Valor Dictus May 4, 2010 Volume 39 Issue 9 Bravely speaking to the Robinson Community 17

SportsMollie Berner - Sports Editor Elizabeth Lewan - Sports Editor Tristam Osgood- Sports Briefs Editor

sports briefs

Softball

Baseball

Hazing rules become stricter after controversy with sports teams According to senior JH Musick, the un-derclassmen soccer players who had their heads shaved by senior players “willingly did it,” he said. “The only reason we got in trouble was because of what happened with [JV] girls lacrosse team,” Musick said. “And I don’t think that’s fair.” According to junior Deanna Hardy, last year, the returning JV girls lacrosse play-ers “kidnapped” the new players, who were blindfolded and then taken back to a team member’s house. After that, the girls would do a “welcome cheer” and then, “that was it,” Hardy said. “There was a miscommunication. We planned on doing the same thing as last year,” Hardy said. “One of the girls emailed [the team members’ parents], asking them if they were alright with it, but they used wrong wording in the email. It was asking to ‘kidnap’ their daughters and take them to somebody’s house for a sleepover,” she said. According to Hardy, Principal Dan Mei-er found out because his daughter is on the team and he saw the email. As a re-sult, Meier talked to girls varsity lacrosse coach Alison Neun, who talked to the JV players. Sophomore Lauren Petrocci, who led the planning of the event, said she even sent a personal email to Meier because she knew he might get upset because his daughter is on the team. “I emailed him because his daughter is on the team, and he emailed back saying [the ‘kidnapping’] was against the law,”

Petrocci said. According to Petrocci, ev-ery other JV lacrosse parent responded with a “yes.” Hardy said Neun told the team, “We can’t do anything that the girls don’t know about, and we can’t have [official, school-licensed] team events anymore.” The issue of hazing has been omnipres-ent in organized sports, especially in high school. The thing that brings this issue to the forefront is when this hazing becomes visible to outsiders. Hazing is described as “an initiation process involving harassment” by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. According to a recent study by Alfred University, approximately 1.5 million high school students are hazed in the U.S. every year. Twenty four percent of those students experienced hazing spe-cifically on sports teams. According to Director of Student Ac-tivities Marty Riddle, there is much more emphasis on hazing now than there has been in past years. “There is a lot more education about the problems that occur because of it, and the emphasis is now on team build-ing activities and not on hazing-type ac-tivities,” Riddle said. He also said the news media outlets, such as ESPN, may be part of the prob-lem. “[Hazing] is more prevalent when it comes to adults and it’s a lot different when you’re dealing with children. The news media makes light of these things, and they might not be appropriate at the high school level,” Riddle said. Musick said he did not know of any

NEXT UP: VS. WESTFIELDWhere: HomeWhen: Tonight at 6:30 p.m.Records (as of Fri.): Robinson 5-8, Westfield 10-3

NEXT UP: VS. WESTFIELDWhere: HomeWhen: Tonight at 7 p.m.Records (as of Fri.): Robinson 6-6, Westfield 6-6

By the Numbers21

3.568

years Barry Gorodnick has been head coach of the softball team

District championships during Gorodnick’s tenure

batting average last year attained by current senior captain Marcy Bowdren

BY TYLER WALTERStaff Writer

BY AARON BERNERNews Briefs Editor

BY TRISTAM OSGOODSports Breifs Editor

—Compiled by Tristam Osgood

Softball tries to improve defense

Spring Break Tournament: Over spring break the softball team participated in a five game tournament in Myrtle Beach, S. C. The team finished 2-3 overall with wins over Knox West (Tennessee) and Mcdowell (Pennsylvania), and losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York), Walsh Jesuit (Ohio), and Socastee (South Carolina). “The main reason why we lost [3 games] was because of errors made, but it was still a good week,” junior Allie Newcomb said. According to head coach Barry Gorodnick, the distance the pitchers had to throw at the tournament was 43 feet, where as in Virginia it is 40 feet. The 43 foot pitching distance rule will not take effect in the state of Virginia until next year.Outlook: Currently the team’s record is 6-6, but the team is 4-1 against Northern Region foes so far in the season. “We have not reached our potential, but we definitely have the ability to be a very good team,” Newcomb said, a softball transfer from Lake Braddock. Gorodnick said, “If we play the way we’re capable of we should make a deep run into regionals. Our team chemistry and work ethic has been our biggest strength so far.”

