Thank you, Kit Vela, for your part in making the UNM women’s soccer team look like a bunch of ragamuffin delinquents.
All that the Lobos accomplished this season has been overshadowed by the debacle that went down in Provo, Utah, on Saturday.
Elizabeth Lambert will be ascribed a reputation that likely isn’t “indicative of her character” or what she necessarily deserves. And all this because head coach Kit Vela didn’t sit Lambert down before she could put a clown suit on herself.
Remember, Lambert, to thank your coach for the public flogging you’ll have to endure in the subsequent weeks.
I’m not going to bust Lambert’s chops. She apologized, and she apparently understands the gravity of her actions and that what she did was uncalled for.
Her coach’s inaction, however, I refuse to gloss over, even if Julie Foudy, ESPN women’s soccer analyst, side-skirts questions concerning Vela’s culpability in the whole ordeal.
The fact of the matter is: First-aid Kit Vela has subsequently tried to put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound by assigning Lambert an indefinite suspension. More plainly, Vela strives only to take the blame off herself.
Consider the following before making up your mind on who is most responsible: Is Vela women’s soccer’s new and improved John Chaney?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lambert — and all members of the Lobo women’s soccer team for that matter — was directed to employ corporally sanctioned tactics. There are plenty of other coaches that have devised rough-and-tumble strategies in order to gain mental advantages over teams.
Prime evidence: Four years ago, Chaney, Temple University’s head coach, brought in the “goons,” ordering college basketball’s equivalent of a hit on Saint Joseph’s John Bryant.
Instructing seldom-used forward Nehemiah Ingram to commit unnecessarily hard fouls, Chaney’s explanation was that he was doing it to “send a message.”
At the end of the day, Bryant ended up with a fractured arm, Ingram looking like a monster whose sole purpose was to execute his creator’s vile plan.
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I’m not saying Vela instructed Lambert to purposely punch, kick or yank players down by their hair. But then again, this type of physical play — which on Thursday became an overt display of thuggery — has been going on for at least three weeks. Lambert, over the course of the Lobos’ last three games, has been assigned three yellow cards.
See a pattern, anyone?
Just look at the tape. Not only did Lambert commit a series of fouls, but one other teammate booted the ball directly into a BYU player’s head after she was tripped by Lambert.
By refusing to pull Lambert out of the game, not only did Vela endorse Lambert’s behavior, but she failed to perform her duties as a coach.
And then, at the conclusion of the game she had the gall to say: “We showed a lot of character out there.”
If this passes for character at UNM, that’s completely laughable, and Vela should be relieved of her duties as head coach.
Unbelievably, Vela didn’t safeguard her player from public criticism, a task I’m sure Vela promised Lambert’s parents she would accomplish when the junior signed on to play for the Lobos.
Now Lambert’s a YouTube sensation — over 3.4 million hits and counting.
The thing is, it’s not out of the ordinary for a player, fully embroiled in the intensity of the game, to lose his or her composure. Most times, however, coaches are there as mediators, providing intervention before the situation escalates to the point of no return.
During a particularly chippy conference contest with the men’s basketball team against TCU on Feb. 24, forward Will Brown became agitated with TCU’s Zvonko Buljan after the two jousted underneath the basket. Brown was immediately assigned a technical foul. The situation could have spiraled out of control, but men’s basketball head coach Steve Alford quickly replaced Brown before he could blow another gasket.
Alford, verbally gnawing at Brown, proceeded to forcefully seat Brown on the bench. Like it or not, at the time, that’s exactly what Brown needed.
That, obviously, didn’t happen in this instance. And as a result of Vela’s failure, Lambert looks deranged and psychotic.
