Extent of online bashing takes sports to new lows

December 13, 2006

By Will Baskin-Gerwitz, Zack Goldman and Lucas Shaw

Online trash-talking and bashing of athletes and students from opposing schools has spiked during the past month with major athletic events such as CIF playoffs. Many comments by upper school students, athletes in particular, have ridiculed opposing players—something that has occurred in sports for decades and been considered natural and acceptable by many.

“Kids have been insulting each other as long as I’ve been here,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said.

However, numerous comments have personally attacked players and students, most noticeably Jimmy Clausen, senior quarterback for California’s best football team—Oaks Christian.

In the days preceding the Wolverines CIF football semifinal game against Oaks Christian, the trash talking accelerated with students identifying themselves as Harvard-Westlake students posting derisive remarks questioning Clausen’s athletic ability and manhood.
A poster making fun of Clausen was displayed during the tailgate prior to the game. An administrator at Oaks Christian said she was shocked by the unsportsmanlike conduct of Harvard-Westlake fans at the tailgate.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. The [students] were even shouting stuff at me. If I were a dean at that school I would have shut it down immediately,” Oaks Christian dean Karen Coyle told the Chronicle Monday.

Trash talking is not new in sports. When it happens on the court right before a game, coaches, administrators, fans and athletes seem to agree that it is acceptable. Seeing two players verbally spar is entertainment, they say.

“It’s all in good fun,” wide receiver Ryan Calvert ’07 said. Recently the Internet has given fans as well as athletes a public and permanent place to trade insults.

“The Internet has changed everything, not just in sports but in media and all parts of society,” Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas said. People are willing to say things that would otherwise seem wrong because they think no one will read it.

“Kids don’t think it all over, and people just like to say things,” said Theo Choi ’09, who said he took part in the online trash talking.

Two other results are that posts and messages stay up permanently and that all comments are public. The Upper School has had problems with online messages before, and athletes have used the Internet as a way of sparring with other students, but many posts of the last month have gone beyond the norm.

The first event that sparked an abundance of comments was the CIF Division I semifinal volleyball game between the Wolverines and Marymount. Little was said by the athletes who actually played in the game, but male upper school students used Facebook to insult the Marymount team.

“Go Wolverines...I mean its the year...and no slutty ass girls school is going to get in the way of your CIF and State Championship...So kick their asss! Do it for the wolverine,” a junior boy posted.

These comments were only the beginning. Soon a message board fight began between Wolverine students and a poster who identified himself as a Loyola sophomore.

He posted remarks including,  “We’re the reigning D I champs you f------ queer…you guys just got lucky that for once in 30 years we missed playoffs for the once in thirty years that you guys made it. You guys were everyone’s doormat in D 3 and good job for havin’ an 8-2 record in d 5. Get real you harvard b------.”

This and a few other comments that mostly pertained to the lack of skill of the Wolverine football team sparked an avalanche of attacks from upper school students.

Many of the comments directly attacked the Loyola  sophomore with name-calling. Seniors on the varsity football, basketball and lacrosse teams wrote that they did not personally know the Loyola sophomore, but they still questioned his sexual preferences and felt certain that he himself was not an outstanding athlete.

The use of profanity and the constant use of the word “gay” has drawn various reactions. Some believe that these comments are fine.

“I don’t know if it was appropriate or not,” Calvert said. “I don’t think they were using [the word gay or f------] as it was supposed to be used.  I don’t think it was supposed to be offensive.”

“I think it’s cool, just having fun, being competitive,” TJ Taylor ’07 said.

However, others have serious concerns both with the free use of the word “f------” and with the whole concept of personally insulting an opponent.

“If the kids want to insult each other, I wish they could find some new vocabulary,” Huybrechts said. “It is a classic case of poor sportsmanship. The words they use are getting stale.”

“I think when people go to trash-talk, their passion for athletics is hurting us more than helping us,” Head Prefect Sammy McGowan ’07 said.

Some students said they used the term gay every day, and they did not mean to imply anything about their sexual preference.

“I think people are just going to have to accept that now,” Samir Chaudry ’07 said. “I think it’s used so much that it’s pretty much lost a lot of its meaning and it’s kind of just another word. Now if your friend calls you gay its just not that big of a deal.”
Many disagree.

“I don’t think that people should use that term,” Elizabeth Beier ’07, a member of the Gay Straight Alliance and openly homosexual student said.

The bashing continued a few weeks later when the Wolverine football team was set to play Oaks Christian in the CIF Division VII semifinal game. Clausen, considered by most scouting sites the top recruit in the nation, took a verbal beating from many upper school students before and during the game.

While many of the insults regarded his talent, many questioned his sexuality. A picture was found on his MySpace by fullback George Welsh ’07 of Clausen, his brother and a teammate posing in speedos, and it were soon posted around campus and brought to the game itself. The picture was also posted with the Facebook event for the pre-game tailgating. Many upper school students responded to the photo.

One senior boy wrote, “hahahahahahah he is soooooo gay,” while others made several disparaging comments about Clausen’s age and questioned his sexuality.

“Cursing and racist comments are unacceptable but saying another team sucks is okay,” Choi said. “It isn’t right to call people f--- and gays, but it’s the way we talk. It’s built into us.”

In response to being read his own comments, he said that they were “inappropriate,” but that because the game was over he felt no need to take them down.

“Those rivalries are great,” Barzdukas said. “It’s what’s really fun about school sports. And these actions and comments of a few idiots, a few inconsiderate people, should not be allowed to ruin what’s really great.”

Barzdukas said he was “blissfully unaware” of the comments and the picture but that if he had seen them, he would have pulled the students aside and asked them to stop. However, he insisted that it was not his job to monitor athletes.

“This is the United States,” Barzdukas said. “We are all about the freedom of speech and the freedom to express one’s self.  If you represent yourself as what the school thinks, then I have a big problem with you trash-talking or bashing online, with being inappropriate.”

After being read a few direct quotes from Facebook, he said: “These kinds of things make sport less good. They just make it less good.

“And you know what? I didn’t know about this a bit and I wish I hadn’t found out.”

The students said they did not think that they were representing the school.

“I don’t think the athletic department should be following what its athletes do because it is dealing with personal relationships,” Calvert said. Others disagreed.

“It’s horrible, especially because the seniors were given a speech by the deans about the volleyball game only weeks before,” McGowan said.

Choi said the photo was “the funniest thing in the world.”

Most of the students, however, after saying that the word “gay” was fine to use and defending their right to trash talk, said that the word “fag” was crossing the line and that their comments were inappropriate after being read them.

“You may think something is really funny as a teenager in high school, but when you are 30 years old and running for Congress, you may wish you hadn’t written those things,” Barzdukas said.

Chaudry said the temptation to trash-talk would be hard to resist with the basketball games against Loyola coming up.

“On a scale of one to 10 it would be a 10,” he said.


POSTER BOY: Mike Ottavi-Brannon ’07 holds up a sign that pokes fun at Oaks Christian quarterback Jimmy Clausen during the pre-game tailgate outside the Valley College football field. Similar signs were posted at the Upper School.

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