Trying to Skate Past A Hazing Scandal

By JOE LAPOINTE

BURLINGTON, Vt.

At first glance, it seems like a typical first month of school in this bustling college town alongside a lovely lake. The sign on the diner says "Welcome Back, Students." The bookstore hours are posted. Students stroll under trees that show hints of colorful foliage. At the athletic complex, hockey players work out informally in anticipation of official practice, which begins late next week.

But all is not quite back to normal at the University of Vermont, especially in hockey. The team's opening game on Oct. 14 against New Hampshire will be its first game of any kind since last January, when the 1999-2000 season was canceled in midschedule because players had lied about a hazing incident.

The initiation ceremony had resulted in a federal lawsuit filed by a freshman goalie. Public outrage over the detailed accusations in the suit caused the state's attorney general to begin an investigation. The uproar eventually led university officials to cancel the second half of the hockey season, prompting a broad debate about the pervasiveness and propriety of hazing in college sports.

Eight months have now gone by and players are back, getting ready for a new season. Late last month, the case filed by the freshman goalie, Corey LaTulippe, was settled, with LaTulippe expected to get $80,000 from the university and smaller sums from some former teammates. But it will take more than money and signed legal documents to heal the emotional wounds and the damaged reputations.

The university has suffered, said David Nestor, the vice president for student affairs. "We have experienced a drop in Vermont students enrolling at the University of Vermont," he said recently in a conference room at Gutterson Field House. As he spoke, the sounds of sticks and pucks echoed up from the ice. "I understand we have had about a 5 percent dip from what is typical. Some of that has to do with the hockey issue."

Of the legal settlement, Nestor said: "It's maybe putting an end to a chapter, but it's not the end to the book. This issue is not just specific to athletics. It includes fraternities, sororities, even academic honorary organizations, not necessarily specific to this campus. The process has become highly ritualized within the youth culture itself without much adult supervision and sometimes not much adult awareness."

LaTulippe left school after the hazing incident and after he failed to make the team. Now 20 years old, he plays for a junior team in Cleveland.

In his lawsuit, LaTulippe said that the team's new players, at an alcohol-drenched party last October in an off-campus house, had been coerced into parading naked while holding each other's genitals. He also said they had been told to do push-ups while dipping their private parts into glasses of beer, after which they had to drink the beer. And he said that the young players had been blindfolded and fondled by strippers to amuse the veteran hockey players.

"It should not have occurred, hazing shouldn't have happened," LaTulippe said in a deposition last May. "I want hazing to never take place."

LaTulippe, who declined requests for an interview, ultimately withdrew other allegations from his lawsuit, particularly those blaming leaders in the athletic department for what took place. He said under questioning at the deposition that the university's hockey coach, Mike Gilligan, had not been at fault.

In addition, LaTulippe himself underwent three days of questioning last May from defense lawyers representing the college and his former teammates. During the deposition, LaTulippe was asked about his own behavior before the initiation. Among many other things, he was asked about accusations that he had urinated on teammates in the shower while in high school and that he had exposed a swollen and injured testicle to women. He did not dispute the accusations.

Gilligan, who attended the deposition, shook his head in wonder when recalling it last week. "I was amazed at how things happen, and how nasty they can get," he said.

LaTulippe suffered emotional distress and needed psychological counseling last winter after he learned that Vermont's season had been canceled as the affair accelerated beyond anyone's control, people close to him said.

The monetary settlement is considerably less than the $350,000 LaTulippe's lawyers first suggested. Neither side has apologized and both still present themselves as victims.

But Gilligan and university administrators hope to start the school year fresh. "I wanted to go in this season not worrying about depositions for myself, my players, my staff," he said. "Enough is enough. We've got to start mending some of the wounds."

Most of his players have returned, still on scholarship, which rankles some critics of the university. One of those critics is Ken Squire, an auto racing executive who operates an influential radio station in the area. In an editorial broadcast recently, Squire called some of the returning hockey players "perverts and liars" and said they should have been expelled from school. He also said the university needed a change of administration to alter the perception that Vermont is a party school.

Some players who were approached in recent days refused to be interviewed. Others spoke warily. Jerry Gernander, the new captain and a player not named in the suit, said he was surprised how he had felt being back on campus.

"I didn't know what to expect," he said, adding that other students seem to accept the players. "It is such a relief to focus on hockey again."

When asked whether he had discussed hazing with his teammates for this season, Gernander replied: "I don't think it's necessary. We've learned a valuable lesson. It's not going to happen."

The Vermont Legislature has passed a law against hazing and the university says it has increased its vigilance. The university plans to hold workshops for athletes on hazing and to help develop a broad National Collegiate Athletic Association policy against hazing. Among other things, university officials also hope to encourage healthier team initiation ceremonies that would be attended by coaches and athletes.

Although many within the university had expected dismissals of staff members, there have been none. A vice president who oversaw the athletic department has retired and an assistant athletic director has taken a leave of absence.

Some people who supported the hockey players last winter and who were critical of LaTulippe still accuse him of being vindictive, of setting up his teammates for his own monetary gain. These critics say LaTulippe betrayed a cardinal rule of team sports: keep team matters within the group.

Nestor, the university vice president, said, "There is this incredibly tight code of silence that goes on amongst youth in this culture."

He added: "Ratting on the team is absolutely not something you do. You don't take it public. This is stuff taught in our sports-crazed society to kids when they are very young. This stuff is constantly being reinforced."

Nestor predicted that more allegations of hazing would be disclosed at Vermont and other schools. He compared hazing to sexual assault and alcohol abuse and said that public disclosure raises consciousness and may help change attitudes.

"Based on things students say to us, they are thinking differently about it," Nestor said of hazing. "The consequences are much more severe than they believed. This will be, unfortunately, a primary memory of their time as an undergraduate here. At the same time, they want to be supportive of the university and the hockey team members."

Gilligan said he appreciates that attitude. "Oh, man, I'd love to have a real good year right now," he said. Gilligan said some parents of new recruits had told him they believed Vermont would now be a safe place to send a young athlete because hazing would be strictly discouraged.

Of the mood over all, Gilligan said: "It's funny, the town is just dying to see the game of hockey played. That's what matters, to get that rink jumping again."

Copyright 2000