Hazing in College Athletics Series: The Student-Athlete Perspective

ASouth and the Blog team here. We are back for another round of the “Hazing Series,” which as we all know has stemmed from the recent allegations, and now punishment, of the Redlands men’s tennis team. While rumors have been swirling about past Redlands teams and of course the always prominent “What did they actually do?” question still looms, we will continue to look at the bigger picture. Some may think that hazing only happens in fraternities or sororities, or maybe even “super hardcore” sports teams, but as we’ve seen, that’s obviously not the case. And here we are now. In today’s edition of the “Hazing in College Athletics” Series, we dive into a Q and A with some of our student-athletes of the Blog, past and present, to shed some light on their experiences or thoughts on hazing in college sports. AVZ obviously started us off strong with a fantastic, factual article that told us some things that many of us think are obvious – hazing is often, if not always, detrimental to any team that participates in it. I know that there are some people out there that aren’t necessarily convinced. And sometimes that takes real-life experiences and accounts to shed light on a situation. Well, we are here to give some of our thoughts in the hope that we can at least continue the conversation that AVZ has so graciously started.

Before we get to the Q&A section of our “Student-Athlete Perspective” edition of the series, I would also like to send out a PSA. We’ve gotten a comment from what we believe is a Redlands player about something regarding this whole hazing situation. Let’s just say it wasn’t the most mature comment. So, here’s a message to you, Redlands. If you want to give your two cents, email me. Here’s why – you’re not going to get any B.S. out via an anonymous comment on the Blog, and I’m not going to tolerate immaturity. So, if you’re real about it, email me at d3atlanticsouth@gmail.com and we can have an adult conversation about this whole situation. That’s all. Now, let’s get to the Q&A section.

The NCAA defines hazing as “any act committed against someone joining or becoming a member or maintaining membership in any organization that is humiliating, intimidating or demeaning, or endangers the health and safety of the person. Hazing includes active or passive participation in such acts and occurs regardless of the willingness to participate in the activities. Hazing creates an environment/climate in which dignity and respect are absent.”  

Q: This is obviously a textbook definition of hazing. But, hazing is much more complicated than that. In your eyes, what constitutes hazing?

D3AS: D3ASW has an excellent testimonial below. It’s quite eye-opening because this is such a tough question. To me, hazing differs from person to person. The fact of the matter is this – if there’s a chance it could make someone really uncomfortable, then it shouldn’t be done. Especially when you’re just starting to get to know these players or teammates. I just don’t get it, you know. We’ve seen the consequences of this whole thing and it’s not even close to worth it. But, that’s not the question that was asked. I’ll let D3ASW answer.

D3ASW: Before I sat down and started writing, I actually called one of my parents to see if they thought my experience counted as hazing, which obviously speaks to how it means something different to everyone. My parent was under the impression that I was not actually hazed because I did not come to any bodily harm. Fair enough. I think we can all agree that if hazing rituals involve breaking the law or potential for physical harm/threat to safety, that is hazing with a capital H and is actually illegal in 44 US states. But I think it goes beyond that and I will explain why: To me, hazing is about power. It’s about setting the tone that since I am older or more senior than you I am somehow better than you and you will do what I say. As a newcomer, you are nervous, unsure, wanting to fit in so you buy into this hierarchy expecting that this is how to become an accepted member of the team.

My freshman year of college, I was the only freshman on the team. I saw my coaches and teammates more than anyone else on campus due to our rigorous practice schedule. One day in the fall someone had the idea that it would be a good idea if no one used my real name. Instead of “D3ASW”, I became “Freshman” for the rest of the year. As in, during matches, my teammates would cheer for Freshman, at practices it would be “Rebecca and Freshman” playing doubles, “Hey Freshman” when we crossed paths between classes. As Freshman, I also had to stay after conditioning to put everyone’s weights away, and I was told to come early before matches and stay late after to put up and take down those school posters that get put on the fences. One of the trainers had a “Freshman” 25 lb weight plate that I had to carry around during our workouts, including during jumping and sprint workouts (hurdles with Freshman plate were not pretty, LOL). In my exhaustion, one day I asked her why she was punishing me and I was told that it wasn’t punishment, it was just part of being Freshman.

Was this hazing? I can see how one would say no. Nothing illegal happened. It was by no means kept a secret from the staff or coaches. And aside from a few instances it wasn’t even that malicious. It was just part of the culture. My teammates were nice enough young women – they never forced alcohol on me and every once in a while they would even ask me how classes were. I also got in pretty good shape, though the sight of a 25 lb plate still makes me want to vomit a little. But I make the motion I did actually experience a form of hazing: I was isolated, had my name taken away, and forced to do menial tasks that in no way made me a better tennis player or teammate. All with the justification that I should do it because I was younger than them. No, I never experienced real or perceived physical harm (unless you count severely burning glutes as physical harm), but the fact that they were all ok with treating me like that sure as heck did not make me feel a part of the team. So back to the actual question. What actually constitutes hazing? I wish I had an eloquent, succinct answer, but I don’t think I can do better than the NCAA. It’s about the dignity and respect, y’all.

