Not so hot.

September 27, 2007.  This day happened to be one of the worst days ever in the history of Salve Regina University.  But then again, things won’t start getting better for me until after Saturday… the day of the much feared and dreaded LSAT.  However, I think it’s safe to say that the entire men’s soccer team has it worse than me right now.

It all started Saturday night, when the men decided that it was the perfect night to initiate the freshies onto the team.  And it was all in good fun, until they sent the underclassmen back to campus.  One of the freshman got to his room and became ill.  He wound up having a hot date with the toilet in his suite.  You would think that in his own room, that would be safe.  But the RA’s made their rounds and found him, hunched over and hugging the pot.  The kid was smart.  For the good of the team, he said nothing.  It was as though Initiation had not happened – it was just a normal night on the town for him as far as the RA’s were concerned.  Of course, when an athlete is written up, the coaches have to take action against him/her.  His coach deemed an 8 game suspension to be a worthy punishment for his actions.  Poor freshman.

Of course, it never is so simple.  It can’t be.  At such a small school, news travels fast.

Move ahead to Wednesday, September 26.  The coach finds out about said Initiation.  Coach is pissed (after all, it is his first year with this team).  Coach suspends the entire team for 3 games (Thursday, Saturday and Wednesday).  And that is still not the end of it.

Three upperclassmen: James, Andy and Manny (names slightly changed out of respect for the players) held initiation at their house.  Andy and Manny are both juniors (one 21 and one 20) and James is a senior (21 yrs old).  The three are charged with distribution of alcohol to minors and face expulsion from the school.  In fact, the three men were not allowed to set foot on campus today; Manny missed an exam and review for an upcoming exam.  God only knows what the other two may have missed.

Extreme punishment?  I think so.  Yes, they made a mistake, but don’t we all?  It was just one year ago that my soccer team (the women’s team) was in trouble for Initiation, and women’s lacrosse was caught half a year ago.  No one faced expulsion.  In fact, we were only suspended from one game.  I will be the first to admit that Initiation is a bad idea; when I was initiated 4 years ago I was not excited at all for it – I was scared.  But things happen at college, especially with athletes.

I’m not saying that there should be no consequences.  They deserve to be suspended from a game or two.  But expelling a kid from school at the beginning of his senior year is just ridiculous.  In order to do such a thing, the school must have more concrete rules.  These poor guys are one day behind on their schoolwork, which can add up to a lot at a university.

I know one thing for sure: my team will not be doing an Initiation this year; we didn’t last year and we never will again.  We learned our lesson when we lost games that we should never have lost due to suspensions.  The other teams should have learned from our mistake, but I guess sometimes you have to experience the problem yourself before you can take anything out of it.

I hope to see the three of these kids around campus (meaning that they will not get expelled).  They’re good kids – they just messed up one time.  And they’re all amazing soccer players; just last week Andy was named as a National D3 Player of the Week.  I don’t know what will happen to them once everything is decided: If they are allowed to stay can they play soccer?  Will James and Andy lose their captainship?  Or will they be completely expelled from school?  I guess you will have to stay tuned to hear their fates.