Humboldt State Cancels 2012 Men’s Soccer Season Due To Hazing

August 22, 2012 /
The Times-Standard (Calif.), Danny Penza

http://www.times-standard.com/sports/ci_21371478/and-axe-falls-hazing-incident-leads-cancellation-2012

ARCATA — The College Creek Soccer Field will see the beautiful game played on its synthetic field in 2012. There just won’t be a certain group of Lumberjacks wearing “Humboldt” across their chests doing so.

Following an investigation into hazing at an off-campus party on Aug. 4, Humboldt State University has canceled its 2012 men’s soccer season, President Rollin Richmond announced on Tuesday afternoon, leaving 34 student-athletes’ — and possibly more — collegiate future up in the air.

The school has also began an investigation into the HSU women’s soccer team for hazing, which could — after Tuesday’s decision — also put the Lady Jacks’ season in jeopardy.

”This is a very sad day for HSU athletics and the university as a whole,” Athletic Director Dan Collen said. “But hazing will not be tolerated. …It’s unacceptable behavior and there’s no excuse for allowing it to happen.

”With that said, the men’s intercollegiate soccer team is a strong component of our athletic family and we will move past this incident as a unified group. I fully expect (head coach C.J. Johnson) and the program to work through this situation, learn from their mistakes and return to a competitive mode next year.”

This is the first time a Humboldt State athletics team has been suspended for an entire season.

The ultimate question: What now for the Humboldt State men’s program?

Collen made things perfectly clear, especially regarding the future of Johnson, who is entering his fourth season in charge of both the men’s and the women’s programs.

”He is our head coach,” Collen said.

According to HSU vice president of Student Affairs Peg Blake, sanctions vary on an individual basis. The sanctions handed down were not released to the public due to privacy laws.

No players on the current roster have had their scholarships taken away or reduced, Collen said, nor will they lose a year of eligibility — which means the three seniors from the 2012 roster will be able to play for the Jacks next season if they choose to do so.

If players were to transfer in an attempt to play this season, they would not be immediately eligible, having to sit out a year before being able to participate at their new school next fall.

But, as of right now, the future of the players who came to Arcata to play soccer is still completely uncertain.

Johnson and current players were not available for comment.

The HSU men were optimistic about rebounding from a 5-13-0 season, which included a 4-12-0 record in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), a year ago. Even though the conference’s preseason coaches poll pegged the Jacks to finish fifth in the CCAA’s North Division, 2012 was looked at as a new beginning with only a handful of seniors on the roster.

”This season it’s all about the team,” Johnson said in a press release last Monday. “It’s hard to pick out individuals. We’re at the point where at any given moment, anyone could step in and get the job done. It’ll happen throughout the season and the level won’t change. It’s a great problem to have for a coach.”

Now, they won’t have that chance.

There has not been a formal decision made by the conference commissioner’s office as to whether games between Humboldt and the 11 other schools in the CCAA will be forfeits or not, according to assistant commissioner Bob Harris. CCAA athletic directors are scheduled to meet in the near future regarding the matter.

However, at Tuesday’s press conference, Collen said that he believes the conference games that the Jacks were scheduled to take part in this season will be counted as forfeits.

Humboldt State was scheduled to open its season Aug. 30 against Dominican College in San Rafael, a school the Jacks have regularly played in the non-conference portion of their schedule.

They’ll have to wait until 2013 to make their next trip down U.S. Highway 101 South.


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