Q: An argument in support of hazing is the ever known – “it makes the team tighter knit.” What are your thoughts on this?

NE: We’ve all heard this phrase. From coaches to players to even us bloggers, the idea of a “tight-knit” team is something thrown around early and often when describing great teams. How does a team create that type of trust that allows each member to know his or her family is out there giving everything? There are many ways that a team can forge a bond, however each and everyone of those ways involve making people feel as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves, in a positive fashion. As D3AS said above, hazing, as defined by the NCAA, is “humiliating, intimidating or demeaning, or endangers the health and safety of the person.” If any one player is feeling humiliated, intimated, demeaned, endangered or unsafe, he or she is certainly not contributing to a tight-knit team. Don’t believe me, look at AVZ’s first article in our hazing series, “Research has shown that hazing is associated with lower team cohesion and can put personal, academic, and athletic goals out of reach (Van Raalte, J.L. & Cornelius, A.E. (2007).” It’s pretty simple really, hazing has been shown to have negative effects on a team.

newCentral: The “it makes the team tighter” argument is probably the most cited argument in support of hazing, so it’s important that we unpack this relationship between hazing and team unity. The argument generally claims that hazing will create a tight-knit team culture for any number of reasons: shared hardship begets unity, hazing symbolizes a barrier for entry that creates an air of exclusivity or prestige, it’s the way we’ve always done things, etc. In reality, hazing can only create a facade of unity because it actually fragments a team on lines of hazers and hazees. The emotional, mental, and/or physical torment that hazees must endure will color every interaction they have with their hazers whether they actively think about it or not. A team that is tight-knit is one that is comfortable with each other, recharges in their teammate’s presences, and have all bought in towards a collective goal. As D3NE has pointed out, this intimacy, present within the culture of a tight-knit team, must be fostered via positive shared experiences. However, one of the most important aspects of hazing is the imbalance in power between the various parties, and it logically follows that this inequality fuels a severe difference in experience: positive vs. negative. Hazing cannot and does not have a positive outcome for all simply because it isn’t meant to. This “it makes a team tighter” argument is flawed because the very actions that define hazing are antithetical to all sane and positive ways of creating a tight knit team.

Q: What is the difference between team traditions and hazing? Do you have any experience with both or either, and what difference does that make?

NE: There is a very fine line between traditions and hazing, and for better or for worse that line must be examined each and every year depending on the crop of upper and underclassmen. In high school, we had a tradition where the seniors would make up a town-wide scavenger hunt that the freshmen would have to try and complete as a group. I always liked this activity, both as a freshman and an upperclassman because I enjoyed the freshmen coming together to work as a team, even if they did things that made them look stupid. Looking back on this now, and even as a high school junior/senior, I see how this could easily be construed as hazing. We did have a couple freshmen who were reluctant to do one or two items on the list (things like busque on the street corner until you had made $1, or go buy XL-condoms…I’ll admit we weren’t always the cleverest group), but if one person didn’t want to do something, somebody else always stepped up. It built relationships that I keep to this day. To me, something like this is fine, as long as you make sure that everybody knows nothing is “mandatory” and you’re all just here to have fun/get to know your fellow freshmen. If that’s not done appropriately, then I understand why a higherup would want to shut that “tradition” down.

In college we weren’t as lucky as CHB and didn’t go fruit picking or carve pumpkins, but we did a couple team bonding exercises throughout my college career. First the good story: we worked with a group called Team Impact that works with children facing serious illnesses and brings them together with college athletic programs. We got to work/hang out with this absolutely incredible kid, whose name I won’t mention just in case he/she doesn’t want it, and it brought us all closer as a group when we were made to realize just how lucky we all were. Our friend would come to almost all of our home matches and it not only brought smiles to our faces, but gave us even more of a commonality. Team traditions like that are bigger than the sport itself, and I cannot recommend Team Impact or programs like it highly enough.

The not-so-good story comes from my freshman “introduction.” I’m sure most teams do something like this, and it’s VERY easy to see how this gets out of hand in a jiffy. We were never forced to drink or do drugs or anything like that while in school, but we did have a night during freshman year where we were given a series of tasks, most of which involved alcohol. Each person had to do a different task at different parts of the night, and I will always remember how anxious I was about that night before it actually started. Even if the activities didn’t involve drinking or challenges, me and my fellow freshmen’s anxiety could have easily been called hazing, and so could the activities. I will be honest, all in all it was a very fun day, for all parties involved. I never thought about that night as one full of hazing, but it certainly could have been construed as such. This brings me to my main point about the line between traditions vs hazing, it depends on the people. As CHB will mention in his story below, somebody didn’t want to do a specific task for whatever reason. That should be known by the captains/upperclassmen and no freshman should ever be made to do a task in the name of team bonding that he or she does not want to do. Those “introduction” events still go on at most schools, and unfortunately this Redlands incident shows that they are not all handled with the proper care/thought. If you can tailor your traditions to make an event where nobody will feel humiliated, intimidated, demeaned, etc. then I, personally, believe you can keep your traditions. Easier said than done, yes, but a goal worth working towards.

