Sports Teams Seek Improved Image

The former captain of the Harvard men’s soccer team released a statement yesterday on behalf of 25 other athletic captains that denounced hazing and pledged support for “healthy and safe team-building activities.”

The statement, which emerged from a student-led meeting organized by Charles W. Altchek ’07, stated that Harvard team captains “support their athletes through positive and healthy mentoring.”

“We work to promote improvement in character, academics, and athletics,” the statement read. “Hazing undermines these goals.”

According to Altchek, “nothing really in particular” prompted him to organize the meeting, but he said that he thought captains have a responsibility as leaders to express their commitment to “the values of the University.”

“I want to empower the captains of these teams,” he said before the meeting. “I’m really hoping to give these guys and girls a new perspective on things they haven’t thought of before so they can have a discussion with their team about parts of culture we want to change.”

Over the past year, several high-profile cases of disciplinary action involving some players on the football team have placed Harvard sports teams under scrutiny.

Last June, Matthew C. Thomas ’06-’07 was stripped of his football captaincy and removed from the team following assault and battery charges against his ex-girlfriend. The charges will be dropped next month if Thomas continues his current probation trouble-free.

Two other Harvard football players were suspended for last season’s opener after an altercation with a quad shuttle driver last April, and a number of other suspensions and dismissals occurred prior to the start of the Crimson’s 2006 season.

Altchek stressed that the statement was not wholly reactionary, but acknowledged it was issued partly in response to these events.

“I want people to know that we’re not sitting by just watching what’s happened,” he said. “We’re trying to proactively learn from those things.”

Current football captain Bradley J. Bagdis ’08 was unable to attend the meeting due to the annual captains luncheon, prompting two representatives to be sent in his place.

“I think a lot more people are conscious of issues of hazing in college athletics,” said quarterback Christopher F. Pizzotti ’08, one of Bagdis’ replacements.

Altchek said that because no administrators or coaches were present, it allowed for a more candid discussion.

Crimson football coach Tim Murphy said he didn’t even know the meeting was taking place.

“I guess I was out of the loop,” Murphy said.

Harvard men’s soccer coach John Kerr said that he “wasn’t involved in any of the buildup” to the meeting, but he understood Altchek’s reasoning behind its organization.

“He had a great experience as a captain this year,” Kerr said. “He was very adamant that we adhere to all the standards that Harvard represents.”

Altchek, who prepared the statement beforehand and presented it at the closed-door meeting, declined to identify the names of the captains who participated in the meeting.

The statement was unanimously endorsed.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.