FAA Looking At CC Students Mid-Air Harlem Shake

From: Colorado Springs Gazette

On a Frontier Airlines flight from Colorado Springs to San Diego, the Harlem Shake strikes again. 

Colorado College students enroute to San Diego for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament filmed their version of the wild dance in the aisle of Flight 157, according to a story in The Catalyst, CC's student newspaper.

After more than 400,000 hits online, now comes an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“They are still looking into it, it’s still open,” Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the FAA told the newspaper. “…I don’t know where the [investigators] were told about it, but when they saw the video they just decided to look into it because it is better to be safe than sorry.”

According to The Catalyst, in the video, one student starts dancing in the center aisle near the front of the aircraft. After about 15 seconds of music, everyone on board starts dancing in what one passenger called “a riot on a plane.”

I hope that this whole situation is solved with the FAA…,” Matt Zelin, the sophomore who filmed the dance and member of CC’s Frisbee team, told the newspaper. “I don’t see there being any reason why this should cause any trouble. We asked the staff and they said it was safe.”

Bye Weekend Pays Dividends For DU

University of Denver received some good news over the bye weekend besides the obvious opportunity for players with nagging injuries to heal.

#1 ranked Yale lost two games over the weekend to conference opponents Union and RPI. DU inched closer to Yale in the Pairwise ranking and another loss by Yale coupled with their easier schedule would give DU the #1 ranking in college hockey as long as the Pioneers keep winning.

DU's two biggest rivals played over the weekend in Colorado Springs. Colorado College defeated North Dakota 4-2 on Friday night. UND star defenseman Chay Genoway injured his knee in the game. On Saturday night The Sioux bounced back 6-0 and CC goaltender Joe Howe left the game, also with a knee injury.

DU plays Colorado College next weekend.

Washington Capitals Blog Covers CC's "Curse"

The Washington Capitals themed On Frozen Blog has dubbed Colorado College's championship futility the "Mile High Hockey Curse" and linked our article from yesterday.

Did CC President Unleash Curse On Hockey Team?

The crack research staff at LetsGoDU has spent the summer looking into reports that Colorado College's hockey program is actually under a "Curse" that would explain why they haven't won a National Championship since 1957.

A sports-related curse is the effective action of some power or evil, that is used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or even cities.

DU graduate students throughly reviewed Wikipedia's List of Sports Curses to find similarities or clues to CC's misfortune. Sports Illustrated is considered by many to be a breeding ground of curses, so a bulk of the research was conducted on back issues of SI.

Last weekend our researches found two possible clues in the 3/10/1958 issue of Sports Illustrated. Just five days before the University of Denver would defeat North Dakota to win the 1958 National Championship, Colorado College's then president Dr. Louis T. Benezet, threatened to revamp his school's hockey program to "reduce the number of Canadians on CC's roster." Its interesting to note that Colorado College was the defending national champion at the time.

However the DU researchers point to March 1957, when Colorado College raised a question regarding the eligibility of three University of Michigan players—John Randall, Neill Buchanan and Wally Maxwell—all of whom were declared ineligible by the NCAA eligibility committee on the eve of the national tournament in Colorado Springs. CC would go on to defeat a shorthanded Michigan team in the championship game 13-6.

The hockey gods, obviously, were not amused.

Thanks to Canada, western college hockey is tops. Even so, some Americans object

by Barron Beshoar
March 10, 1958

After dropping a game 3-2 to the Minnesota Gophers in late December, Harvard Hockey Coach Cooney Weiland had some on-the-line things to say about the Wild-West style of play of the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League. In tones of deep-seated displeasure, Coach Weiland laid down: "It wouldn't be tolerated in the East. The way it was played Saturday night you might as well use picks and shovels for hockey sticks. No hockey player worth the name will complain about a legitimate body check in the open. But when they charge a guy into the fence, put elbows and sticks in his face, use threatening gestures, and molest a player when he doesn't have the puck, it is time to call a halt."

