On Tuesday at 6pm central time on twitter there is a
volleyball tweet up or discussion. It is facilitated by
@goodtouchvolleyball. This past week one
of the topics was hazing. If you want to join in it is #gttalk It led me to
think about our first years and their welcoming to BU. I am happy with how our
first year players are fitting in with the team so far. With the addition of 6 first year players
this leads us to the idea of rookie initiation and the dreaded word hazing.
I am not naive to think that our team won’t have some form
of first year welcoming. I like to talk
to our captains beforehand. Personally I believe this is the Captains first
real challenge as leaders. They have to
be strong enough to make this a fun and safe activity. I believe the purpose of a welcome to BU experience
is to team build, to bring the athletes officially into our family. By having the first years singled out and
make a fool of themselves does nothing to endear them to our school. It also
can be a source of stress on a student who already has a ton of stress placed
on them. The idea that you have to earn your way on to the team is very archaic. The athletes today have put a ton of time into
their sport already, hired person trainers, played provincial and national
teams just to get to this level.
In the discussion with the Captains I mention three
guidelines.
1. Captains and the rest of the team are personally
responsible and accountable for all the actions. They need to make sure it is a safe
environment. I also ask it not to be limited
to First years. It needs to be inclusive;
if the first years do it then the Captains or veterans should be doing it too.
2. The activities chosen are genuinely voluntary nature,
first year athletes have the choice to participate or opt out of the activity
without fear of any negative consequences. If an athlete makes a positive
choice to limit alcohol, or food intake, we should celebrate this activity
instead of ridicule. This is a committed
person who wants to be able to train. Alcohol takes 48 hours to leave your
system, if overconsumption occurs, that is two days of training and recovery
wasted.
3. WE do not have
special dress up activities and then head out around town. We want to be seen as mature place of
learning. Whenever anything negative
happens around the athletes it is “Brandon University Bobcat arrested” or “Former
Bobcat in trouble” as headlines in the paper.
They lose a bit of their own identity and have to think of the larger
group.
So far in our 8 years of existence our welcome parties have
gone pretty smooth. But I still worry about the ramifications every year. It only takes bad one to put tarnish on the
program forever.
I am not in favour of this type of activity and let it known
to the team. WE live in a small
community and when it comes to athletics it is even smaller. Coaches find out eventually all the things
that go on.
We recruit athletes that are quality people and
this is their time to prove us right.
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