The following is a conversation The Clock had with a former Women’s Rugby player. She played on the team for one season. These are her experiences as a “rookie,” on the Women’s Rugby team. Due to her desire to remain anonymous, her responses will be marked as “X” in this transcript.
The Clock- I guess I’ll cut to the chase. Did you ever feel as if-well do you know the actual definition of hazing?
X-Well its basically being forced to do something in order to belong to a group or a team or whatever that you would not want to do and is not necessarily required like a practice or anything like that. Its some sort of involvement for respect from peers on the team.
TC- Did you ever feel you were being hazed?
X-After awhile yeah. It was at first just kind of the little things like show up at a party; help clean up after a party. Just things like that. It was just like hey, this is kind of this mandatory thing that you have to do, it had nothing to do with playing the sport. Just dumb things.
TC- Would you care to elaborate on the term “dumb things”
X- The first Spring Fling, we were given a list of things we had to do over the weekend and some of them, they were never explicitly stated that we had to do something illegal but for many of the things they did require. For example taking something from a veteran player and leaving a note telling what you took and consequently you had to break into their house or room to do it or climb through a window, which is technically breaking and entering, some of the things like that, that may seem dumb, but they could have a legal consequence.
TC- How long were you on the team.
X-For both semesters. So a year.
TC- would you be comfortable commenting on the Women’s Rugby team’s involvement with the Men’s Rugby team?
X-Men’s Rugby team, we would often after games have parties with them and we would be forced to sing vulgar songs to them at parties to them, but we had boys even comment on how rough we had it as rookies on the team, and how their rookies never had to do the things we had to do, they never had meetings, they never had mandatory parties or clean up or things like that, or the extra things that the girls had to do that I guess would be considered hazing. They never had to do any of that.
TC About how many people are on the team?
X-We need fifteen to play, so anywhere between twenty and twenty-five maybe. I don’t recall the exact number.
TC- where all of them required at one time or another to take part in these activities?
X-Yes, and that’s why some of the veteran players didn’t see why it was wrong because they had to do it as rookies and for them it just seems like a right of passage.
TC Was there ever any dialog about the things you had to do to be on the team [between other “rookies”]?
X-Oh yeah. There were times when we would have to meet at eight in the morning and clean a house after we had a party there, and we would always talk about how dumb it was, ‘you know, so and so didn’t have to do things like that,’ but we would still go out and do it. We would just chalk it up to a rite of passage. Everyone else had to do it when they were rookies, so what makes us so special?
TC- Was there ever a time that you didn’t do something you were supposed to do?
X-Yeah, there were times when I didn’t want to go to practice, because I didn’t want to deal with the political prospect of it all. I didn’t think playing a sport or playing an actual game should be based on whether or not you clean a house after a party, it should be based on how well you play a sport, how hard you practice. Things like that. There were times when I wouldn’t go to parties regardless if they were mandatory or not.
TC- Where there ever any consequences?
X-Not a physical consequence, but people would tell you, ‘hey, where were you at the party, why didn’t you show up? Well, the rest of the team was here? Why are you letting us down, you really need to be involved with us outside of the field? They kind of would just make you feel bad if you decided not to go to a party one night.
TC-Could any of the hazing ever be considered physical?
X-I never witnessed any physical hazing. But I have heard recently people talking about it, not on a personal level, but that they witnessed it, so I don’t know how true that is.
TC-From your experience with the team, how involved was Matt Volitis the advisor?
X-I met him once during something completely separate from Rugby; I didn’t even know he was the advisor or anything. He never came to any practices. So his involvement was minimal. I don’t even know if he knew any of this was going on. I’m sure if he did he would have tried to stop it.
TC- So Callahan is still the coach?
X-As far as I know she is. I haven’t heard of her resigning or anything.
TC- was she aware?
X-Yeah, I mean she played herself. I’m sure to some extent she had to go through it; it and it just seemed like a rite of passage. I don’t know how informed she was, I know she knows the songs we had to sing and that we had parties and that we would drink and things like that.
TC- Was there a time after she was coach where she addressed the issue of hazing or the initiation?
