Hi Eli,

I was interested to know about the girl's under-eye painting. In some pictures they wear it and in others not. What is the significance?

Thanks,

Ray

Eli Saslow: No big significance here. In the state championship game, under the lights, Brooke suggested her player wear eye-black to help their vision under the stadium lighting. The girls went a little crazy with it, as high school girls are wont to do. They painted eachother with tons of eyeblack, and they walked out onto the field looking a little bit like Kiss or Metallica, taking the stage at a rock concert.

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Washington, DC: Nice work on a very complete portrait of female high school athletes. I felt like I was walking to all of those games with the girls, and through the school halls. I wonder...how different do you think these girls are from girls who played sports 10 or 15 years ago? I have to believe that that my girlfriends who played soccer and lacrosse in high school never ate at the best table in the lunch room.

Eli Saslow: Yes, I doubt it. One of the reasons the magazine editors suggested this story is because they believed it would resonate, since this really is a new era in women's athletics. I think it represents a step forward, to be sure.

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Annapolis, MD: Eli,

Very nice work. I don't particularly like sports, and I certainly don't follow lacrosse, but the story kept pulling me along. Anyway, I'm a former reporter and I'm curious about method. It seems like you spent a lot of time of this one, and even your time references in the story cover about four months. When did you start working on this, and how did the whole process work? I never wrote anything quite so long, and I imagine it was a bear of an assignment to spend a whole season with the team.

Eli Saslow: Thanks for being curious. I started working on the story a few weeks before the season began. I probably went out to Hebron once a week or so, while I was doing my regular job writing stories for the sports department. I worked on the article with my editor at the magazine, Lynda Robinson, and we sort of shaped it as the season went along. It was a long process -- and I definitely got a little sick of making the long drive from DC to the far reaches of Howard County -- but I think it's hard to write a narrative magazine story any other way. Really, for every big moment, I wanted and needed to be there.

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Maryland: Thanks for a really compelling story. As a long-time lacrosse fan, I kept track of Hebron's winning streak, and I was kind of sad to see it end.

You make reference to the story, sometimes, about how the team is percieved by the rest of lacrosse. The coaches I know always seemed to think Hebron had a reputation for being a little bit cocky, above it all, etc. Did you find that true? I would imagine a 102-game winning streak would do quite a bit to create an ego.

Eli Saslow: I think they have swagger. Let's put it that way. Overall, I think Brooke is very, very good about making sure these girls don't act on the field with an ego. She HATES the perception of Mount Hebron lacrosse as spoiled, or as cocky. But then again, when you win that many games in a row, it might be impossible for confidence not to spill over into a little bit of cockiness. Just a little bit.

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Downtown DC: Wait, so you're saying that it is ok for girls (or boys, or adults...) to curse at each other in the name of motivation and firing up? If I did that to my employees I'd be fired so fast I couldn't see straight. I'm all for breaking gender stereotypes, but not at the expense of basic courtesy.

Eli Saslow: No, perhaps I overstated it. It's not OK. But, if it's OK for guys to do it -- and I think, as a sportswriter, it pretty much is OK in sports -- than it should be OK for girls to do it, too.

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Purcellville, Va.: Eli - Let me guess? You were a high school jock? You couldn't help but take a swing and label some high school kids "misfits." That comment really added a great sense of accomplishment to an otherwise decent read.

And by the way, I've lived through enough high school reunions to realize it is the misfits who always talk about the accomplishments of their latest brokered deals or new products/innovations while the jocks sit around hashing over their "glory days" because life after high school was one failure after another.

Eli Saslow: I wouldn't say I was a jock, no. I played a little tennis, but that hardly landed me at the corner table in the lunch room every day like the Hebron girls. I'm sorry you took misfits as a swipe. I guess I just regard it as a factual statement. In high school, for better or worse, some people don't fit in. That doesn't mean anything. And it certainly doesn't mean they won't go on to great things later, as I'm sure you have.

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Durham NC: Thanks for the very interesting, engaging piece. Great journalism, of the kind that makes the Post a great read every day.

Thanks!

Eli Saslow: Yes! I'm throwing this in here, shamelessly, so we can end on a high note. Thanks to everybody for a great chat. Good perspectives, good banter, and good questions. If you have anything else to add, please e-mail me at saslowe@washpost.com.

Thanks for reading.

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