2B — October 7, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

W

hen I walked into 
U-M Soccer Sta-
dium 45 minutes 
before the first game on Sunday, 
nobody was in the stands yet 
but “Dancing Queen” blared 
over the speakers. So, I guess 
there were never any plans to be 
subtle.
That’s 
somehow 
both fitting 
and ironic, 
and it can fill 
both boxes 
because the 
Venn Dia-
gram of gays 
and sports is 
usually just 
two circles 
bumping up against each other. 
It’s fitting because it’s Pride 
Day here, for the first time 
ever, and we aren’t exactly shy 
about things like this. It’s ironic 
because we’re at a sporting 
event and athletes still swing 
heavily towards a muted, non-
emotive way of carrying them-
selves. It’s still abjectly weird 
to break that mold, especially 
in the way LGBTQ folks stereo-
typically break it. 
That’s why there are exceed-
ingly few openly gay athletes in 
collegiate or professional sports. 
It’s why those who come out 
stress for years about it, and it’s 
why I spent the first 20 minutes 
after I got there thinking about 
the social dynamics of playing 
“Dancing Queen” while some 
soccer players warmed up.
There’s a deep-seated ele-
ment of self-consciousness I 
still have about things like this. 
It’s not as bad as it was in high 
school, but it lingers now as my 
head goes in circles about this 
song. Nathan Brechd, the man 
who organized this day, seems 
to have shaken that element of 
himself a while ago. When I 
asked where to find him before 
the game, I was told by someone 
in the press box, “He’s the tall 
guy dancing near the table with 

the Pride flag.”
It turns out that Brechd is not 
gay himself, but an ally. That’s 
somewhat beside the point. If 
you’re working in sports and 
dancing around with a Pride 
flag, your level of unease with 
breaking norms is below zero.
Brechd started research-
ing last spring about whether 
other Big Ten teams had done 
something like a Pride Day, 
and the conversations started 
to heat up about three months 
ago. Sometime in between, the 
Athletic Department heard 
from the Department of Equity 
and Inclusion that some student 
athletes had asked about doing 
a pride day in an anonymous 
survey.
Soccer — especially women’s 
soccer — has natural ties to the 
LGBTQ community, so it made 
sense to do it here. Brechd went 
on Maize Pages and reached 
out to every LGBTQ-affiliated 
group he could find.
“I just wanted to be as 
authentic as possible,” Brechd 
said. “I didn’t want this to be a 
day that members of the LGBTQ 
community came out to and felt 
like we were being gimmicky or 
inauthentic.”
They hung pride flags of 
various LGBTQ groups over the 
press box, gave away rainbow 
flags to fans in attendance, and 
set up face paint and chalk. At 
halftime, they 
played a video 
highlighting 
the Athletic 
Department’s 
inclusivity. It all 
felt somewhat 
understated and 
quaint, but in a 
comforting way.
“I think it’s 
pretty great,” 
said Cyvvie 
Barton. She was in the stands 
with her partner, Laurel Hanna. 
“There are a lot of kids here. 
A lot of families here, which is 
cool. I haven’t been to a soccer 

game before, so I don’t know 
if the crowd compares or if it’s 
bigger or smaller than it usu-
ally is.”
Both of them work at the 
University, for DEI. They heard 
about the event on social media 
and came any-
way, sitting 
with a pride flag 
draped between 
them.
I explained 
to them that I 
wasn’t quite sure 
how to write 
this story, how 
much I wanted 
to talk about my 
experience as a 
gay man and that I didn’t really 
know how to navigate these 
waters. Truthfully, I was hoping 
they’d help me find some coher-
ence to this story, but as you’ve 

figured out by now, that didn’t 
quite happen.
“We were just talking about 
how many Pride events that 
we’ve been to this summer and 
stuff like that, so this is kind of 
like a great cherry on top of the 
year,” Barton said. “But yeah, I 
think women’s sports in general 
are more open to people being 
different than the standard. So 
LGBT initiatives kind of fit well 
into that narrative, I guess. Or 
people in general. 
“Whereas I think in a lot of 
men’s sports, especially profes-
sional sports, it’s not good to 
be different unless you’re the 
best person on the field. So it’s a 
little easier in some ways with 
women’s sports.”
She was surprised that Pride 
Day wasn’t just for the women’s 
team. Neither of them saw men’s 
sports as being particularly wel-

coming to LGBT communities 
because, empty rhetoric aside, 
they’re not. That’s not meant to 
imply that there aren’t people 
trying to fix the problem or say 
that there hasn’t been marked 
progress being made. It’s not 
meant as a dra-
matic statement 
either. It’s just 
a fact.
That shows 
itself in big ways 
— there’s no 
hiding the fact 
that through-
out the four 
major profes-
sional leagues in 
America, there 
somehow isn’t a single openly 
gay man — and small ones, too. 
When the men’s soccer team 
took the field for warmups on 
Sunday, rap music played. 

