November 22, 2002

Bleeding Marlin Blue

The men's soccer team got the biggest shock of the season just an hour before the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) semifinal game. The men are more than just a group of boys on a team. These are boys who live in the same hall, go to the same functions outside school and have friendships that go back to when they kicked their first soccer ball. There are brothers on the team - Josh Hill, who is the oldest and Caleb, two years younger. There are two kids who have been best friends since the kindergarten - Kelvin Murray and Pat McStay; they live together now. And there are Virginia Beach locals who have played together or against each other all their lives.

The Marlins had a very successful 2002 season. They were undefeated after 15 games, which included taking the title at two tournaments. The team was well on its way to the conference championship and looking forward to competing in the national tournament. The team had set its sights on making it to the tournament. And they were proving they deserved to be there all year - until the last two conference games of the regular season.

The Marlins hit the road to Washington and Lee University, and lost the first game of the season, but not the ambition or passion to win. The next opponent they faced was Randolph-Macon, who was ranked at the bottom of the conference. It was the closing game of the season and at Wesleyan’s home field. The temperature was 40 degrees; it was windy, rainy and the field was sopping wet - the Marlins were defeated for the second time of the season. The only thing senior captain Josh Nolz could say after that game was, "What happened to our team?" He said they needed to come back together and play as a team again. And that's just what the Marlins did.

The first game of the ODAC tournament was at the Marlin home field against their long - time opponent W&L. It was payback time and time for the Marlins to move towards an ODAC championship. The Marlins took the game with a 4-0 win and they advanced to the semifinal round of the tournament. Little did the Marlins know, the final minutes of the game would come back to haunt them all. Head coach Sonny Travis has been coaching the men's soccer team for 14 years. He is the athletic director and has led the Marlins to the semifinal round of the ODAC tournament 13 out of 14 years in the conference. It was Monday, just two days before the semifinal game, that he had to make one of the toughest decisions he has made in his 17 years of intercollegiate coaching.

It was two days before Wesleyan was scheduled to play Randolph Macon in the semifinals when Travis realized the unimaginable. He was looking at the tape of the game the Marlins had lost to Macon and realized that junior Josh Hill had received his fifth yellow card in the final minutes of that game. (Note: when a player receives five yellow cards within a regular season, the player must sit out the following game. After that game, the player may return to the field and the number of cards is reset.) Travis was not aware that Hill had received this card until he saw the tape. It was too late.

“I knew that I got the card,” said Hill. “For some reason I assumed I could play, or coach would have told me otherwise.” Travis reviewed the box scores and materialized that Hill did indeed receive his fifth yellow card and should have sat out for the W&L game, the one in which he had an assist and a goal. "It would have been easy to overlook the infraction," said Travis. "I did not see the card given, and the official that gave the card never wrote it down, but ethically I couldn't look past it. I had to make the call to the commissioner."

Without any hesitation, Travis called Brad Bankston, commissioner of the ODAC. What followed was a controversial and emotional roller coaster of decisions and changed decisions involving ODAC and NCAA officials. The initial ruling stated that the Marlins did not have to forfeit and could advance in the tournament. On Tue., the day before the semifinal game Travis received an electronic message from the Commissioner stating that the ODAC Executive Committee ruled that Hill along with Travis each had to serve a two-game suspension, keeping both individuals out of the remainder of the tournament, but the team could continue to compete. “I was glad that the whole team did not have to suffer because of my mistake,” said Hill. Travis went to practice on Tuesday and told the team the decision. The team had questions, but accepted the decision for the most part and the practice continued as usual.

On Wednesday, the day of the semifinal game, the Marlins were pumped. The team arrived as scheduled and they removed the tarp, laughed with each other, joked around and then convened for lunch. Then the unthinkable. Travis received a call from Bankston. Travis was informed that the league had changed its original decision and ruled that Wesleyan had to forfeit its 4-0 quarterfinal victory over W&L. The Marlin's tournament run was over. It was then that coach Travis had to relay the message to his team, who were waiting to play.

The team was silent. The members sat looking at their coach in dismay as he said the word, "forfeit.” Then the questions came: "How could they tell us one thing and then another?" "Is it possible to still get a bid into the tournament?" The coach answered what he could. And then the tears came. Seniors who have worked so hard for the success of this team were in the state of shock. Some cried, some got mad, some blamed the coach, some blamed the player, some were mad at the people making the decisions determining the fate of the team's season, and others were too sad or mad to blame anyone. It was a sad and somber day for the Marlins soccer team; but the team still hoped they would get an at - large bid into the national tournament. “Everyone was telling me it wasn’t my fault,” said Hill. “I still feel guilty, I should not have assumed anything. Now, our season is a bunch of what if’s.”

The boys anticipated the next decision that would determine whether or not their season was officially over. They waited for four days. On Sunday night the Division III tournaments would have been over and the decisions made as to who would get an at-large bid into the tournament. There were only five bids available for the entire nation.
“I was hoping that doing the right thing would pay off,” said Hill. “And it will - it just hasn’t yet.” Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. the team convened in a captain's room on campus. The coach called them and told them they had not gotten the bid that they hoped for. No one in the South Region received an at - large bid.

That was it. For the players who have eligibility left, it was disappointing. For the seniors who will never step on Foster field again, it was devastating. It was over.

Fall 2002 ODAC Awards

Verizon Academic All-District III Award

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