A Crack in the Stone of College Sports

Sturdy as stone, Harvard women’s ice hockey head coach Katey Stone has been celebrated throughout her career as one of the most successful women’s hockey coaches. Since she took over Harvard’s women hockey in 1994, Stone has marshaled the Crimson through 12 Beanpot titles, 12 NCAA tournament appearances, six ECAC tournament championships, and over 500 wins. Even as a Board with few athletic muscles to flex, we’re impressed.

But despite her barn burner of a career, a recent Boston Globe exposé threatens to undermine Stone’s outstanding athletic record. Speaking to the Globe, 16 of Stone’s past players made a collection of allegations, including that Stone cultivated a grim and hostile team culture “of complete fear,” made targeted racist remarks following a disappointing critical practice, and callously dismissed players struggling with mental health.

Further investigation from the University is warranted to assess the veracity of the accusations against Stone and provide insight and clarity on the team’s culture, so that all those involved may begin to heal. In such an incongruous but delicate situation, figuring out how to rebuild trust is the prime task at hand for the women’s ice hockey team, necessitating continuous open dialogue between Stone and her players.

In the meantime, we must take the allegations voiced in the Globe seriously. Team loyalty is a core tenet of participation in varsity sports; athletes may be hesitant to speak out, so we must listen carefully when they do. The accounts shared in the Globe vary in their perspective of Stone, but the positive recollections — 46 other former players signed a letter to the Globe in support of Stone — do not offset the negative ones.

However you slice it, though, according to several former players, the Harvard athletic director told them in 2019 that women’s ice hockey was ranked the University's worst team for athlete experience in varsity sports. This alone suggests a glaring problem with the team’s culture.

Beyond this specific team, the Globe’s reporting raises important issues for college athletics and student athlete wellbeing writ large. Athletes face tremendous public pressure to excel. Competing in a highly publicized version of Harvard’s existing stress-laden, ambitious culture, student athletes unsurprisingly not only regularly report high levels of mental health concerns, but may also hold unique mental health risk factors relating to injury and overtraining.

To be clear, collegiate athletes can and should be expected to practice and compete in high-pressure environments. The pursuit of athletic excellence definitionally requires pushing one’s body to go faster, harder, and longer, to prepare for clashes against rival teams and seemingly impossible buzzer-beaters.

Striving for athletic success and one’s full potential is a good thing — but there is a line. Pressure to the extent that athletes feel obligated to play through still-healing injuries or sacrifice all other life passions for their sport goes way over that line. We worry that these allegations against Stone paint her as passing from committed coaching into the indefensible realm of abusive behavior. Athletes should expect to be out of breath after practice or disappointed by close competitive loss — not to be belittled or minimized by coaches who should be supporting them.

College sports should never be a catalyst for mental health crises, regardless of the inherent intensity of the practice. While trophies and accolades are material indicators of competitive success, the personal experiences of players are just as — if not more — valuable and telling of a team’s triumphs. After all, a team is a reciprocal community of people, not a tool to fill a trophy case. When players teeter towards resenting the sports that shaped their formative years, something has gone terribly wrong in their collegiate training.

Schools must provide better safeguards within their sports teams to monitor team culture, coaching pedagogy, and athlete mental health. We hope the allegations levied in the Globe provide the alarm needed to build crucial supportive scaffolding into the institution of college sports. We want student athletes to find fulfillment and pride in their teams, instead of the current overwhelming pressure they weather with hearts of stone.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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