Nitpicking things like that 
belies the point, though. Some 
people like to dump on any 
progress that isn’t both whole-
sale and done in completely 
their way, going out of their 
way to find reasons things are 
still bad or will 
never be good. 
I hate those 
people, because 
underscoring all 
of those issues, 
however big, is an 
undercurrent of 
progress.
On Sunday, 
thanks to Brechd, 
Michigan took 
a small step for-
ward.

Sears can be reached at 

searseth@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethan_sears.

SportsMonday Column: Why Pride Day matters

The minute-long review of 
Johnny Beecher’s power-play 
goal was the only thing that 
caused doubt at Yost Ice Arena 
on Sunday afternoon.
The 
freshman 
forward 
appeared to have kicked the puck 
into the net, but upon review, 
the referees determined that 
the contact with his foot was 
unintentional and Michigan was 
awarded the goal.
The tally gave the Wolverines 
a 2-0 lead over Windsor heading 
into the first intermission, and 
the game didn’t get much closer 
from there. Michigan poured in 
six more scores to win, 8-2, in its 
season-opening exhibition.
All the usual caveats about 
this being an exhibition game 
against a team in a lower division 
apply, but the Wolverines showed 
flashes of the team they could be 
this year.
From the opening moments 
of the game, it was clear that 
one team had an advantage. 
Michigan 
didn’t 
allow 
the 
Lancers into the offensive zone 
for the first three minutes, and 
Windsor finished the first period 
with just three shots, all of which 
sophomore goaltender Strauss 
Mann stopped. 
“I thought there was a lot of 
good things that came out of that 
game, and that’s what we look for 
out of one of those games,” said 
senior forward Will Lockwood. 
“We kind of looked at it like it 
was a regular season game, so 
we came out hot. We didn’t score 
right off the bat, but pucks started 
to go in. I think we let off the gas 
a little bit which is what we want 
to focus on not doing, but overall, 
I thought it was good.”
Sophomore forward Garrett 
Van Wyhe opened the scoring 
on a tipped pass from senior 
defenseman Luke Martin, and 
Michigan didn’t look back from 
then on out. Beecher’s power-
play score left the Lancers in a 
2-0 hole to close the opening 
stanza, 
and 
the 
Wolverines 
picked up where they left off in 

the second.
Freshman defenseman Cam 
York lit the lamp for his first of 
two times on the afternoon when 
sophomore 
defenseman 
Nick 
Blankenburg fired a shot from 
the top of the right circle that 
caught York’s stick and snuck 
behind 
goaltender 
Jonathan 
Reinhart. 
Minutes 
later, 
freshman defenseman Keaton 
Pehrson unleashed a slapshot 
from the left circle that Reinhart 
didn’t have a chance of stopping.
“I 
liked 
our 
freshmen, 
especially our two defensemen,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
Mel 
Pearson. “You can see that 
they’re both good defensemen. 
We’ve really got some potential 
on offense with them.”
By the time Windsor got on 
the scoreboard, the hole had 
already been dug. After York 
went down behind the net, 
forward Mel Melconian picked 
up the puck and passed it to 
teammate Ryan Shaw. Shaw’s 
shot went over senior goaltender 
Hayden Lavigne’s right shoulder 
for the Lancers’ first tally of the 
night, but Michigan still led by 
three.
Michigan quickly extended 
the lead once again in the closing 
minutes of the second period on 
a highlight-reel backhander from 
York and another power-play 
tally, this time from sophomore 
forward Jimmy Lambert.
Lambert’s power-play goal 
was the second of three for 
the Wolverines — out of six 
opportunities. 
Pearson 
made 
some changes to the power play 
this offseason, giving associate 
head coach Bill Muckalt the reins 
of the unit.
“You have systems but then 
you have to have players that can 
just read off of that,” Pearson 
said. “Not everything’s going 
to go tic tac toe, so you have to 
take what they give you and then 
create some things offensively. 
And I thought we didn’t score on 
some of our best chances on the 
power play, but it looked good.”
The biggest question mark 
of the night was Lavigne, who 
allowed two goals on 14 shots 

for a save percentage of .857. 
Lavigne entered last season with 
the starting job, but he quickly 
started splitting time with Mann, 
as was the case Sunday. Mann 
faced fewer shots than Lavigne, 
but the second goal Lavigne 
allowed came on a play where he 
didn’t get his pad across in time 
to make what could’ve been a 
straightforward save.
“(Lavigne) was good,” Pearson 
said. “He made some tough saves. 
You know, I’m sure he’d like the 
second one back but when you 
haven’t played for a long time, 
it’s just a fluky thing. He made 
some real hard saves. I liked 
his alertness. I liked the way he 
moved the puck. I thought he 
was good, too.”
Coming 
into 
Sunday’s 
exhibition, 
Michigan 
wasn’t 
worried about getting the win. 
It was almost expected, and the 
biggest things Pearson hoped 
to learn were about this team’s 
potential.
After putting up eight goals 
on a goaltender with a career 
save percentage above .900 and 
allowing just two, the Wolverines 
look poised for a better year 
than last year. It was only an 
exhibition, but the pieces seem to 
be there for a strong season.