Weiland and his easterners are entitled to their indictment, but it is an opinion altogether wasted on the western hockey fans. Indeed, it is doubtful that he could have found even one sympathetic listener among the thousands that crowded into the University of Denver's big arena or the Broadmoor Ice Palace in Colorado Springs last weekend. To those screaming fans, the fierce, brawling Canadian-style hockey that put Denver's Pioneers and Colorado's Tigers in a three-way tie with North Dakota was the best collegiate hockey being played in the U.S. And, as they had no concern for the method of the game, they had none for the fact that nearly every player was the product of such places as Portage La Prairie in Manitoba and Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, however this last is resting uneasy with many league members. In January, the Big Ten members of the WIHL—Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota—announced they were withdrawing from the league. Later, Michigan Tech said it was leaving too.

The dispute breaking up the seven-year-old league is primarily because all but one of the teams are almost wholly Canadian and they cannot exist without constant importations from north of the border. In addition, the league, composed of seven teams from five different conferences, has always been an unwieldy, synthetic affair, racked by distrust and dissatisfaction since it was born in 1951.

There is no doubt about Canadian domination. But there is also no doubt these young Canadians are entirely responsible for the superior brand of hockey played by western teams. The seven teams have 150 players certified for eligibility, and of this number 109 are Canadians and 41 are listed as American. And certainly, some of these latter may have stepped across the line fairly recently to such places as International Falls, Minn. The University of Denver has 17 Canadians and one American; Colorado College has 18 Canadians and one American; North Dakota has 13 Canadians and three Americans; the University of Michigan has 17 Canadians and one American; Michigan State has 18 Canadians and eight Americans; Michigan College of Mining and Technology has 23 Canadians and two Americans. The University of Minnesota , coached by John Mariucci, an American who has been critical of the league and its Canadian domination, has but three Canadians and 19 Americans. Mariucci is among those who feel that many of the Canadian players have more at stake than college competition and that the WIHL may be in a sense a farm league for pro hockey. In a recent statement Mariucci summed it up: "You can't tell me that some players have not gone to professional tryout camps and had their expenses paid."

Actually, the incident that triggered the Big Ten withdrawal occurred in March 1957, when Colorado College raised a question regarding the eligibility of three Michigan players—John Randall, Neill Buchanan and Wally Maxwell—all of whom were declared ineligible by the NCAA eligibility committee on the eve of the national tournament in Colorado Springs . There were threats then to break up the league. Big Ten policymakers, who had not paid too much attention to hockey, took a long look at the WIHL and decided it was not for them. There were a number of other reasons: the difference in size and prestige of the schools, constantly mounting pressure for more American players, lack of league leadership and finally a Big Ten rule which provides that a player who is over 19 when he matriculates loses one year of competition for each year he is past 19. Interestingly enough, the rule applies only to foreign-born students.

Denver, Colorado College, Michigan Tech and North Dakota, where hockey is a major winter attraction and hence a high-revenue sport, feel that the age rule is aimed straight at their use of Canadian players.

The University of Denver's dapper 41-year-old Coach Murray Armstrong, a veteran of 10 years of professional hockey with New York, Syracuse and Detroit and coach of the Regina team in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League for nine years, was indignant about the Big Ten rule. When it was brought up, he said angrily:

"The usual reason for an age rule is to protect younger boys from more mature players. But in this case the Big Ten wants to protect players only from mature foreign students. If an American student is older that is quite all right. We just cannot go along with this type of discrimination at all. If the rule were applied to all sports and to Americans as well as foreign students we would be glad to comply. Western League hockey is top-grade hockey because we do have Canadian players. Our players are attending the University of Denver because they want educations. They are good students, and they are not here just to play hockey. But they are good players; most have been playing since they were children."

Armstrong's counterpart at Colorado College this year, Coach Tom R. Bedecki, 28, a husky 6-foot-2, 200-pound native of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia , resigned a couple of days after Michigan Tech withdrew and said he would probably return to school for an advanced degree when his current coaching assignment ends. He agrees with Armstrong that Canadians are a necessity and that their presence in force in the Western League has provided followers of the game with a better brand of hockey than that offered in the East.

