Mater Dei Hazing Incident

Can we apply this to Biden!

I agree. If I had a nickel for every bad hire I've made over the past 40 years...I'd have a quarter. 🤣

In all seriousness, you're absolutely correct. Damn near impossible to know how a person really is until they're on the job.

This is a pretty ugly story on a few levels. Had someone asked me at what parochial school this is most likely to have occurred, my first guess would have been Mater Dei. The article makes several mentions to “culture“ and I’ve been hearing from several sources for many years that there is a problem at that school regarding priorities, behavior of some of the athletes and a double standard being applied.

The first thought that occurred to me was “Where the hell were the coaches?” How do you let a “tradition” like this continue? Letting a bunch of kids wail away at each other to see who gives up first is a recipe for injury and a subsequent lawsuit. I believe that Rollinson’s first comment to the father that this BS has been occurring regularly is the truth, and that he lied to the reporter when he denied its existence. There is no way that behavior like this that achieves the status of a
“tradition” could escape the notice of the coaches. How the hell do you allow something like this to continue? This is a what they refer to as a “cultural“ issue. Once you make winning the priority and skirt the long standing rules of engagement you’re going to start cutting ethical corners. That has been going on for many years in the football program and God knows how long for the basketball program. The result is no surprise.

Both football and basketball are rogue programs at Mater Dei. They - and Bosco - lead the charge into this current non-competitive mess. Other schools have followed but some of them seem to have recognized the Inherent problems in changing the priorities of high school sports and have backed off. There is a reason why Mater Dei was short two games this season and why other Trinity schools are starting to question whether these two programs should remain on their schedules.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the school handles this mess. And if they do the right thing……………Luca

At dinner tonight, I asked both 40 yr old son in laws if they had heard of this "bodies" thing, and both said it was a pretty common occurrence at the public schools they attended some 20+ years ago.

It's not some double secret Mater Dei hazing ritual.

Bick, have you seen inflation lately....? In the least those pickles would now equate to a JFK fiddy cent piece....... 

I've known Al Koholik since my son enrolled as a freshman in 2000.  I don't see him much anymore because he lives in Ventura, but it's always nice to run into him at passing tournaments every summer and catch up on the past year.

When I saw his post about the school having "a long history of trying to F kids who transfer out", I texted him asking for one or two examples.  Since it's a "long history", I assumed a few examples would be easy.  I'm still waiting for him to respond with a name.

Conversely, I know of a half dozen starters who told Rollo they were thinking of transfering out, or threatening to do so, and in every case he offered to walk with them to the admissions office and help them fill out the transfer paperwork.  The best example of that is Matt Grootegoed in 1998.  Many still consider Matt the best player to ever play in Orange County, and if Rollo wouldn't put up with that kind of threat from Matt's dad, it's unlikely he would from anyone else, or stop them from leaving.  There are too many examples of players who have left Mater Dei to start and star at other schools to put much credence in Al's contention.

As for hazing, it's easy to turn a blind eye to something that has been happening in various forms since before I was in high school.  One county school has a history of "teabagging", in which older players drag their naked scrotums across the faces of younger ones.  If there's any resistance, the younger player is forced to open his mouth...  Another school has incidents of what the players called "Flickarooskie".  Again, the older players would flick the naked genitals of younger players as hard as they could with the back of their hand.  A prestigious program in northern California for years had "Thump Day", one day during spring football when outgoing senior players would "thump" or beat up the younger ones to make them tougher.  There are many more examples, and none of them are mutually consensual.

I guess all those programs are "rogue programs" as well, and one could ask "how in the hell" all those coaches allowed those things to continue and become a tradition.

Every coach I know would put a stop to any of that nonsense if they were aware of it. Happens in the locker room, away from supervision. One other add...no coach I know of would be willing to supervise a locker room full of adolescent teens getting dressed in today's "accusation = fact" world, lest they be faced with a sexual misconduct allegation.

I think that's called a Catch-22.