Coaches’ Guide to Hazing Prevention Among High School Athletes

When most people think about hazing, they think about fraternities and sororities, and not nearly as often about sports. And they are not wrong as it does happen more in the college Greek context than in sport, but it is on the rise in sports at all levels. But what makes any group or team more susceptible to dangerous hazing that can lead to injury or death?

The most compelling answer to this question has to do with power dynamics and the role of responsible adults. Within the structure of an athletic team, you have responsible adults with real power. In a fraternity, you have a situation in which 19 to 21-yearold students with complete authority over the lives of their 18 to 19-year-old new members.

These power dynamics are especially important when we think of hazing through the lens of what freshmen or new members are willing to allow someone else to do to them. On a sports team, the senior hazing the freshman doesn’t have any real power over the freshman. The freshman may go along with some stuff in order to be a good sport – go along to get along – but when that freshman is asked to do something dangerous, or put in a situation that is degrading, they are more likely to stand up for themselves – but not always. But the freshman knows that, at the end of the day, the coach is the one holding the cards, not the older student trying to haze him.

The importance of responsible adults in preventing hazing cannot be overstated. This is especially true on athletics teams. In these groups, students enjoy increased social standing and popularity, access to alumni networks and mentoring, and a deep sense of belonging and connection.

Research on hazing (Cimino, 2011) has shown a clear connection between group benefits and hazing – the likelihood of hazing within a group is directly correlated to the benefits associated with being in that group. But for the responsible adults in charge, hazing within high school athletics would likely look very similar to the hazing we see in fraternities and sororities on many college campuses.

When cases of egregious hazing among high school athletics do make headlines, it is almost always the case that the adults in charge were not acting responsibly. In some cases, there was a permissive “let the boys be boys” attitude among coaches. In others, an antiquated view that the locker room is some sacred place that must not be sullied by the intrusive eyeballs of adult supervision. In others, a team culture – often perpetuated by the coaching staff themselves – that freshmen were to be treated like second-class citizens. In the case of high school athletics, rare is the case in which egregious, dangerous hazing was happening when there are clear boundaries and oversight provided by a responsible coaching staff.

Coaches and athletics administrators who want to play an active role in creating positive team culture and preventing hazing should commit to the following:

CREATE CLEAR BOUNDARIES – Every year, as freshmen arrive and begin their integration into the team’s culture, coaches need to be comfortable talking about hazing. These conversations need to be clear and straightforward – hazing will not happen, and anyone who hazes will be held accountable. Creating a clear standard is important. This is especially true of the standards we communicate to freshmen. Many well-intentioned coaches say things to the freshmen like “if anyone does anything that crosses the line or makes you feel uncomfortable, come talk to me about it.” The problem with statements like this is that it puts the freshmen in a position of trying to figure out where the line is supposed to be drawn. This can be a tall order for a 14-year-old kid who just wants to fit in. Instead of vague generalities, draw clear boundaries. Tell the freshmen exactly what sorts of things you would consider over the line and insist that they come talk to you if anyone crosses one of those lines.

LISTEN FOR CLUES – Hazing rarely happens quietly or spontaneously. It is almost always premeditated, is often an escalating continuation of previous team “traditions,” and it is almost always loud. Responsible coaches are always watching and listening for clues – chatter about “rookie traditions” or “team bonding nights,” loud, rambunctious behavior in the locker room, or obvious signs of bullying or estrangement between upperclassmen and freshmen.

Coaches should never make assumptions about the things they see and hear that might indicate a culture of hazing – if something you see or hear causes you to have questions, then you should ask those questions to the people in a position to provide answers. This requires that coaches be present in the spaces in which hazing is likely to occur – in the locker room and on the bus.

ELIMINATE CULTURES OF SUBSERVIENCE – Many well-intentioned coaches inadvertently create a culture ripe for hazing when they perpetuate systems that treat freshmen like second-class citizens. Whether or not making the freshmen carry equipment, gather up laundry or clean the bus after a road trip is technically hazing is a matter for debate. What is not debatable is that when a coach creates a system of second-class citizenship for freshmen, he or she should not be surprised when hazing creeps into the team’s culture. When it becomes permissible to treat freshmen like indentured servants when the coaches are around, what do we expect to happen the minute that the coaches are not around? Coaches need to create better systems of delegating responsibilities – freshmen should do their fair share of that work, but if it all falls on their shoulders, we can’t pretend to be surprised when that culture morphs into something more insidious.

Coaches should not only take active steps to prevent hazing because it is the right thing to do, they should do it because they want to create a winning culture. Hazing damages team culture by instilling fear, toxic hierarchies, secrecy and shame. Coaches who want to win strive to establish team cultures with a healthy balance of solidarity, fun, emotional connection, trust, accountability and shared purpose.

There was a time when coaches and athletics administrators could afford to be laissez-faire in their attitude about addressing and preventing hazing. That time has long since passed. Since a spate of high-profile hazing deaths on college campuses in 2017, nearly 20 states have strengthened their hazing laws. In many of those states, hazing is now a felony.

Coaches and administrators who create a permissive hazing culture risk not only legal liability for themselves and their school systems, but criminal liability for themselves and their student-athletes. Hazing that involves nudity or sexual contact runs afoul of Title IX as well, and when mandated reporters (like coaches) fail to report that type of hazing they open themselves up to federal civil rights lawsuits. Coaches can ill-afford to adopt an old-school “boys will be boys” attitude about hazing – the stakes are simply too high.

Dr. Gentry McCreary is CEO and managing partner of Dyad Strategies. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts on hazing and hazing prevention, and created and heads Dyad Strategies (www.DyadStrategies.com), one of the leading firms in hazing prevention.