OT - Hazing in high school sports

Submitted by Blue in Paradise on
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Bolt/High-school-football-player… This is disturbing for anyone but especially for the parent of a high school athlete (let’s not get into college / frat hazing). My son is 11 and he has said he would like to play high school football when we are back in the U.S. This team obviously took hazing to an extreme and there should be legal consequences for the morons who beat up this kid. My question is whether a milder version of this kind of thing is normal or if most schools are on top of hazing.

Neversatisfied

May 5th, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^

Hope these guys are prosecuted for this. This has no place in our society, let alone in a situation like this during high school sports. Never witnessed anything close to this in any setting of any high school sports I was associated with. Disturbing.

Blue in Paradise

May 5th, 2018 at 11:03 PM ^

But I will have my eyes open and will ask questions to see what kind of awareness the coach / school show. If I feel like the coach is clueless or, even worse, the kind of meat head that encourages this kind of thing then my son will be out. I would never want him on either side of this kind of thing.

Blue in Paradise

May 6th, 2018 at 12:19 AM ^

That makes zero f&cking attention. Besides, there are multiple stories of violent hazing touching posters on this board, so while not common, it doesn’t sound that isolated. Either you are too stupid to comprehend what has been written or you are “looking for attention” whatever the f&ck that means. So just STFU the next time you think you are writing something witty.

StirredNotShaken

May 6th, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^

I assume you mean the "looking for attention" part of my post? If so, then I stand by my assertion. It may be internet attention but it's still attention seeking at its core. Also, you seem like a short tempered guy with all that foul language and aggression in response to a simple comment from an anonymous person on the internet. You should work to get that under control.

Blue in Paradise

May 5th, 2018 at 11:42 PM ^

Football growing up and haven’t heard of anyone having CTE or related issues. It’s possible that one or two guys have had issues and not said anything but nothing widespread. Again, not saying I don’t believe CTE is an issue, but the media has really hammered football.. If the media started doing stories on all the people that are injured or killed from car crashes on a daily basis, 75% of the population would never again get into a car.

Magnus

May 6th, 2018 at 12:04 AM ^

Yep. Wrap them in bubble wrap, keep them off roller coasters, don’t let them play soccer, lacrosse, or baseball, keep them off jet skis, and make sure they stay off real skis, too. Don’t let them swim or mow the lawn, either.

Rabbit21

May 5th, 2018 at 11:39 PM ^

Icy Hot in.the jock as a prank one day and having to carry the tackling and blocking dummies out to the field during summer camp was it as far as any sort of "welcome to football" that we got as a freshman, this was back in 1991, have to imagine even that is smashed down now.  

StirredNotShaken

May 6th, 2018 at 12:25 AM ^

Seriously, my welcome to HS football moment was when my freshman team had to scrimmage the JV team. The JV coach had his team walk about 100 yards to our field chanting "blood makes the grass grow" in unison. Talk about being intimidated. But you know what? We all took a few hits and started hitting right back. Grew our confidence in a way that only playing football can do.

SHub'68

May 6th, 2018 at 3:03 AM ^

worst thing that I recall witnessing directly is when I was a freshman, some of the varsity players locked our starting point guard in one of those big screened lockers before one of our games, and then left. They waited until we were convinced we'd need to find bolt cutters to get him out. More of a prank, really.

But the wrestling team apparently had a 'tradition' that all the freshman got swirlies. I know this because the wrestling coach had to interrupt our practice to get the first aid kit from our coach - not sure how exactly, but they managed to cut some poor kid's head open during his struggles to keep his head out of the toilet. I heard later that the others just let it happen to get it over with and were basically blaming the kid for fighting back...

I don't really recall hearing much worse than that when I was a kid. Maybe I lived in relative shelter? Or things escalated from swirlies to a lot worse stuff since I was in school.

MichiganTeacher

May 6th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^

No, it's not normal. I've coached - and waaaaay back in the day, played on - many HS teams, varsity/JV/AAU/travel club etc. - and no, hazing beyond mild joking/rookies carry the towels type of stuff is not normal.

maize-blue

May 6th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^

Kick them off the team. Relieve the coach of his duties. Put them in court. That was a little stupid. A tough lesson needs to learned by a lot of people.

michfan23

May 6th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^

I coach high school sports and I can say that nothing beyond mild (and I mean mild joking) and making freshman carry the equipment is tolerated. After practices we have at least one coach stand outside the locker room to be a presence should something get out of hand. The players know that if a problem happens they will be punished. I’m not saying that a little jesting/physical hazing, like what was done when I played, is bad, but today’s world is a different one. Coaches get fired, charges are made, players react violently, and parents demand more answers. You don’t have to agree with the world we live in, but you have to be sensitive to it. That’s why I see things like this and no matter what your opinion is on hazing you have to recognize that it doesn’t fit into today’s world.

USMC 1371

May 6th, 2018 at 2:06 PM ^

I worked in a prison and you’re right. It is prison like. Inmates have a mentality that when they see someone get beat up they want to join in even if they have no idea why the person got hit or who the person even is. I asked a convict once why he joined in a beat down. He said the dude was a bitch for losing so he deserved to get beat down even worse by everyone else.

SHub'68

May 6th, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^

the descripitions, I didn't want to watch that video and didn't before my first comment. Eventually I did, but shut it off when they started jumping and landing on him because it made me sick. WTH?! There was a guy most of us didn't like who showed up on the various teams I was on, but doing something like that to him never would have ocurred to us. He was a teammate and that meant something - and I would never do anything like that to anyone anyhow. I'd like to hope I'd have had the guts to stop it if it ever did - maybe get some of the other guys or something. That was really beastial and the others just stood and watched or filmed it. If I was the coach, to whatever team punishment gets dealt out - and there needs to be team punishment on top of individual punishment - I'd add ripping the rest of the team bad for not doing something to put a stop to it. It's your duty as a human being.

Wendyk5

May 6th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^

Based on descriptions here, I didn’t watch the video but if my kid was the victim, I would seriously lose my shit and press charges. We’ve been lucky and have a coach who has close to zero tolerance for that bullsh**. When several members of the team were caught exchanging naked pics with some girls several years ago, he pulled the plug on the season. Sucked for the seniors to end the season that way but it’s a crime to do that, so you get what’s due. Same thing should happen here, and more.