Well said Nonni !!!!!
          and Welcome to the LIST !!!!!!
 
 
> ----------
> From:         Nonni Daly[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     The Maine Hockey Discussion List
> Sent:         Tuesday, March 21, 2000 7:52 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      NCAA
>
> Well, I m new to the list  urged on by Cathy Hart  and through long
> association with athletics at UMaine certainly have an opinion about
> the NC$$ (thank you, Lindsay!) and its octopus arms and
> Communist-under-every-bed mentality.  Shades of the McCarthy hearings..
>  Gee, I am also old enough to remember when the NC$$ consisted of a
> director and a part-time assistant.  Now they have enough lawyers alone
> to form a nice cozy Wall Street firm.
>         First, many years ago when I was first solicited to make donations to
> UMaine athletics, there were no disclaimers or caveats given.  Nowhere
> did I EVER see the words:  WARNING!  If you give us one red cent, you
> will then for life be known as an athletics representative or (God
> forbid and horrors!)  Booster  and your life and your choices and your
> friends will be governed by the most arcane set of rules imaginable.  I
> might have given more thought to donations of any kind.
>         Second, such an invasion of my personal liberties  being able to
> choose my friends and those with whom I care to associateflies so
> firmly in the face of the U.S. Constitution that it is a joke.  The
> NC$$ runs on fear and rumor-mongering and a huge book of regulations
> that are so contradictory in nature that in reading any six pages, one
> will find one rule contradicting another. Yes, we all want an even
> playing field, but this is not it.
>         I have no problem abiding by rules when a student-athlete is an
> eligible student-athlete.  I would like to think that, if I abide by
> them, that the schools in the Big Ten or the SEC or the Big Eight won t
> be giving cars and cash to athletes.  Do I believe that to be the case?
> Hell, no!  But, I will not do anything to jeopardize the collegiate
> career of a student-athlete at UMaine   period.
> So I, like all the others I know, play by the rules.  Those rules, by
> the way, also prevent a coach from going to a dorm with orange juice
> and soup for an athlete with a cold, and prevented me from taking a
> hockey player with a borderline concussion home to keep a watch on for
> 24 hours.  He had to go back to the dorm and hope that someone checked
> on him during the night.  Even Good Samaritan laws exist for a reason,
> administridiots!
> Your mentioning Scott King makes me comment on two things  first, he is
> a real, live doctor in his second year of surgical residency
> (orthopedics and sports medicine) in Philadelphia.  He and wife, Dr.
> Andrea (family practice) are expecting their first child this year.  I
> know this because we are friends and will continue to be so.
> And, when he was a student here, in a speech class, the assignment was
> to give a speech promoting an appositional view to the norm  he gave a
> speech on why student-athletes are discriminated against.  Unlike
>  normal  students, they could not go to a local home for a meal (they
> can now with severe restrictions and on a very limited basis), could
> not go out for a meal with friends if those friends were boosters, and
> could really not associate with these suspect boosters for fear that
> someone would trump up a story about the relationship and cause
> problems.  When Maine underwent its own investigation, I know
> first-hand how many other voices were raised against us, however
>  anonymously  in an attempt to cause further problems.
> Sorry  have gone on a bit too long. Thanks for reading this and, for
> those who aren t close to the campus, please know that rules are
> followed and the student-athlete always comes first with those I know.
> To do less would be an affront to what we all love about UMaine.
> GO Blue  all the way to the Frozen Four!
> Nonni Daly  59
>
>