<p>I am also glad that we seem to be making progress in that direction.</p>
<p>“…anyone teammate present for hazing incidents shares in the wrongdoing and therefore the penalties levied. Being present and not stopping hazing violates hazing policies.”</p>
<p>Sure, I would agree with that if the wrongdoing was clearcut, substantial and went on for awhile. But if something happened that was borderline / only mildly offensive and the conclusion that it was hazing is something reasonable people could disagree with, then I think suspending every team member who did not leave the room is extreme, unduly harsh and unfair. I don’t know exactly what happened - apparently some people on this thread do so perhaps they can describe what this incident consisted of. If the policy is that everyone should feel “comfortable” that’s great. But it is also highly subjective, which suggests that a sledgehammer may not be the most appropriate tool for every borderline violation. </p>
<p>Also, what about the coach - does he not bear any responsibility at all for a team environment that apparently has gone severely off the tracks twice in 5 years? </p>
<p>(And whatever happened to the assistant coach that this team lost earlier in the season? As I understand it, the circumstances were not fully disclosed.)</p>
<p>Well, I can say that EVERY team member who did not leave the room was punished AND that some punished weren’t even “in the room” and that some punished didn’t even know what was going on in the “next room” or even that hazing was going on. Hard to stop something you don’t know about.</p>
<p>The entire men’s team was punished by missing a meet AND having people who know nothing about it post “It must have been serious” etc etc and while I am not going to post details out of respect for the hazed, the response by the administration showed that Midd is serious about hazing.</p>
<p>I have never said I disagree with the punishment, or that I think hazing is OK.
And who are you, Aquaman, with other hints about some mysterious happenings and only 2 previous posts? ■■■■■!</p>
<p>CD: “Peter has won 7 out of 14 years possible”</p>
<p>Actually, this is not possible at all, since there’s been a swimming/diving NESCAC championship for only <em>10</em> years. Kuster has swept (won both men’s and women’s the same year) coach of the year twice --in 2002 and 2007, with single titles coming in 2003 (w), 2004 (w), 2008 (w), 2009 (m) and 2010 (w) – or in 70% of the years possible. (And 9 awards in 11 years coaching = 82%, > than 50%.)</p>
<p>(When I said “9 times out of a possible 20” I was referring to the women’s and men’s coach of the year awards for the 10 NESCAC championships that have been held.)</p>
<p>Without taking anything away from Coach Solomon, his bio states he’s won NESCAC coach of the year awards three times (men’s) – 2005, 2008, and 2010. His other four awards are for “New Englands” dating back to the 1990s-- before Kuster even arrived at Williams the year before NESCAC championships began.</p>
<p>lol at you folk giving a crap</p>
<p>Let’s see, you disagree with me and I’ve only posted twice, so I must be a “■■■■■”? I guess I hit a nerve. </p>
<p>I have not referred to any mystery; instead, I mentioned the fact that a well-liked assistant coach departed at the beginning of this season and that the reasons for the departure were not shared even with the team. </p>
<p>You said that you know what the incident consisted of but will not disclose it out of respect for the victim. How about some respect for the innocent team members punished? Why should anyone, including the swim team recruit earlier in this thread, take it on faith that the incident was severe enough to merit a season-ending suspension? And how can anyone evaluate whether the program has gone off the rails without some hard facts about what happened?</p>
<p>AM51: From the website that SF shared in post #13, another post (“Hazing or Best Party of the Year?”) points to what appears to be extreme silliness (immaturity?) on the part of those involved, involving a piece / pieces of fruit:</p>
<p>[d3swimming.com</a> • View topic - Hazing or Best Party of the Year?](<a href=“http://d3swimming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5637]d3swimming.com”>http://d3swimming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5637)</p>
<p>From several of the posts here, it seems that quite a few, both inside and outside of the Midd community, know a lot of the details as well.</p>
<p>From comments on the link above:</p>
<p>“Plain and simple: These ‘hazers’ are stupid. Wait until the season is OVER.”</p>
<p>When a team hazes, it is a team activity and the team needs to suffer the consequences. The NCAA, NESCAC, and individual colleges make this clear to all athletes. Sailfish is right: there are no gray areas, really. Team members who do not step in to stop what each athlete knows is wrong (intimidation and humiliation) are also guilty in some way. And while high schoolers are taught this, too, it is usually the parents who are most offended when their children are accused of these kind of incidents. They don’t get it. Unfortunate, but true. Athletics has become more important than character building intoo many families these days. Sad.</p>
<p>
Wait…didn’t there used to be a lot more hazing in the past than there is now?</p>
<p>Hunt – maybe so, but I was referring to the reaction by parents, and not whether things have gotten worse or better. Let’s hope they have gotten better: the NCAA, conferences, and individual colleges do a lot to educate athletes on the problems of hazing…yet it still happens.</p>
<p>In the past, such incidents went beneath the radar screen — there weren’t the structures in place on campuses and in the work place to deal with them. They just happened. They may have been more numerous in the past, but who knows. What I am referring to is now that such incidents are made public, one sees parents react to penalties of hazing incidents far more regularly and one has to wonder what is going on at home. They seem to take the coaches and colleges to task and don’t ever see what might have been missing at home. In those cases, athletics seems to have become far more important than simple lessons of teaching what is right and wrong.</p>
<p>My observation is that there are still a lot of people who don’t think hazing is all that wrong, and some of them are probably parents who were hazed themselves, and thought the hazing was part of the character building.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with that perception, by the way–I’m just saying that it’s an idea that is fading, but is still around.</p>
<p>I could not agree more with what PP99 has said throughout his/her posts (nor could I have said it as well). We live in the Boston Metro area and this fall one of the area’s high school’s girls’ team (soccer of field hockey—can’t remember which) was suspended from post-season play by the school’s administration for hazing and the parents went into court to have the decision overturned (which the court did not do)—but just as PP99 says, it was more important to the parents that their daughters play than to use the incident as an opportunity to develop character, empathy and conscience. And in recent studies in the upsurge of girl meanness, researchers are pointing to the fact that mothers are often condoning that kind of behavior as long as their daughter is on the right end of the stick. As a parent of a swimmer, I know how hard swimmers train, always pointing to the end of season results. But as a parent of a daughter who I hope to be a compassionate, caring and contributing member of society, I would want her to suffer these kind of consequence if she actively or passively participated in whatever it was that warranted this action by the Middlebury administration (I’m sure that it pained the coach and administration to have to fore-go the championship).</p>
<p>Having attended the NESCAC meet, I have to commend the Midd team—the fy squad of 9 who packed one heck of a wallop, the suspended swimmers in the stands cheering that small squad on and the coach who exemplified pride and class. Altogether, a tough and unfortunate situation handled well.</p>