Hazing the "Rookie"

[Aussie Joe 0]

Akim Aliu sings with Chicago

Aliu made headlines across North America when he would not cram his naked body into a hot, smelly toilet along with several other fellow Spitfires rookies as part of an initiation ritual or team building exercise

I had a similar incident happen to myself when I 1st played rep hockey as a junior here. The guys that had played the year before insisted on "rookie'ing" me and I refused. Ended up being a big deal with the league and national body. Anyways it just kinda reminded me of the really shitty experience I had.

Has anyone else had this situation happen to you? What was your reaction? I know most people just go along, but to allot of guys its also just unnecessary BS. Plenty other ways to build team repore really.

[Spreedizzle 1]

Sophomore year of high school I made varsity hockey, at being in the mid 90's....I had the typical grunge "bowl" cut down to about my chin. I got pinned down in the locker room, initially fighting it and got my head shaved all the way down. After the first buzz I told the guys to get the eff off of me before I started swinging, but I would allow them to shave it down...I just didn't want to fight my way out of being pinned.

When I got home was one of the only times in my life that I have heard my mother use the F word (she's DEEPLY religious).

"Where the F$#*# is your hair!!!???"

"I made varsity" ;)

"Where the F($%( is your HAIR!!!!!?????"

yeah.....you get the idea. ;)

[nickerjones 8]

i played 4 sports in high school and was decent at all of them starting at all four as a sophmore. My freshman year however i got called up to the varsity highschool wrerstling team and i got the heades beat out of me for my hazing ...... In baseball the only hazing i had was having to run into a 7-11 and buy an icee in nothing but my jock strap

[aliebe 0]

call me liberal, but wtf is the point of hazing? I've experienced my fair share, whether it be sport or fraternity related, and found it to be rather juvenile. I found the worst offenders to be the brothers/seniors who lacked self esteem and found it necessary to bully underclassmen/pledges just because they can.

The only "hazing" that I would ever encourage would be the team building kind (and I don't mean forced head shavings). I understand the "do anything for the team" concept, but somethings are just pointless.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

dude, I have tryouts on the 14th for my college team and I've never played real competitive hockey before, only baseball, but If I make it, I'm really not looking forward to this crap. I hate it, I hate having it done to me and I hate doing it to other people. The worst part is, if you don't do it, you totally become ostrisized from the team and everyone remembers it. I'm just really hoping it's something stupid like getting my head shaved, cause if I had to go naked into a dirty toilet, I'd probably just quit.

"Aliu made headlines across North America when he would not cram his naked body into a hot, smelly toilet along with several other fellow Spitfires rookies as part of an initiation ritual or team building exercise"

That is not a team building exercise-making someone feel like a complete idiot doesn't build a team. This and maybe steroids are the only thing I hate about sports.

[thefelixculpa 0]

My teammates just cooked a whole pot of corn (off the cob) and made me and 2 other rookies eat it all. I had corn in my bowels for weeks.

[aliebe 0]

That is not a team building exercise-making someone feel like a complete idiot doesn't build a team. This and maybe steroids are the only thing I hate about sports.

I completely agree. Nothing is gained through humiliation or by degrading one's personal or religious beliefs. We did one event in the fraternity that I will never forget. And I won't forget for the reason that it wasn't degrading or humiliating. At the end, we may not have succeeded in that particular task, but in the big picture we came closer as a group. Which is ultimately what you want.

[raygunpk 0]

Care to elaborate?

[aliebe 0]

I'll try to be as vague as possible....

18 pledges v. 50 bros.

We're each give a breakable object and told to go from point a to point b but not told why. As soon as pledgemaster says go, all hell breaks loose. If anyone isfortunate enough to get said breakable object ot point b...great! If not no big deal, you need to next go from point b to point c. Then from c to point d. Along the way, you must devise plans to protect the breakable object so as to be able to get it "home"

Doesn't seem like much, but when you have no clue as to what is happening until it happens, it's very intense.

Afterwards everyone gets drunk and goes play intramural soccer :)

[gxc999 7]

call me liberal, but wtf is the point of hazing? I've experienced my fair share, whether it be sport or fraternity related, and found it to be rather juvenile. I found the worst offenders to be the brothers/seniors who lacked self esteem and found it necessary to bully underclassmen/pledges just because they can.

The only "hazing" that I would ever encourage would be the team building kind (and I don't mean forced head shavings). I understand the "do anything for the team" concept, but somethings are just pointless.

I agree totally. It's usually the biggest screw-ups that insist on hazing. I can see some sort of initiation etc but it's taken way too far.

[Aussie Joe 0]

I'll back that up as, the two main guys that pushed for my hazing are now drug addicts, one on dope the other dope/coke.

