All leagues can probably ban initiations and denounce the resulting criminal excesses, that will not change much.
It has been several years since initiations have been banned in several leagues, including the QMJHL.
In 2005, most leagues that had not yet started intervened after allegations that a rookie on the McGill football team had been sodomized during an inauguration. Introductions are over!
Do you think that changes anything? One year you’ll have to eat a pig’s tongue blindfolded and walk around in your underpants while eggs are thrown at you, but the next year you can’t do it to the younger ones.
I’ve been talking to different athletes in some sports and all age groups for a few days. I also played and coached in elite junior baseball a few years ago where tryouts were a big night of the season.
An integration evening
First, it is true that there are no more initiations. Athletes have started calling it “an integration night”. It was obviously the same case.
As players, it’s always been great parties that have effectively integrated the new team members. There was way too much alcohol and it could get dangerous, but the guides kept a head on their shoulders to minimize the risk of slipping.
But then I became one of the coaches of the team. I had started my career in journalism. League President was then (and still is) my colleague Rodger Brulotte, who was clear: no initiation. He did his job, but even with the worst possible penalties, we knew very well that the players would plot a moment between them.
I’ve told the players I don’t want to hear about it. That it was forbidden. did i do my job NO ! Come on, it would have been the worst idea to just wash your hands and hope it didn’t spill.
So, without telling me, the players organized their evening. And in secret, the coaches, we have therefore made sure with the group leaders that it really is a party to integrate the newcomers, that everyone is careful with alcohol and that all the players have a safe way of returning home without alcohol from them who dare to think of touching the steering wheel.
I think the vast majority of coaches would have done that. It’s just logical. I am no better than anyone else.
The leagues can ban and we can think deeply about the toxicity of certain collective sports, but if we’re to avoid slip-ups, that’s primarily the job of the coach.
trainer for it
Even at the elite level in Quebec, 99.9% of athletes will not pursue a career in sport.
It is foolish, therefore, for a coach to devote 99.9% of their pedagogy to making a player better at their sport.
It’s the coach’s role to train good people first before good athletes.
People who don’t prioritize a team between powerful veterans and rookies like they did in 1970.
People who understand that everyone on a team needs to be happy to have a better chance of achieving something.
People who become good leaders in life and care about the well-being of others.
The best coach in amateur sport, even at the top, is often not the one who has taken the team to the top of the table or developed an infallible penalty. He’s the one who did it by educating young people or teenagers to be good people who understand the stupidity of initiating recruits in a despicable way.