"Canadians are better hockey players than Americans, not because they are better athletes, but because they are trained in it from childhood, just as many American boys play baseball from the time they are small," he said. "You don't find in this country a sandlot type of hockey, and not many American high schools offer hockey as a sport. Where they do, a boy usually gets to play about 20 games a year for three years. When he comes to college he has played maybe 60 games. But the Canadian boys start playing as young as seven or eight. There are a number of different divisions for youngsters, and finally they play five years of competitive hockey at the rate of about 40 games a year. When they come to us, they have had about 200 games under their belts. They know how to play hockey."

The Canadians are recruited by U.S. colleges in several ways. Sometimes Canadian players read or hear about the exploits of one of the schools and write the coach, asking if they can enroll. Also, during spring vacations, the U.S. coaches travel to Canada to watch the Canadian playoffs in the hope of spotting talent. And Canadian junior teams are regularly brought into the U.S. for games with U.S. teams which provide the coaches a chance to do some scouting on their home ice. Finally, alumni in Canada watch for good prospects and pass the word on to the coaches.

"We have had to have the Canadian players to provide first-class hockey," Coach Bedecki explains. "It has been a two-way street. The fans have wanted good hockey, and the Canadians have given it to them. In their turn, the Canadians have enjoyed the enthusiasm and the support given hockey in this league. For example, a few days ago an American attendance record for a college arena was set when 17,430 fans watched two games between Minnesota and North Dakota in Minneapolis ."

Most of the U.S. schools have their own rinks and artificial ice. They have heavy investments and some of them—for example, the University of Denver—are carrying a large part of their athletic programs on the proceeds from hockey.

In Grand Forks, the fans are even hotter than in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas. Upwards of 5,000 of the town's 34,000 citizens have been regularly jamming into the North Dakota team's antiquated winter sports building to watch the Nodak games. Typical of the enthusiasm being shown is the story of the doctor who had to leave a North Dakota-Denver game in the second period to deliver a baby in a Grand Forks hospital. He and the new father, a little out of wind, made it back in time to see most of the third period.

Denver Coach Armstrong has some faint hopes that the WIHL may find some way of holding together when the WIHL and NCAA hockey rules committees hold their meetings in St. Paul in mid-March. Denver has a big investment and a money raiser to protect. It is Armstrong's hope that a four-team league composed of Denver, Colorado College, North Dakota and a fourth school, possibly the Duluth branch of Minnesota, might be able to carry on a balanced program, but most of those connected with the league consider it a deceased duck.

Colorado College is itself seriously considering withdrawing from the league and may so announce within a week or so. Dr. Louis T. Benezet, president of the college, would like to revamp his school's hockey program to get a more representative team. Said a college official: "We couldn't throw out our Canadians by any means, but we'd like to de-emphasize hockey, get it back on a more amateur basis."

Though college presidents may worry, the fan does not. He likes the sort of hockey he has been getting. One Denver fan put it this way: "All I care about is for our Canadians to beat their Canadians. I don't care where the players come from."

Is Colorado College Recruiting Underage Freshmen?

(left) Questions have been raised about the ages of Colorado College latest recruits

The WCHA has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Colorado College hockey adminsitrators are covering up the true age of their Freshmen recruiting class because they are too young to compete.

A WCHA official told LetsGoDU that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of Colorado College's recruiting class, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in CC being stripped of scholarships.

The investigation was triggered as a DU computer expert claimed yesterday to have uncovered Canadian government documents that he says prove many of the incoming Freshmen are only 16 - making them ineligible to compete in the NCAA - rather than 18, as officials in Colorado Springs insist are their age.

Mike Walker, a computer security expert, told LetsGoDU how he tracked down two documents that he says had been removed from a college hockey recruiting website.

