The last name should be somewhat familiar to those who followed the lacrosse case closely. Grant is the younger brother of Mike Catalino--a freshman on the 2006 Duke team who revealed his enormously high-quality character after Crystal Mangum voiced her false accusations. In fall 2006, Mike played a leadership role in trying to register Duke students to vote (despite the opposition of the Duke administration), and then gave considerable time to the Recall Nifong-Vote Cheek effort. In short, he did exactly what professors (outside of the Group of 88, of course) would have wanted from the unindicted lacrosse players--work for positive change within the system.
Congratulations to the Catalino family, which (with Duke's win last year) now has the potential to have sons on back-to-back national championship squads.
11 comments:
For an inside glimpse at how the Catalino family admirably reacted in 2006-2007, see "The Other Lacrosse Moms."
http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/letters-from-friends-2.html#c116951294294999551
One snippet:
"The Catalino’s attorney called in April to tell them there would be indictments and “It’s not who you think it is”. Up to this point, the media seemed to be targeting the players who lived in the N. Buchanan house. “This revelation put us all on edge, as we knew that any one of our son’s could have been indicted that morning. The best analogy would be similar to a firing squad with 46 players, not knowing who the targets were. “We picked up our son and drove to Greensboro to spend the night prior to the indictments. We didn’t want him to be in Durham not knowing what to expect.” Unable to eat as they sat down at breakfast with their son, they asked him “Do you understand that could be you?” That morning they told their son that if he was “picked” they did not have the funds to provide bail. “I felt like I couldn’t protect my children from the media and the assault on our family, and knowing that the accusations weren’t true offered little comfort”, said Mrs. Catalino."
It is good to see young people like Mike Catalino take the lead in something like getting people to register. I wonder what is wrong with the adults of today; sometimes, the youth behave much better. I wish more people (young and old) would use the Duke lacrosse case to press for reforms in several areas of the law.
Maybe if someone had shown Linwood Wilson such support and compassion he could have become a successful Gospel singer.
Surely Duke students and alumni see the irony of Duke losing out in the lacrosse national semifinals to a Maryland team starring Mike Catalano. Duke thus has a lesser lacrosse team because a top talent decided not to go to Duke because of Duke's misbehavior towards its lacrosse team in 2006.
By a thousand cuts, Duke has committed reputational suicide. When 88 members of the faculty formed a vigilante group to railroad innocent Duke students, some top students around the country(and their parents) decided to go elsewhere.
When one of the falsely accused's Mother appeared on 60 minutes to warn all mothers in America their sons would be in danger at Duke, Duke was crossed off other lists. When a white Duke student was raped at a black fraternity, and the administration seemed to blame the victim for making herself vulnerable, another group decided to go elsewhere.
When Duke hosted the Sex Workers Art Show, and made itself a laughingstock everywhere, yet another group of top students, and their parents, dropped Duke. The increasing awareness that the New Duke has given tenure to a Professor of English who cannot write a coherent English sentence, and who has demonstrated no scholarship, drips acid on the reputation earned by Old Duke for decades of excellence.
Duke will always fill its classes. However, those high school seniors with a choice, the best, the brightest, the most talented, the most athletic, the best leaders, will increasingly de-select the New Duke.
I know from personal experience that at least some employers now know they must examine a Duke application carefully to determine if the job applicant is from the New Duke, or the Old Duke.
The situation is not irreversible. Duke still has an excellent reputation across the nation. It is just that it is not as excellent as it used to be, and the trend is in the wrong direction.
Jim Peterson
What an inspirational family, but I can't believe they'd send another son to Duke. They must be braver than I was--my 2 sons are at other schools now and I'm a Duke alum.
I find it interesting that Grant Catalino most likely would have gone to Duke had the university not decided to falsely accuse its students of crimes that never occurred. Thus, Duke lacrosse got the ultimate "payback" on the field.
Michael is now a student at Georgetown Medicak School!
What goes around, fellows, most certainly comes around. Brodhead, the 88, Steele, the administration and the BOD can take a flying leap at their tarnished reputation, as far as this alum is concerned. MY college bound kids would never even consider Duke....they know trash when they see it.
I'm a Duke alum and I wouldn't send my kids there, and I've discouraged others from doing so. The place needs a thorough housecleaning.
Mrs. Catalino's comment to her son Mike in April 2006 about the possibility of Mike spending time in jail if he was indicted because the family could not afford to post bail is not only poignant but quite telling because it undermines one of the persistent stereotypes of lacrosse players put forth by the pro-Mangum/anti-lacrosse faction: namely that lacrosse players are wealthy. After all, one of the three points of the unholy trinity upon which the pro-Mangum/anti-lacrosse faction based its belief-- and it was belief in the truest sense of the word because it was utterly devoid of evidence and immune to reason--in the whole fiasco was class (i.e. Duke lacrosse players were wealthy) in addition to the other two facets of the trinity; race (white) and gender (male). While reasonable and honest people reassess their view in the face of contradictory evidence, don't expect the pro-Mangum/anti-lacrosse faction to do so in light of Mrs. Catalino's admission of her family's limited financial means because, after all, belief is immune to logic, evidence or reason.
FYI, Tony Kornheiser, probably one of the most beloved and listen to voices in sports commentary, went down the "something happened that those boys wouldn't be proud of" road on his radio show a couple days ago when discussing the recent PR of college lacrosse and went on to mention the UVA lacrosse murder immediately afterwards. He didn't exactly disavow any hint of behavioral connection between the two "incidents". It's sad to see such a figure succumb to the "something happened" siren song, even on such a small scale. iTunes should have the podcast from a day or two after the college lacrosse finals as will espn980.com's "audio vault".
Post a Comment