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.