There were also concerns about their mental health, because of the pressure of competing in the NCAA playoffs at such a young age, and that they were vulnerable to exploitation and even physical abuse by CC's coaches. Not to mention the pressure of trying to win CC's first National Championship in 52 years.

"They are obviously kids," WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod said. "15, 16 max - and they’re telling the world they are 18? What arrogance." Although DU has deliberately steered clear of the controversy, McLeod suggested the CC players were still losing their baby teeth. "One of the players has a missing tooth," he said.

Yet Giselle Davies, an NCAA spokesperson, said tonight that because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the WCHA, to investigate.

"More information has come to light that did point to discrepancies," Ms. Davies said. "We have asked the WCHA to look into it further. If there is a question mark, and we have a concern - which we do - we ask the conference to look into ... as to why there is a discrepancy."

The man who uncovered the allegations about the underage athlete, told LetsGoDU that he was not even a sports a fan, but decided to investigate the issue to determine if Colorado College authorities were lying. He eventually discovered two Excel spreadsheets on Chris Heisenberg's List of 2008 Recruits, that mentioned their names had recently being removed.

"There was a conclusion here," Mr Walker said. "These documents existed, on a nationwide recruiting website, and now they don’t exist, and this change has taken place recently. I was interested because these were documents that no-one could find. If there’s information to be found on the internet I’m a citizen journalist - it was a challenge."

He turned to a Canadian search engine, Slapshot.com. In its cache he found both documents. "The listing in there, quite clearly, their birth dates," Mr Walker said.

Colorado College officials responded immediately by providing LetsGoDU with Canadian passports, but still doubts lingered, not least because the athletes look barely past puberty.

DU Hockey Is 8th In NCAA Hockey Attendance

(left) With the Denver economy sagging, it remains to be seen if DU can maintain its consecutive sellout streak this season

From: GopherSports.com

The University of Denver finished 8th in the nation in average attendance last season. DU has recorded 76 consecutive regular season sellouts at Magness Arena dating back to the 2004-05 National Championship season.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association dominated the national attendance rankings with six of the top nine schools. In fact, all 10 WCHA schools ranked in the top half of the 59 Division I hockey-playing schools.

Wisconsin averaged 14,133 fans per game, North Dakota averaged 11,709 fans per contest and Minnesota drew 9,943 fans to lead the country.

Colorado College was fourth in the country at 6,932 fans per game, while Denver was eighth with a 5,933 average and St. Cloud State was ninth with a 5,872 average.

DU Rivalry "Too Intense" For Colorado College

From: Colorado Springs Gazette
by David Ramsey

(left) Scott Owens poses at a DU fundraiser this past season

Scott Owens wanted sizzle in the Colorado College-University of Denver rivalry.

When Owens returned to his alma mater to coach the hockey team in 1999, the arena-shaking fire had been drained from the CC-DU rivalry. Owens masterfully stoked the flames.

For five of the past six years, CC and DU ended the regular season with a homeand-home, rock-’em, sock-’em weekend bash that featured packed houses and wicked hitting.

The CC-DU rivalry is at full blaze, full of intensity and great hockey. Owens, no doubt, grabbed what he wanted.

He grabbed a little too much, as it turns out.

The Tigers have lost three straight NCAA Tournament games, which inspired Owens to take a fresh look at the DU series.

Next season, the Tigers and Pioneers again will meet four times, but the schools will stretch out the regular-season finale. CC and DU will play Oct. 31-Nov. 1 before splitting the final series between Feb. 13 and March 7, Owens said.

It’s a minor tweak to the schedule, but Owens hopes the change will deliver big results.

He wonders if placing two emotionally packed games at the end of the season drained his team in the postseason.

“I don’t think it’s a copout,” Owens said. “I don’t think it’s anything like that. We’re just trying to do something that will strengthen us in the postseason.”

The rivalry will return to two home-and-home weekends in 2009-2010 because of scheduling restraints, Owens said, but will feature the stretched-out version again in 2010-11.