CHB: I think my experience in high school illustrates how easy it is for a team building ritual to turn into hazing. Where I went to high school, there used to be a tradition where all freshman to make varsity sports teams were “laked” – thrown into a lake near the campus. For me, this wasn’t a big deal. My brother, who was much better at tennis than I, had graduated the year before I got to high school and warned me that it was coming. The seniors on the team carried out the ritual in a friendly fashion, kindly escorting me to the bridge that passed over one of the higher points of the lake, and genially pushing me in when I was good and ready. These guys were not menacing in the slightest, and, honestly, it felt kind of cool to have been “laked.”

The reason the tradition no longer exists is because later that same year, a freshman on one of the spring sports, who was not a strong swimmer, was forcibly thrown into water that was – at that point – much colder and shallower. He hit the bottom and injured his ankle. From then on out, any seniors caught carrying out this tradition were suspended, and that was that. Basically, what was a fun moment for me became terrifying for this other student. Looking at the definition pasted above, it’s obvious that I was a willing participant in a much more respectful and dignified laking, but the laking would have taken place with or without my consent, which makes it hazing.

Though the laking tradition was fun for me, my experience at Whitman showed me how good team building can create a completely different team culture. At my very first Whitman practice, I was greeted with a hug from the captain. Throughout the fall season, there were a number of traditional team activities. None of them were mandatory; we weren’t even pressured into attending, but everyone went anyways, because the team was filled with people who genuinely liked spending their free time together. These activities sound kind of lame when you type them out on a blog: team pumpkin carving, team blackberry picking, team trip to the destruction derby. Carving pumpkins with my teammates legitimately sounded like more fun than anything else I could’ve been doing on a Friday evening. (You can leave your Walla Walla jokes in the comments). Especially in the fall when we were all competing with each other for spots in the lineup, I think the fact that we became each other’s best friends so quickly says a lot. One of the great things about DIII is that on so many teams, teammates become lifelong friends. Thank you to all the coaches out there who work so hard to give your players good experiences.

Q: What are some other ways to welcome new members of the team with the goal of team building that are NOT hazing?

RegNEC: There’s really no shortage of options, just as CHB outlines above (I wish my team went blackberry picking!). It’s seems almost too obvious, but you can welcome new team members by being nice to them, making an effort to get to know them on a one-on-one level, and being sure to include them in all team activities.  New team members don’t need special treatment—they should just be treated like everyone else on the team. In most cases, it doesn’t take that much special effort for new team members to become fully integrated. At the end of the day, it all comes down to culture. If hazing isn’t a part of the culture (and it wasn’t for my team), it’s a non-issue. But if hazing is something a team has a tradition of doing, eradicating it might make the team feel like something’s missing. It’s in these cases where there should be more of an emphasis on welcoming in new team members by treating them like everyone else, NOT as if they have to “pay their dues” to fully be part of the team.

AS: I really don’t think that we need to talk about all the ways to build relationships with your teammates, because there are literally so many ways to build a team without going into the deep dark hole of hazing. I’m not going to give examples. But what I will say is this – I’ve been working for over 6 years now, and a lot of the things I learned in college tennis continue to stand true for my relationships today, both professionally and personally. It’s not a coincidence that the best employees in the professional workplace are ones that not only do a good job, but also look out for other people. PEOPLE LIKE THAT. Tell me something – do you see super successful companies or start-ups or whatever becoming successful because of some stupid hazing ritual they all performed to make them tighter knit? No. Most companies are successful because of a positive and team-oriented workplace, one where people are competitive, but also working towards a common goal. Some people think that hazing achieves this, but really it’s a simple question – would you feel a better connection with someone that forces you to drink until you throw up, or someone that enjoys a casual 1-2 drinks with you and you chat until 10PM before you call it a night? In a mature setting, that’s an extremely easy answer. And the problem is that we don’t always have the most mature settings in college tennis teams.

So, here’s a solution for all of you “how do we become a tighter team without hazing” supporters. Figure out what makes your teammates tick. Figure out what doesn’t make your teammates tick. Focus on the good things, and do those things with them. Let’s be honest, there are going to be teammates that probably won’t be your cup of tea. But, you all have the same goal, correct? So, why alienate someone more when you can make them feel comfortable. They don’t have to like you or feel like you are their brother or sister, but hell, they can at least give it their all when you’re trying to win on the court. They’ll do that for you if they feel like you respect them. And I’d say hazing is the opposite of respect.

Final Thoughts

AS here again. I’ll end this article with just a very general thought. You guys are all smart people, more or less. And while I totally understand that college is a time where you do stupid things, or don’t always make the right decisions, it happens sometimes and we don’t expect you to be perfect. I surely wasn’t when I was in college, and I made immature decisions all the time. But as a team, you all should know better to avoid the really stupid decisions. Look at the overwhelming backlash against this whole hazing situation – so many people have come out and confirmed what we should have all known. Hazing has no place in today’s society. If one person is making a dumb decision, the other guys should step up and shut it down. The world has no respect for those that sit on the sidelines and watch things happen. Look at what’s happening around the world today. You’d be surprised, standing up for the right thing is the thing to do these days and will continue to be for a while.