Everyone remembers a time in childhood when, while quietly playing in the school sandbox all of your friends started to throw sand at one another.

As you beat a hasty retreat, Mrs. Eliot nailed you and sent you inside as an example to all your classmates.

What was more galling than the fact that you were being wrongly accused and more irritating than the public humiliation of your arrest was the realization, as you stood all alone with your face pressed against the window, that you were just a victim of circumstance.

Janet Judge is a victim of far more serious circumstance.

When you got caught for throwing sand, the consequences were transitory: Mrs. Eliot didn't hold your violation against you for very long, and you were free to return to the sandbox the next day.

When the NCAA ruled last Friday that Harvard women's soccer captain Janet Judge had used up her eligibility by traveling with her team to Europe last summer, the decision was permanent.

She will never be able to play collegiate soccer again because she committed a technical violation of an obscure NCAA bylaw--she went on the trip after taking off a semester and before reenrolling at Harvard.

Judge didn't do anything to deserve her fate, but now she has to come to grips with the fact that she has no more avenues of recourse and that she'll spend the rest of the soccer season on the sidelines.

I don't really know Judge. I have never seen her play soocer, and I talked to her for the first time a couple of nights ago when I called to ask her to comment on the NCAA's decision.

But even in the course of a conversation that couldn't have lasted five minutes, I gained a great measure of respect for her.

When Mrs. Eliot threw me out of the sandbox, I was bitter for weeks.

Judge's attitude towards her fate is admirable, even stoic. She is upset, thinks the rule was unfair as it applies to her, but blames no one. She didn't talk about the injuries that have plagued her career, she didn't complain at all.

Harvard Director of Athletics John P. Reardon Jr. '60 is responsible for monitoring the eligibility of all varsity athletes. Judge, upon examining the NCAA handbook, absolved Reardon and all of the athletic administration of any responsibility, citing the absolute obscurity of the by law.

As we were talking she said that now she was trying out for the basketball team (her eligibility for that sport remains unaffected), and as I began to thank her for being so gracious, she started to tell me how enthusiastic she was about the soccer team for which she could no longer play.

The teams with a freshman phenom in goal who has allowed only five goals in 13 games, is ranked near the top in the country and is headed for the national tournament.