It’s strange to say this, but the season-ending duel with DU was too overwhelming, too packed with thrills and history. It was just too much.

How could the Tigers top all this furious fun?

The answer is the problem. Owens has failed to revive his team after the matches with DU.

“There was an automatic, built-in letdown,” Owens said. “It’s just natural. It’s because the buildings were sold out and the excitement and the passion and the trying to one-up your archrival.”

This season, CC stomped DU in the final weekend. On March 8, the Tigers celebrated along with their fans, and they had plenty to celebrate.

The Tigers had won the MacNaughton Cup, symbol of supremacy in the Western Athletic Hockey Association, and the Gold Pan, symbol of college hockey supremacy in the state of Colorado.

At the time, no one could see disaster lurking in the near distance. Even as the Tigers celebrated their reign over a small hockey universe, they faced devastation in the battle for a larger, more important universe.

Three weeks after the Tigers’ hockey party, they were finished. They lost, on home ice, to Michigan State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

“There’s been so much at stake,” Owens said of the DU series. “It’s been very taxing mentally and physically as we head into the playoffs.”

Next season, he hopes, the taxes will be a little more reasonable.

CC Threesome Named Bad Boyz Of The Year

(above) LetsGoDU's Minister of Information Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf announced the winner of the Bad Boyz of the Year competition at a press conference in front of the Pepsi Center today

Past Winners

2006-07 - Casino Brothers, Nebraska-Omaha
2005-06 - John Scott, Michigan Tech

(left) In the closest vote in Bad Boyz history Derek Patrosso and Cody Lampl were named 2007-08 College Hockey Bad Boyz Of The Year


Our friends down at the Colorado College Tiger Message Board were so paranoid about the suspensions of Derek Patrosso (until March 2008 - Left photo) and Cody Lampl (until Jan. ‘09 - Right photo) that LetsGoDU was forced to offer a $50 bounty to uncover the story. Eventually the truth came out (below), but our long awaited Pulitzer Prize has yet to show up. We're the St. Cloud State of journalism.

The voting turnout has heavy and the results were tight. We rechecking the ballots, but at the end of the day how can you top this....

From: Colorado Springs Gazette
by Kate Crandall

Two Colorado College hockey players - Cody Lampl and Derek Patrosso - suspended in December for unexplained reasons told The Gazette that the penalties were for sexual misconduct and lying.

Lampl and Patrosso said they are innocent of sexual misconduct.

Lampl was suspended until 2009. Patrosso returned to school and the hockey team March 12.

Patrosso will try to help CC win a national title. Lampl plans to return to school but is angry that the college's handling of his suspension has wrongly branded him a "rapist."

"That's not who I am and what I did," Lampl told The Gazette. Friends and family wrote affidavits in support of Lampl when he unsuccessfully appealed the suspension.

CC spokeswoman Jane Turnis said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevented her and school officials from commenting on this case.

The Pathfinder, CC's student handbook, gives school President Dick Celeste and school administrators wide latitude in punishing students for conduct they deem contrary to the best interests of the school.

The handbook says, in part, "Colorado College reserves the right to suspend or dismiss any student whose conduct is regarded as being in conflict with the best interests of the college or in violation of its Code of Conduct."

That doesn't mean interested parties always agree with the college's decisions, and Lampl said he thought his punishment was unfair given his version of the events.

Lampl, 21, said he, an 18-year-old recruit and a 19-year-old female CC student engaged in consensual sex after a party Nov. 18.

The woman could not be reached for comment. She has not filed a complaint with Colorado Springs police. Her parents said she was unavailable and they would all like to move on. The Gazette usually does not name people who might have been victims of sexual assault without their consent.

The recruit declined comment on the incident, except to say he had the woman's consent. "Yes, definitely," he said. The Gazette is not naming the recruit because he is not a CC student and not subject to CC discipline.

A few hours after the threesome, Patrosso and the woman had consensual sex, Patrosso said.

