**By Miranda Batch**
Toilet-papering, sleepovers, pranks and “kidnapping”: all ways that members of sports teams pull pranks on their teammates to initiate new members of the squad. Many teams participate in these activities, but Athletic Director Andy Wetzel has made a stronger front against TPing and hazing after constant complaints.
“TPing was never allowed to begin with, and we always tell the coaches to warn their team not to TP,” Wetzel says. “We’ve gotten complaints from parents whose houses have been trashed and we want to avoid that in the future.”
Teams such as girls tennis used to welcome new team members by TPing their houses and putting handmade posters on their doors. Now, they use “kidnapping” to initiate new teammates.
“We ran in their house at two in the morning, grabbed them, and dragged them to Tastee Diner,” junior Grace Chandler says. “We had to get their parents’ permission first and we didn’t get back until around 4 am, but everyone loved it.”
Junior Drew Szparaga says the swim team has a tradition of the girls TPing the boys houses, and vice versa. Although they’ve been doing this for years, this tradition may have to stop soon.
“According to what Schafer and Goodwin said, we aren’t allowed to do it anymore,” Szparaga says. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t find something else to do instead.”
Field hockey player Helene Benz says that football initiated a TP war with her team.
“They TPed [teammate] Caroline Kingscott’s house while we were in it,” Benz says. “We weren’t going to let that sit with us; we had to retaliate, and they asked for it. We ended up taking [football player] Connor Gordon’s house out, and we got a ‘children at play’ sign and put it on his porch.”
They know retaliating could have its consequences, but it’s all part of the tradition.
“It wasn’t a hate crime; we meant it in the best way possible,” she says. “I don’t know if they’ll get us back, but we’re ready.”
Quarterback Henry Kuhn says football hasn’t done anything drastic in return yet, but that they go TPing every year.
“We haven’t gotten into a lot of trouble over pranking yet,” Kuhn says. “But it depends on the prank. If it’s harmless and funny, the coach laughs it off. If it’s more serious, we could get in trouble.”
Football hasn’t suffered the consequences of pranking yet, but a prank that boys soccer pulled last year almost got them in major trouble.
“Some people on the team decided to TP someone’s house, but the neighborhood they were in had problems with burglary and so someone was standing guard,” junior Ryan Lee says. “When they went to go TPing, one of the neighbors saw them and thought they were the burglars, so they held them hostage.”
The team’s unfortunate encounter with the neighbor turned out to be a scary situation for the boys involved.
“The guy who saw them had a BB gun and he called the cops on them,” junior Stephen Rodan says. “They had to explain themselves to get out of it.”
Although pranking is all fun and games for athletes, Wetzel says that it’s something to be taken seriously and isn’t something to get involved in.
“When it gets to the point where parents are calling and complaining, something has to be done,” he says.
