Minnesota

in a separate dressing room from the one used by the varsity. The varsity dressing room was closer to the practice field, and the sophomores had to walk through it on the way to practice.

There were three or four varsity players (all juniors) who took delight in torturing the sophomores. They chose lockers nearest the exit door to the field, and the younger players had to run a gauntlet daily to get to practice. We were routinely punched — in the head, face, belly and the groin.

After a period of time we started exiting the locker room in the opposite direction, climbing a flight of stairs, walking across a stage, and descending another flight of stairs that ended outside the varsity locker room. They quickly tumbled to that trick and started meeting us at the bottom of the stairs for even more enthusiastic “fun.”

Finally, one Saturday night, away from the school, and the safety of the locker room, they went too far, and seriously beat up some kid. That resulted in them being thrown off the team, with 3-4 weeks left in the season. The ringleader was allowed on the wrestling team that year, which was coached by the varsity football line coach.

There was no sexual abuse involved, but about three or four years later there were sexual issues in the initiation to the letterman’s club. It was degrading stuff, rather than violent sexual assault, but it resulted in the athletic director losing his job. He had been one of the varsity coaches my sophomore year, and my BSCS teacher.