When CC officials learned of the episode, Lampl said, they summoned Lampl and Patrosso for a meeting with Celeste. According to Lampl, Celeste said: "What you guys did is wrong. This isn't what we do at CC."

Initially, Lampl said, he and Patrosso tried to keep the recruit out of the discussion. That eventually led to the accusation of lying.

Subsequently, Lampl said, he, Patrosso and the woman scheduled a second meeting with Celeste to try to refute the suggestion that the woman did not consent to sex. Lampl said that when they arrived, Celeste was not there. CC attorney Chris Melcher and CC's sexual assault response coordinator Heather Horton met the three students.

Lampl said Melcher and Horton insisted on meeting with the students individually.

Lampl said he, Patrosso and the woman talked after the three individual meetings. Lampl said the woman told him that Melcher and Horton asked her if she consented to sex and she told them she had.

Asked by The Gazette to describe the conversation with the woman and the recruit in which consent was given, Lampl said, "We were talking. She was like, ‘I really want to hook up with you.' And I'm like, ‘Well, my friend's here with me.' And she's like, ‘No, no. I want him to stay,' and stuff like that."

On page 54 of The Pathfinder, in the section on sexual misconduct, the policy says, "The college reserves the right to take whatever measures it deems necessary and appropriate to respond to a charge of sexual misconduct in order to protect students' safety, physical and mental wellbeing, and individual rights. Such measures include, but are not limited to, immediate modification of living arrangements, summary removal from campus pending a hearing, and reporting to the local police."

Horton said the school's general policy has "three classes of behavior" that could be deemed inappropriate and applies to all members of the CC community.

"The first one is just unwanted sexual contact," Horton said. "That can obviously be a fairly broad range of things, from unwanted touch all the way up to unwanted intercourse. The second class of behavior is behavior of a sexual nature that does not involve physical contact, so that might be things like lewd or harassing kinds of sexual statements or Peeping Tom kind of behavior, those kinds of things. And then, the third class of behavior is called intimate partner violence. So, that's violence that occurs within the context of a couple relationship."

Horton and the school's handbook stress the issue of "active consent."

The school's sexual misconduct policy states in part that, "all sexual contact between students must be with each person's active consent. ‘Active consent' means that each person involved in sexual contact not only agrees to the sexual activity but also agrees to such activity freely and knowingly. A person who has been threatened or whose judgment is substantially impaired by drugs or alcohol or by other physical or mental impairment cannot, by definition, give consent to sexual contact. It is the responsibility of the initiator of sexual contact to obtain consent from the other person and to determine whether such consent is freely and knowingly given."

Lampl said he had been drinking at the party, but he said he thought the woman was coherent when the key conversation occurred. Eight people who attended the party signed affidavits in support of Lampl. The eight included Lampl's parents, five CC friends (including two women) and a non-CC friend. He said all of them attested to the woman's behavior and level of coherence the night of the party.

Lampl said school leaders did not want to accept that the woman would willingly consent to, much less suggest, sex with multiple partners.

"I'm not going to apologize for that because then it looks like I did something," Lampl said in the interview with The Gazette. "Why would I do that? I would rather not come back here. I'm not going to bite the bullet when it comes to being perceived as a rapist. Even though they said, ‘There's no rape here' - but the words they use imply that. That's scum of the earth to me. That's not who I am and what I did."

Prior to the suspension, Lampl was on track to graduate with degrees in history and education.

Per NCAA rules, Lampl obtained permission from CC athletic director Ken Ralph to speak to other schools, which allows him to explore transfer options. Ralph said Jan. 24 that Lampl transferring from CC is "a worst-case scenario" still pending an appeal.

"We'd be happy to welcome Cody back once his suspension has run its course," Ralph said Thursday.

Lampl indicated Thursday he intends to return to CC.

"I have not talked to any other schools and I do plan to return to CC," Lampl said.

