LOVELOCK - As with the usual news cycle, one day we read of an ugly incident, then the next day or so, it's out of our mind - that's even if it was known about at all.
Did you hear about the incident involving the New Mexico women's soccer team a few weeks ago? For those that didn't, a group of seniors on the team were reportedly found to be subjecting teammates and freshmen twin sisters to disturbing acts of hazing: allegations of spraying them with urine as well as forcing them to strip naked and drink large quantities of alcohol. One of the two alleged victims had to be hospitalized with breathing difficulties and both sisters have since quit the team. The head coach and 22 of the players have also been subsequently suspended after the incident.
Unfortunately the conduct comes at little surprise - this, after former Lobos' star player Elizabeth Lambert was suspended in 2009 for violently pulling down a BYU player by the pony tail and injuring her neck in the process during a match. Makes you wonder about the culture of aggression that exists at that university.
But it's happened elsewhere, even in high-school programs. Last month reports out of Hutchinson, Kan., said that four senior football players were suspended over allegations they burned the abdomens of fellow freshmen athletes with heated coat hangers.
The majority of hazing incidents we hear about come from incidents taking place within college fraternities and sororities. In December 2013, Chun Deng, 19, of Baruch College in New York died of 'closed brain' trauma after a pledge went awry. His death has been ruled a homicide. According to cbsnews.com, "police said Deng was blindfolded and wearing a backpack loaded with 20 pounds of sand when he was forced to run a gauntlet while fraternity brothers physically tried to keep him from passing through by repeatedly shoving him to the ground."
Google.com defines hazing as "the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation." Yet, bullying is defined by the American Psychological Association as "aggressive physical contact, words or actions to cause another person injury or discomfort."
So what's going on here?
I remember when I was in college and high school (going on 20-plus years now) that when someone was hazed it often meant making the guys do seemingly harmless things as dressing up in women's clothes, name calling, and making the newbies cook and clean for the senior members. More violent acts such as the aforementioned splashed urine, forced intoxication, and branded and burnt skin, are unfortunately not new, but we need to start calling it what it is: criminal behavior. To call it hazing means to, in effect, condone or accept it, as if it were some normal, expected activity in the college or sports culture-dismissing it as if to say 'it's just the way kids are'.
Humiliation is one thing. Committing acts that amount to battery and assault is another entirely.
Dave McLean, head football coach here at PCHS, was stunned to learn of the recent news out of Kansas.
"Behavior like that of athletes hurting other people and demeaning them has no place in society. Here we try to encourage the kids to treat others the way you'd want to be treated. We are one big family here," he said.
The Nevada Athletic Commission - in its bylaws for athlete conduct - mentions sanctions for alcohol, tobacco, and controlled-substance use or possession. While not specifying acts of hazing, section 386.835 of the statute does mention "the commission of any act that violates a law or regulation of this State or the Federal Government."
Taken liberally, an athlete committing an act such as burning a fellow player's abdomen with a hot coat hanger or throwing urine on a fellow athlete's person - or committing a similar heinous act would most probably be subject to severe penalties.
Maybe it's long-past time to mention acts of hazing in the regulation handbook found on the NIAA website. Whatever we choose to call it, let's hope that the good kids and athletes here locally never resort to such activity.
We may hear of reports of hazing elsewhere, and if we do it becomes a sort of 'out-of-sight, out-of-mind' thing. Let's hope, though, that we can recognize this behavior for what it is and let's hope, that locally-speaking, we never have to go there.
R.M. Contreras is a sports reporter for the Lovelock Review-Miner, Contact him at r.contreras@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
