WHY CAN’T WE FINALLY PUT AN END TO AtHLETES HAZING THEIR YOUNGER TEAMMATEs?
Well, It has happened yet again. If you follow the headlines in HS sports, you are most likely well aware that yet another serious hazing incident has occurred, this one in Wall Township, NJ.
Hazing is just so incredibly hurtful and destructive in so many ways….but to me, the two biggest questions are: why does this kind of thing continue to happen – and why can’t we get HS kids to stop doing this?
I want to have an in-depth discussion with you as to why this vicious pattern of adolescent behavior continues, as it has for decades in HS sports….and is there truly any way of stopping and preventing hazing from happening? There are all sorts of proposed explanations and theories, but sadly, none of them seem to work.
And there are other ancillary questions as well….for example, if only a handful of athletes are involved in the hazing incident, why should the rest of the innocent kids on the team be forced to see their season get cancelled? Is that fair?
Is it fair for the entire coaching staff to be held responsible for these abhorrent actions?
And what about the role of the parents? After all – it’s their kids who are actively involved in doing this noxious crime…aren’t the parents somehow to blame for not doing a better job in teaching their kids about the evils of hazing?
This is clearly a most unsettling and disturbing issue….and the sobering and scary truth is, hazing can occur in just about any school district in the country.
The current school under fire is Wall Township HS in NJ and its football program. But over the years, we have talked about hazing incidents at a number of towns and programs, including Sayreville HS in NJ, Mepham HS on Long Island, the Univ of Vermont men’s ice hockey team, and too many more.
Let’s start with what we know in Wall Township and its football program.
Very little detailed information has been released by the administration and school board there. They say the entire matter has been handed over to the police in Monmouth County, and they are conducting the investigation.
But according to various media outlets, allegedly about half a dozen juniors on the football team overpowered and pinned down a sophomore player and at least threatened to sodomize him with a broomstick. It’s unclear how serious the assault with the stick actually was. There is also apparently a video of this incident taken on a cellphone which has been seen by a few individuals, but has not been released to the general public.
This attack allegedly took place in the boys’ lockerroom which was unsupervised at the time.
The upshot was that the Wall football team had to cancel and forfeit its state semi-final playoff game, and then a few days later, it also cancelled its traditional Thanksgiving game against its cross-town rival.
Parents are, of course, upset…angry…and outraged. Some want to know how this could ever happen, as in, there are 13 coaches on the football team…why wasn’t one of them in the locker room so that this kind of thing couldn’t happen? And ironically, I understand that 3 of the football coaches are local cops.
At least one coach is supposed to be in the lockerroom to oversee all the kids and to prevent these kinds of incidents…in much the same way a teacher would never leave their classroom unattended.
Other parents don’t understand why the school just doesn’t punish the main offenders…just kick them off the team – and allow the rest of the kids who were not involved in the incident to keep playing. Is it fair to cancel the rest of the season for all the other players on the team just because a few of them are jerks? Is that fair or the right thing to do?
Other parents are angry and claim that the school hasn’t been forthcoming with more details about the hazing…and that is making the situation even worse. The AD at Wall has been put on leave, as have the coaches. In short, the football season has come to a sharp end.
But the biggest question remains is this: Why does HS athletic hazing continue to occur over and over again? Mind you, Wall Township is just the latest in a long, long line of hazing incidents. Take a listen to this show on this worrisome issue: https://www.audacy.com/wfan/podcasts/rick-wolff-the-sports-edge-209/the-sports-edge-with-rick-wolff-964437803