High school hazing leads to coaches’ dismissal

Girls


HAZING  QUESTIONED— Members of the Oak Park girls’ soccer team console each other after a loss in the 2004 playoffs.

HAZING QUESTIONED— Members of the Oak Park girls’ soccer team console each other after a loss in the 2004 playoffs.


An alleged hazing incident last year involving members of Oak Park High School girls’ soccer team has led school officials to ask for the resignation of the team’s head coach Ted Eggleston, assistant coach Gloria Rios and athletic trainer Brenda Pasqua.

Although Eggleston would not comment on the incident, he said his resignation is “on hold” and the case is pending further legal action.

“I am not resigning as the coach,” Eggleston said.

Principal Lynn McCormack announced the three resignations in a Nov. 23 letter sent to parents and guardians.

In the letter, McCormack said she worked with Assistant Principal Larry Boone and the school’s two athletic directors, Dick Billingsley and Ann Pettit, to investigate the hazing incident that took place during a 2004 sleepover at Eggleston’s home.

“Although Coach Eggleston was not present during the sleepover, female coaches were,” McCormack said.

“Regretfully, the allegations were found to be true and have necessitated an immediate response from the administration.”

School officials gave no details of the hazing, but according to McCormack, the investigation found no evidence that “drugs, alcohol or sexual abuse occurred.”

In an e-mail obtained by The Acorn, Marco Vitanza, whose two daugthers play on the team, said he was the parent who notified district officals about the hazing.

Vitanza waited a year to come forward with the allegations because he said his daugthers “begged” him not to.

Pettit would not comment on the case and neither McCormack nor Rios returned phone calls from The Acorn.

Firing causes backlash

A number of parents said the incident has been blown out of proportion and that the hazing has been an “innocent” and longstanding tradition on the team.

Sources said the incoming varsity team members were hazed by the team’s veteran players.

“The girls love each other and care about each other,” said Robin Stoll, whose daughter, Samantha, was a four-year member of the squad.

“They are a team, and they would never do anything to hurt somebody else,” Stoll said.

Stoll said other parents have voiced their frustration with the district’s decision to fire Eggleston, Rios and Pasqua.

“I would say a majority of the parents are very upset with what happened,” Stoll said “We are huge supporters of the coach.”

Stoll said she was additionally frustrated because Superintendent Tony Knight said he would not meet with the group of parents who support Eggleston.

Vitanza said the hazing was far from innocent.

“I advised my daugthers not to participate, but the peer pressure was too great,” Vitanza said in his e-mail. “My daugthers were flat out told. . .that if they didn’t participate, they would be retaliated against by the team.”

Vitanza said he has reason to believe that during the hazing, the girls were covered in food, had tuna fish put in their underwear, were forced to sit on a block of ice in the dark while loud music was played, and were made to “drink something that they were told was urine or vomit.”

Mark Wallen, who also has a daughter on the team, said both parents and students knew what would happen that evening, and that all activities took place on a voluntary basis.

“No one who was unwilling to participate was subject to ostracizing,” Wallen said. “Everyone was made fully aware that it was each individual’s right to not attend.”

The California Education Code prohibits hazing, and states, “No student. . .shall conspire to engage in hazing, participate in hazing or commit any act that causes or is likely to cause, bodily danger, physical harm, or personal degradation or disgrace resulting in physical or mental harm, to any fellow student or other person attending the institution.”

According to the law, a hazing violation is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and a year in jail.

The school held a team meeting on Monday to address the incident. School officials would not comment on the details of the meeting. Eggleston said he didn’t attend.

Tyler Blondi, a teacher and coach at Oak Park, will take over head coaching duties for the coming season. The team’s first game is today.

Career ending?

Eggleston, a coach for the past 12 years, led the girls’ soccer team to a CIF Division V championship in 2003. The team has been TriValley League champion for the past six years.

“These are amazing girls,” Eggleston said. “They have been peer counselors. . .They go to fouryear universities. They have excellent grade point (averages). These are girls that any parent would be proud of, and definitely this coach is.”

Eggleston, a dentist and local resident for 24 years, said he spends almost 25 hours a week working as the high school soccer coach during the season.

“It’s been an incredible, incredible fun thing for me to be part of the life of these kids,” Eggleston said.

Both Eggleston and Rios are part-time walk-on coaches, district officials said. Pasqua is also a parttime employee of the district. Rios started in 1997 and Pasqua was hired in 1998.

David Puopolo, president of the Oak Park Athletic Booster Club, called Pasqua the “best athletic trainer in the Conejo Valley,” in an October Parent Faculty Association newsletter.

Puopolo and the booster club intended to induct Eggleston into the Oak Park Athletic Hall of Fame this February.

“I also was hoping there would be some sort of appeal process for them because I hold them all in very high esteem,” Puopolo said.

One response to “High school hazing leads to coaches’ dismissal”

  1. Richard Ortega says:

    Are you or the parent, Marco Vitanza, aware that both coaches were fired but the athletic trainer, Brenda Pasqua, continues to work with athletes at Oak Park high school?

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