CC Chokes in St. Paul, This Time To UND

(above) UND's Chay Genoway celebrates a goal as he leaps over CC goalie Richard Bachman Saturday

Photo Credit: Eric Hylden

From: Colorado Springs Gazette
by Kate Crandall

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Colorado College's penalty kill met its match Saturday.

North Dakota went 3 for 7 on the power play, paving the way to a 4-2 win in the third-place game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five.

North Dakota, which went 2 of 6 on the power play in its 6-2 win over CC on Nov. 2, is the only team this season to score multiple power-play goals against CC.

"They move it quick," coach Scott Owens said. "We're one of the more aggressive penalty-killing teams in the country. We're going to get beat from time to time but, doggone it, it's going to be on three passes."

North Dakota center T.J. Oshie scored on a botched clear by defenseman Jake Gannon. Center Chris VandeVelde tipped in defenseman Taylor Chorney's shot from the high slot. Defenseman Chay Genoway beat defenseman Kris Fredheim wide before plowing over goaltender Richard Bachman.

"That was as good of a power play as we've seen all year," Owens said.

CC's success ratio dropped to 89.4 percent (143 for 160), tying the Tigers' unit for first in the nation with Miami (Ohio).

CC Uses "Three Way" Tactics To Land Recruits

(left) Colorado College's "dirty laundry" went public yesterday with some rather questionable recruiting tactics in the Colorado Springs Gazette

From: Colorado Springs Gazette
by Kate Crandall

Two Colorado College hockey players - Cody Lampl and Derek Patrosso - suspended in December for unexplained reasons told The Gazette that the penalties were for sexual misconduct and lying.

Lampl and Patrosso said they are innocent of sexual misconduct.

Lampl was suspended until 2009. Patrosso returned to school and the hockey team March 12.

Patrosso will try to help CC win a national title. Lampl plans to return to school but is angry that the college's handling of his suspension has wrongly branded him a "rapist."

"That's not who I am and what I did," Lampl told The Gazette. Friends and family wrote affidavits in support of Lampl when he unsuccessfully appealed the suspension.

CC spokeswoman Jane Turnis said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevented her and school officials from commenting on this case.

The Pathfinder, CC's student handbook, gives school President Dick Celeste and school administrators wide latitude in punishing students for conduct they deem contrary to the best interests of the school.

The handbook says, in part, "Colorado College reserves the right to suspend or dismiss any student whose conduct is regarded as being in conflict with the best interests of the college or in violation of its Code of Conduct."

That doesn't mean interested parties always agree with the college's decisions, and Lampl said he thought his punishment was unfair given his version of the events.

Lampl, 21, said he, an 18-year-old recruit and a 19-year-old female CC student engaged in consensual sex after a party Nov. 18.

The woman could not be reached for comment. She has not filed a complaint with Colorado Springs police. Her parents said she was unavailable and they would all like to move on. The Gazette usually does not name people who might have been victims of sexual assault without their consent.

The recruit declined comment on the incident, except to say he had the woman's consent. "Yes, definitely," he said. The Gazette is not naming the recruit because he is not a CC student and not subject to CC discipline.

A few hours after the threesome, Patrosso and the woman had consensual sex, Patrosso said.

When CC officials learned of the episode, Lampl said, they summoned Lampl and Patrosso for a meeting with Celeste. According to Lampl, Celeste said: "What you guys did is wrong. This isn't what we do at CC."

Initially, Lampl said, he and Patrosso tried to keep the recruit out of the discussion. That eventually led to the accusation of lying.

Subsequently, Lampl said, he, Patrosso and the woman scheduled a second meeting with Celeste to try to refute the suggestion that the woman did not consent to sex. Lampl said that when they arrived, Celeste was not there. CC attorney Chris Melcher and CC's sexual assault response coordinator Heather Horton met the three students.

Lampl said Melcher and Horton insisted on meeting with the students individually.

Lampl said he, Patrosso and the woman talked after the three individual meetings. Lampl said the woman told him that Melcher and Horton asked her if she consented to sex and she told them she had.

