Controversy
While attending an off-site pre-season football training camp in the summer of 1989 at Camp Green Lane located in Pennsylvania, senior members of the Holmdel Hornets Football team were alleged to have committed acts of "hazing," forcing underclassmen (mostly sophomores) to remove their clothing and play a game of Twister. The event was videotaped. The Record of November 12, 1989, is quoted as stating that "some coaches reportedly were disciplined." The incident also appeared on an episode of A Current Affair, a news tabloid show on WNYW, Fox Television, in 1989. As a result of the incident, all of the school's 85 football players reportedly were ordered to undergo mental health counseling. In 1991, the sophomores who had been hazed (then seniors) went 9-2 and were the runner up for the Central Jersey Group II state sectional title.
In 1997, Holmdel High School had an additional incident of "hazing" in the news. This time with the soccer team. More than 200 people attended a Board of Education meeting after hazing reports surfaced. Many were angry that someone had complained about hazing. "Soccer is not a sport of the timid," a mother told the board, according to the Asbury Park Press (November 7, 1997).
In November 2004, Todd Lippin, one of the girl's track coaches, pleaded guilty to having an affair with one of his athletes, having had a sexual relationship with an underage student.
In September 2005, a lawsuit was filed against the Holmdel Board of Education on behalf of a lesbian student claiming that she had been abused and assaulted by fellow students, including an incident where she was pushed down a stairway and injured her ankle.
In Fall 2005, six-year head football coach Joe O'Connor stepped down in protest against the school administration's reinstatement of a player he had dismissed from the team. In a show of support for O'Connor's stand, all nine assistant football coaches resigned as well.
Read more about this topic: Holmdel High School
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