When it comes to college 
athletics, 
no 
matter 
how 
talented a recruit is, there is 
always uncertainty as to how 
well the skills will translate.
The Michigan hockey team 
was no stranger to that this 
preseason. 
The 
Wolverines 
brought in a freshman class of 
five — including first-round 
NHL draft picks in defenseman 
Cam York and forward Johnny 
Beecher — hoping to find some 
key contributors.
It takes more than one game 
to rid uncertainty. Regardless, 
Sunday’s exhibition win against 
Windsor shed some light on 
what the underclassman can 
bring to the program. 
York, 
Beecher 
and 
defenseman Keaton Pehrson 
were the three freshmen who 
saw the ice in Sunday’s 8-2 
victory — with forwards Eric 
Ciccolini and Nick Granowicz 
ruled healthy scratches — and 
all three notched tallies on the 
box score.
Of the three, York’s presence 
shined brightest. Six minutes 
into the second period, he 
received a quick pass near the 

left circle and delivered the 
puck past Lancer goaltender 
Jonathan Reinhart. That goal 
marked the first of his college 
career — one he’s thought about 
for a while.
“I’ve 
been 
dreaming 
of 
playing out there for a long 
time,” York said. “Just to have 
that opportunity to put it in 
the back of the net was a dream 
come true.”
Less than 10 minutes later, 
York was back in the spotlight. 
This time, though, he flashed 
more showmanship. Streaking 
down the right wing, York 
collected the puck and moved it 
through his legs with a creative 
ease before scoring his second 
goal of the night.
“In practice every now and 
then, I’ll get a pass that’s a little 
bit behind me and I’ll do that,” 
York said. “It’s just kind of an 
‘in the moment’ type of thing. 
It worked out, so that’s pretty 
cool.”
Though 
Beecher 
and 
Pehrson didn’t show quite as 
much craft, they still made 
their names heard. In the 
final minute of the opening 
frame, Beecher strategically 
positioned himself in front of 
the crease, and a deflection 

off his foot led to Michigan’s 
second goal.
With all the energy and 
emotions built up leading into 
their first game, the Wolverines 
scrapped with opposing players 
after whistles were blown, a 
few times. Beecher got in the 
action at one point, after taking 
a hit near the boards. Though 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson 
hopes for more discipline out 
of those situations, the play 
proved Beecher is not afraid to 
get involved.
“Johnny got hit up high, but, 
again, you have to be able to 
take that,” Pearson said. “You 
have to turn the cheek and play 
hard and let the referees call the 
game. It’s a physical game and a 
physical sport and sometimes 
you don’t like getting bounced 
around a little bit, but you 
have to understand, we have 
to control that. Johnny’s a big 
strong guy, so he can handle 
himself. He’ll be fine.”
Pehrson had his moment 
in the middle of the second 
frame. 
Sophomore 
forward 
Luke Morgan sent the puck his 
way from the right to left circle, 
and Pehrson showed off his 
strength, rifling the puck past 
Reinhart.
The Lancers aren’t at the 
caliber of opponents Michigan 
will face here on out. They 
normally 
don’t 
compete 
in 
the NCAA, so it was easy for 
Pearson to give the newcomers 
substantial ice time. That said, 
he was pleased with their 
performances and is keen on 
keeping the freshmen involved. 
And if their adjustment to 
the college game continues 
to go smoothly, it could pay 
dividends moving forward.
“I’m not surprised they’ve 
got the skill, it’s just a matter 
of learning what it takes every 
night and how hard you have 
to play and how much quicker 
the pace is and stronger. And 
it’ll even go up a notch or two 
from tonight to the next game,” 
Pearson said. “But like I said, 
they’re good hockey players 
and you could tell that tonight.”

Freshmen shine

Beecher, York, Pehrson all tally goals as Michigan rocks Windsor, 8-2, in exhibition matchup on Sunday afternoon

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Freshman defenseman Cam York scored twice in Michigan’s 8-2 exhibition game win over Windsor on Sunday.

ETHAN
SEARS

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan men’s and women’s soccer teams hosted their first ever Pride Day on Sunday afternoon, a positive step for the Athletic Department.

I just wanted 
(the day) to be 
as authentic as 
possible.

This is kind 
of like a great 
cherry on top of 
the year.