I think but the biggest reason as to why mine was humiliating was that my Dad found out. Its really tough to look your dad in the eyes and see how sad he was for me. Tthe league was a little suprised when he blew the whistle on the whole thing. Especially considering the fact that it was either put a stop to the hazing or risk my Dad beating the crap out of one of the kids. If the league dealt with it in the 1st place it would have never exploded into such a massive altercation.

[A_Steeves12 0]

I have no problem with rookie initiations aslong as its not taken too far. I was a rook last year and we had to tape piss warm colt 45's to our hands and wear dresses. I dont see anything wrong with shit like that, it was all in good fun everyone got good laughs and even the coach dressed up.

[automorph 0]

it is tradition.............everyone has been through it

[nickerjones 8]

yeah it is tradition but some people take it to far.... when i played baseball in college one of my freshman friends was made to drink til he passed out and then he had to go to the ER for alcohol poisioning..... and then another freshman was convinced to jump out a second story window for his hazing.... he got his baseball career ended because of it ..... i was at both hazings and heard "dont worry everyone has gone through it , its not that bad" NOt a day goes by now that im not ashamed at myself for not stepping up and saying you guys are taking it to far

[lampliter87 8]

I made the varsity practice team in 8th grade and dressed for 3 or 4 games...

Snow thrown at us in the shower (and sometimes that meant being held down and it shoved in our groin).

Being shot from point blank with C02 airsoft gun (~320 fps) that I still have scars from.

Being repeatedly slapped on the bare backside with a cut-off goalie stick.

Getting dressed in the small back room with all the other rookies with no benches/chairs on a concrete floor.

There were some more too.

it is tradition.............everyone has been through it

Thats bullshit.

[fastbrother7 0]

I pledged in a fraternity in college, and although my "experience with tradition" will remain mostly undisclosed/secret, I will say it wasnt as bad and demeaning as some of the aforementioned experiences. I remember playing high school hockey, and even though Im a pretty nice guy, and Im not a huge man by any means, I was able to circumvent the "hazing" most likely due to the times when I wasnt a nice guy if you get my drift. Besides that, most of the guys on that team felt that the hazing thing was a bit retarded and left it at having frosh carry the bags. Nothing new. Nothing perverted. Back in the 90s here, some high school guys got in trouble for making incoming frosh and new varsity members play "pass the biscuit." Sick.

[skeeter14 0]

I'd rather earn the respect and loyalty of my teammates by blocking shots and doing my job, than cram into a stall naked with teammates......funny how i didnt see team chemistry problems back when i first started in squirts, and no hazing had to go on...just my .02

[Maka 0]

White Puck Practice for the rookie goalies!

But seriously, hazing shouldn't really have a role within the team atmosphere. While in some cases it can instill the desired sense of camaraderie within its participants, it's just not worth the risks associated with some of the dumber stunts I've heard of. Sure, making freshman carry bags is harmless. Helps to establish a hierarchy of sorts. But I truly don't understand how some guys think putting some of their prospects and essentially the future of the team through ridiculous, dangerous stunts could be beneficial towards the team.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

Seriously, I don't think that having frosh carry bags is anything. That is supposed to happen. A progression of seniority. Rookies doing alittle extra work is fine, but when a player gets mad a fool of, thats crossing the line.

I've never heard of this really happening but...in Mighty Ducks 3 when they used liquid Nitrogen to freeze the other teams clothes, thats pretty cool, funny and harmless.

[lotus 2]

Kid I know is going into his senior year of high school and he cannot shut up about how he's going to be so bad with the new freshmen because he wants his turn of what happened to him. Stupid stupid bullshit. That team is fucked up anyway, always has been, every year. Basically all the freshmen were told to do simon says, and whoever fucked up got the shit beat out of them, held one at a time while the upper classmen just pummeled them.

Anyone tries to do that shit to me they're getting their eyes ripped out, and then I quit the team. Respect is earned through respectful acts, not rolling around in other peoples feces.

[SuperMan3 1]

You guys are sick, all we did was take the freshmans clothes and threw em in the shower

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

"Aliu chose not to play along and a few weeks later was involved in a fight with then Spitfires captain Steve Downie at practice."

Why does that not surprise me?

[M.W. 0]

"Aliu chose not to play along and a few weeks later was involved in a fight with then Spitfires captain Steve Downie at practice."

Why does that not surprise me?

The whole thing was a pretty big story a few years back. It ended up with Downie being suspended and traded, the coach, Moe Mantha, being suspended and fired, and the team being fined by the OHL.

[skeeter14 0]

"Aliu chose not to play along and a few weeks later was involved in a fight with then Spitfires captain Steve Downie at practice."

Why does that not surprise me?

I'm more suprised by the words captain and steve downie in the same sentence

[Aussie Joe 0]

Same thing happend to me when I refused to play along. In fact the whole selected teams all tried to do it to me, when we returned back to club hockey, I ended up nailing the U19's state captain for trying to get my "rookied". He was out for 5 weeks with some pretty bad brusing on the ribs.