For as successful as KSU’s club hockey team has been through the years, it might be easy to understand why the team would not react to losing very well.
Apparently that was the case last March when the Ice Owls fell in overtime at the National Championships in Springfield, MO., when the team got a hold of some booze and inflicted significant damage to their board.
Since finding out about
the property damage and misconduct, KSU’s Department of Sports and Recreation has suspended the team for the 2013-14 season for its violations.
“For most of the week they had been on their best behavior, but upon losing in the overtime game to go on out of pool play, they decided that perhaps it was a good idea to go purchase some alcohol and get way
out of control and trash hotel rooms. That’s not part of our code of conduct or acceptable behavior,” said Laura St. Onge, who served as KSU’s club sports director during the time of the incident, said.
St. Onge was informed by the President’s Office that the hotel contacted the University to report damages inflicted by the team. The hotel charged $600 in restitution.
In the wake of the incident, all three of the squad’s coaches— tenured coach Bill Morrison, coach and former Atlanta Thrasher Barry Dreger, and former player Jerry Holden– were dismissed from the team, though St. Onge says that the “lifetime ban,” which was the verbiage used by a report in HockeyYall.com on Aug. 23, was inaccurate.
In the wake of speculation, St. Onge also denied that the coaches provided alcohol or had anything to do with the incident. She contended that the termination was based on a
failure to take responsibility and report the issue.
“That wasn’t on our radar,” St. Onge said. “All of our coaches sign codes of conduct. We didn’t hold them responsible for the behavior, but they were responsible for notifying us of any incidents.”
Reggie Lampkin of KSU’s Division of Legal Affairs also confirmed that any action involving the coaches and alcohol were unknown.
“One could assume that the coaches did, but nobody told that to us, so we’re going to operate as if they didn’t,” Lampkin said.
No names of individual students involved were revealed for reasons of legality. On Sept. 5, the team’s official Facebook page posted a statement reading, “While the team tried, on numerous occasions, to change the outcome of the situation, it appears that there will be no budging. We understand the heartbreak this leaves our thousands of fans, friends and family out there. We are committed to bringing back your team for the 2014-15 season and look forward to showing the University what this program means to you and for us.”
According to St. Onge, the American Collegiate Hockey Assocation, in which the Owls compete as a member of, has not reacted to the incident other than conceding the Owls’ games on this year’s schedules.
In a comment posted on Sept. 6, the team’s official Facebook page then stated, “In order to fully commit to bringing your Owls back for the 2014-15 season, the team is adhering to all procedures put forth by Club Sports, which includes no team organized practices, games, recruiting, etc. Again, we thank you for your support and encouragement.”
Mr. Foster,
I understand that you are just doing your job by writing an article you were told to, but sometimes you need to get all the facts straight before posting something like this. In case you weren’t informed, the quotes that you cited in this article are not entirely true, and they are a direct blow to the teams reputation and players. Perhaps next time you write an article that affects an entire team, you should contact them and get their side of the story before just taking the word of a third party who was not even there. I’m sure the players would like their opinions to be heard as well.
sincerely,
A very bitter KSU hockey fan
Kelly,
I did not meet with a third party. The quotes in this article were obtained in a meeting with the club sports director and legal affairs. There is no fabrication.
If you read the entire article, you would have noticed that all players declined to talk with The Sentinel.
It would be completely out of line and disrespectful to our practice to make up quotes.
Plus, I’d like to make it very clear that we reached out to the players first when this story came to our attention, and, despite offering to keep voices anonymous, were referred to Laura St. Onge by the players. We then met with St. Onge and legal affairs to discuss the matter after submitting an FOIA request. The point of also including the statement’s from the team’s Facebook page was to keep the article as balanced as possible, even though no current or former team members talked with us.
I agree with the first comment. I play on the team and no one has asked our opinion on anything. You really need to get your facts straight, this isn’t the first article with a bunch of misleading information. Nothing was vandalized!
sincerely,
player on KSU hockey