University of Virginia: Alcohol and Lacrosse:

Let's not be surprised that 8 out of 41 players on the roster of the University of Virginia lacrosse team have a history of trouble with the law-- and it's all about alcohol.

If you've ever treated athletes, you know that they work hard, or they should, and they play hard, which they shouldn't. And if you're talking young athletes, the play can be really reckless. We wise up as we age, most of us.

But athletes, like everyone else, cure their social anxiety and their awkwardness with America's favorite drug. They say they're partying, but it's more than that. To give an athlete the benefit of the doubt, we might suggest that competition raises anxiety, and anxiety raises the number of Saluts, Cheers, and L'chaims!

And drinking, let's face it, is culturally sanctioned, for the most part, and the legal age a very hard law to enforce.

George Huguely is among the players at U-Va who had previous alcohol-related offenses while enrolled in school. He's accused of murdering Yeardley Love, who broke up with him a couple of weeks ago. Huguely is reported to have been pulled off of Ms. Love in an altercation at a party only two months ago.

He allegedly shook her, banged her head against a wall repeatedly until she died on May 3, 2010.

None of the other guys on the team did anything to compare to it. Their arrests are not as exciting:

underage alcohol possession,
fake ID's
and DUI's

If you drink enough, you don't know what you're capable of, really.

Could we diagnose Mr. Huguely based upon the things we hear in the news? He couldn't handle rejection. He had a previous episode with a police officer, so violent he had to be subdued by taser. He swore, spat out vulgarities and racial epithets at the officer.

To be sure we'll hear words like borderline pop up in future news stories. And Borderline Personality Disorder. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, too.

The Washington Post tells us that two players of the eight were found not guilty, while six were convicted or pleaded guilty of these lesser alcohol-related crimes.

So there's some history here of disrespect for drinking laws among athletes, nothing unusual for college students in general. Now that a college athlete who abuses alcohol has implicated himself in a murder, social scientists everywhere are scratching their beards (chins) thinking of every possible variable associated with such a crime.

I'd just go with alcohol, keep it simple.

But there are those jealous, violent tendencies we're hearing about, and you can't just dismiss them. After the incident with the police officer, Huguely

received a 60-day suspended sentence, six months' supervised probation and a fine, according to court records. He was ordered to complete 50 hours of community service and 20 hours of substance abuse education, which he finished in July, the records show.

He needed therapy, too. Had he known more about handling rejection, abandonment, he might not have lost control. Had he been flagged for "instability", challenged about his "flare ups", had he been forced into therapy, and sure, anger management, Yeardley Love would be alive today.

Monday morning quarterback.

If you learn anger management but don't cut out the alcohol, and you have an anger management problem, mysteriously, no matter how good the anger management course, you still won't get a grip. And if you only go after the alcohol, if that's all you treat, if you're an angry alcoholic you'll be an angry dry drunk, with no personality change.

The police want to know whether officials knew about the team's "hard party" reputation, or Huguely's earlier arrest for a drunken, violent confrontation with a female police officer. University President John T. Casteen III knew nothing about the encounter, and tells us that officials at the school will now check students against public records each semester.

We're also told that Athletic Director Craig Littlepage affirms that when the school is made aware that an athlete has had trouble with police, that matters are handled according to "long-standing policies."

Perhaps reexamine those.

Many schools have programs now, usually that first week of school, during orientation, to educate kids, disseminate policies. They show cool movies about alcohol overdoses and rape. They're pretty good, too. I've seen them. They should be mandatory.

Words like expulsion need to be batted around, but there are softer words, too, we can talk about. But probation and community service don't cut it. Alcohol treatment and therapy, now you're getting somewhere-- with anger management.

Make it a package deal.

It's good that student records will be cross-checked with public records from now on. What they're going to do with the matches, we'll have to wait and see.

Linda Freedman, PhD