BY TRISTAM OSGOODSports Briefs Editor

Season Turnaround: Following an 0-3 start to the season, the varsity baseball team played at the Cal Ripkin Myrtle Beach tournament, where it had three wins and two losses. Since then the Rams have improved their overall record to 5-9. As of April 30, the Rams are fifth in the Concorde district. with an even district, record of 2-3. “I felt we had a tougher start this season because of inexperi-enced players,” senior first baseman Evan Bray said. “I felt that [the Myrtle Beach tournament] brought the team together.”Outlook: Tonight, the Rams will take on Westfield at home. The last time the two met, Westfield had a shutout 9-0 victory. The Rams will play four more games before the district playoffs begin May 19. Three of the four remaining games are district games. “The games don’t entirely matter until [the district tourna-ment],” Bray said. “We want to do well in districts, but I think

our main goal’s to make the regional tournament.”JV Update: Junior varsity baseball is coming off a recent 5-3 win over Centreville at home, resulting in a district record of 2-3, and an overall record of 4-5. “What has been hurting us is not consistently making solid fielding plays,” sophomore Kyle Hatterick said. “We also need to keep hitting the ball well.”

Girls tennis goes undefeated With a perfect 9-0 overall record, the girls tennis team has captured the Con-corde district regular season champion-ship for the second year in a row. The team is led by freshman Skylar Hol-loway, a highly regarded recruit accord-ing to tennisrecruiting.net in the Class of 2013 nationally, and senior Dawn Xiang. Holloway has been undefeated in both singles and doubles matches this year. According to Holloway her goal is to “win [individual] states.” “Skylar is a shoe-in to win pretty much every singles and doubles match,” assis-tant Coach Lindsay O’Connell said. Thomas Jefferson is a perennial ten-nis power in the Northern Region, and should serve as tough competition for the undefeated Rams throughout the post season. The Colonials boast sophomore Julie Vrabel, the No.1 high school sopho-more in Virginia, according to tennisre-cruiting.net. Another tough challenger in regionals should be Oakton, a team the Rams nar-rowly defeated 6-5 on April 6. In what ultimately turned out to be the Concorde District championship match against Oakton on April 23, the Rams defeated them handily 7-2, to finish off an unde-feated season. The Rams were missing their number 3 and 4 players, so senior

Rachel Bui filled in at 3, and junior Angie Menendez filled in at 4. Both players won their matches, and Bui made an improb-able comeback from 9-2 down to win 11-10. “Rachel kept returning every shot while the other girl was losing her cool,” O’Connell said. The Rams finished off their season with a Senior Night match against on Herndon last Friday and district playoffs lasting

through this week. The season concludes with regionals starting May 18 and States beginning May 21.

Mollie Berner

The girls tennis team conditions during a practice April 29. The team hopes to make it to the state tournament with their undefeated record.

FACTS ABOUTHAZING

1.5 millionhigh school students are hazed each year.

4 3 p e rce n t were subjected to humiliating activities and of those, 30% per-formed potentially illegal acts as part of their initiation.

79 percent of NCAA athletes report being hazed initially in high school.

92 percent of high school students who have been hazed will not report it.

-Information compiled from “Prevent Hazing” by Dr. Susan Lipkins

-Compiled by Elizabeth Lewan and

Mollie Berner

a t a g l a n c eTEAM RECORD: 9-0. As of press time, the team has played their last district game against Herdon April 30.UPCOMING MATCH: As of press time, district play-offs began yesterday.

GIRLS TENNIS

school rules on hazing. “I didn’t even know there were rules,” Musick said. “I mean, obviously you can’t hurt anybody, but besides that…” According to Riddle, there is no school policy on hazing besides “hazing is pro-hibited.” “In the Athletic Department, our basic principles are discipline and respect,” Riddle said. “The types of things that go on when hazing goes on are in direct contrast to those two terms.”

Baseball looks to find identity