Tag Archives: swim team

College Swim Team Given “Death Penalty” for Hazing Incident

Hazings Category LogoWant to end sports hazing at your college? Try canceling a team’s season after they’re caught violating your policy.  If that happens you can be pretty sure the players in that sport won’t be around next year for the festivities.

Sound too harsh?  In our experience, no other form of punishment (probation, suspensions, slaps on the wrist) have any affect on the team in question or sports/frats at the same school.  Everyone just laughs at the lack of balls the administration has and goes back to paddling pledges and teabagging freshmen.

Just look at tiny Middlebury College in Vermont. It was only three years ago that the school had to deal with an ugly hazing incident involving their famous a cappella group, Stuck in the Middle. (Insert your own joke here.) We firmly believe that if these singers had their season canceled, we wouldn’t have this most recent incident involving the men’s and women’s swim team.

The season is over for the majority of the Middlebury women’s swim team after school officials discovered recent violations of Middlebury hazing policies.  In an interview with the Orient, Middlebury College Director of Public Affairs Sarah Ray confirmed that most of the female swimmers would not compete in the upcoming NESCAC Championship.

“The first year students will finish out their season, but for the sophomores, juniors and seniors, the remainder of their season is canceled…the men’s team is going to finish out its season,” Ray said.  Ray then issued a statement providing more details about the decision to prematurely end the women’s season.

“Middlebury College has investigated violations of the college’s hazing policy by the men’s and women’s swim teams and determined that violations did occur…The violations took place during activities involving both teams on February 2,” wrote Ray, reporting that the investigation began the following day. (Source – Bowdoin Brief)

Swim Team Treasurer Admits Embezzling $175,000 From Organization

picture of cash

Photo Courtesy stopnlook at Flickr.com

Has the cost of chlorine shot up that much in the past few years that you wouldn’t notice nearly two hundred thousand dollars missing from your team bank account? Either Lynn Gottschalk was one of the biggest con artists to ever walk the streets of Ohio or, as we suspect, parents of the Sycamore Flying Fish club were so glad someone was watching their little ones that they just kept writing bigger and bigger checks without asking for a full accounting of how the funds were being spent.

Lynn Gottschalk admitted Wednesday that she stole as much as $175,000 when she was treasurer of a swim team.  Gottschalk, 50, of Montgomery, became a convicted felon when she pleaded guilty to theft, a crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of 18 months.  She stole the money from the Sycamore Flying Fish swim team when she was treasurer from September 2004 to August 2009.  “The theft began almost immediately upon her taking the position of treasurer,” said Mark Seger, team president when the theft was discovered.  Financial records, Seger said, show Gottschalk used team money to pay for items that included car payments, summer camp for a child, a vacation cruise and theater tickets. Those expenditures were some of the spending that left the team nearly bankrupt by the time Gottschalk’s five-year tenure as treasurer ended in August 2009.

Swim team official stole $175K (Cincinnati.com) Thanks to reader Gary S. for the link!