Asked by The Gazette to describe the conversation with the woman and the recruit in which consent was given, Lampl said, "We were talking. She was like, ‘I really want to hook up with you.' And I'm like, ‘Well, my friend's here with me.' And she's like, ‘No, no. I want him to stay,' and stuff like that."

On page 54 of The Pathfinder, in the section on sexual misconduct, the policy says, "The college reserves the right to take whatever measures it deems necessary and appropriate to respond to a charge of sexual misconduct in order to protect students' safety, physical and mental wellbeing, and individual rights. Such measures include, but are not limited to, immediate modification of living arrangements, summary removal from campus pending a hearing, and reporting to the local police."

Horton said the school's general policy has "three classes of behavior" that could be deemed inappropriate and applies to all members of the CC community.

"The first one is just unwanted sexual contact," Horton said. "That can obviously be a fairly broad range of things, from unwanted touch all the way up to unwanted intercourse. The second class of behavior is behavior of a sexual nature that does not involve physical contact, so that might be things like lewd or harassing kinds of sexual statements or Peeping Tom kind of behavior, those kinds of things. And then, the third class of behavior is called intimate partner violence. So, that's violence that occurs within the context of a couple relationship."

Horton and the school's handbook stress the issue of "active consent."

The school's sexual misconduct policy states in part that, "all sexual contact between students must be with each person's active consent. ‘Active consent' means that each person involved in sexual contact not only agrees to the sexual activity but also agrees to such activity freely and knowingly. A person who has been threatened or whose judgment is substantially impaired by drugs or alcohol or by other physical or mental impairment cannot, by definition, give consent to sexual contact. It is the responsibility of the initiator of sexual contact to obtain consent from the other person and to determine whether such consent is freely and knowingly given."

Lampl said he had been drinking at the party, but he said he thought the woman was coherent when the key conversation occurred. Eight people who attended the party signed affidavits in support of Lampl. The eight included Lampl's parents, five CC friends (including two women) and a non-CC friend. He said all of them attested to the woman's behavior and level of coherence the night of the party.

Lampl said school leaders did not want to accept that the woman would willingly consent to, much less suggest, sex with multiple partners.

"I'm not going to apologize for that because then it looks like I did something," Lampl said in the interview with The Gazette. "Why would I do that? I would rather not come back here. I'm not going to bite the bullet when it comes to being perceived as a rapist. Even though they said, ‘There's no rape here' - but the words they use imply that. That's scum of the earth to me. That's not who I am and what I did."

Prior to the suspension, Lampl was on track to graduate with degrees in history and education.

Per NCAA rules, Lampl obtained permission from CC athletic director Ken Ralph to speak to other schools, which allows him to explore transfer options. Ralph said Jan. 24 that Lampl transferring from CC is "a worst-case scenario" still pending an appeal.

"We'd be happy to welcome Cody back once his suspension has run its course," Ralph said Thursday.

Lampl indicated Thursday he intends to return to CC.

"I have not talked to any other schools and I do plan to return to CC," Lampl said.

CHN Looks At DU's Tournament Prospects

From: College Hockey News
by Adam Woden

College Hockey News ran an article on the various Pairwise scenarios that determine which teams get invited to the NCAA Tournament. The general consensus is that DU is not a lock to end up in the Colorado Springs Regional unless they can secure a #1 seed.

"Colorado College hosting the West Regional in their home arena, so you know where they're going to be. That it will be as the No. 1 seed is looking increasingly likely. Depending on where things fall, Denver could line up in that bracket as well. The committee, judging by recent experience, would not put Denver in that bracket just because it wants to boost attendance. First of all, CC will take care of that enough. But second of all, the committee just doesn't worry about that anymore. So it would only happen if CC is No. 3 and Denver No. 6, or 2-7, or 4-5, etc... HOWEVER, if CC drops and Denver is a No. 1 seed, then most likely, Denver would be the No. 1 seed in the West Regional. And since CC HAS to be in the West Regional, those two would end up in the same bracket after all." (read the rest of the article)