X-I don’t know how much of a say she had in it but when the spring season started and we were recruiting more players we had a night where we all sat down and we read a paper on what hazing was, what the definition was and everyone signed it. It was pretty much a paper saying Women’s Rugby does not haze, and that if anyone ever feels like they ever were being hazed by someone on the team, they should speak to someone about it and perhaps it wasn’t hazing, it was just “part of being on the team.”
TC- Was that the only time something like that was brought up?
X-The only other time it was brought up was with the term “rookies” We were told never to use the term outside of the sport because it had hazing connotations associated with it. So we were just referred to as new players on the field or at practice.
TC Did some members get harsher treatment?
X-There were some girls who were juniors or seniors and they were friends with captains on the team and if they didn’t want to show up for one reason or another, they would just say, ‘oh we’ll talk to them,’ and they would never ask any questions. Those who joined because their friends were captains were definitely given unfair treatment.
TC What do you think was the most extreme incident of hazing that you went through?
X-Personally, it was probably fun runs, which a lot of teams do. You basically just run, we ran for about two hours straight and we would stop at different house and apartments along the way and drink beer and keep running. We would end up running for two hours without water, only alcohol. We would be funneling beers and drinking beers as fast as we could. TC- Did you have to go through this until the very end or could you stop?
X-We all had to run and finish together. We all had to hold onto each other’s shirts. We could only go as fast as the slowest person.
TC- Was there a dress code for this?
X-No there wasn’t. It would really suck because half of us would not be dressed appropriately for a run.
TC- So you wouldn’t know about these until you showed up?
X-Right. We were told to meet and then we were basically given clues on where to run. Then we would run and we would drink and when we were done drinking we would be given another clue. Then at the very end when we would get to the last stop, if we didn’t go fast enough we drank more beer after being completely exhausted. Once you get full of alcohol you really don’t want to run but then you would have to drink more beer. There was an instance when we were outside and we had to run up a hill in the woods and we had a certain amount of time to find a certain amount of beers hidden in the leaves and then chug them all and that was fucked up.
TC- Now was that a one-time thing?
X-That was a one time thing but definitely being at a party and having them handing you a beer and saying chug was a regular thing and if you didn’t chug it fast enough they would give you another one. A lot of chugging going on.
TC-Where there any consequences if anyone quit?
X-There weren’t any consequences but anytime anybody heard about anyone was thinking of quitting they would guilt you into staying saying things like, ‘oh we all love you-we don’t want you to quit.’ Or ‘you know, we think you have so much potential. They would try to win you back. I know people who quit, and people on the team would just stop talking to them. I know a lot of girls don’t talk to me anymore.
TC- Final comments?
X-I do know that when I and other people went to talk to [a University Police Officer] we didn’t want people to get arrested because we thought hazing would get worse and it would become a more serious problem if people stepped out. But then it became apparent that they had to make arrests because it wasn’t just people being silly anymore. I guess more people were getting physically hurt, at least that’s what I’ve heard but I don’t know anything for sure.
TC- If you could put a timeline on it how quickly did this happen, from the time when you spoke with Officer Frank and when the arrests were made?
X-One of the girls told me that she had heard of some of the girls speaking, and probably within a couple weeks I had an interview and a couple weeks later I heard about the arrests. It’s probably been only a month or two.
TC- So it’s been this semester
X-Yes
TC- Often times when it comes to hazing we think of Greek organizations and not sports teams and that may have to do with the methods used to cover up these instances. In what ways was this behavior concealed so it didn’t get out that as much?
X-Its probably because with sororities and fraternities [hazing] is more stereotyped and so they keep a closer eye on them, and with Rugby being a club sport and we’re not the first to blame and we are not regulated as much as sanctioned sports here and so it gets overlooked. Often times this would happen at people houses, so there would be know suspicion if someone was seen going over someone’s house and when you are there [in the house] that is when everything would happen. It would happen behind closed doors and unless someone would speak up nothing would happen.
TC -Did the majority of these events happens off campus?
X-There would be apartments on campus, but the majority of it did happen off campus.