A Missouri school tries to resume football after mass arrests

Story link

July 29, 2010

Correction to earlier story. Thanks to G for headsup.11:36 a.m.

If you’ll permit me to make one very minor programming note for your blog –
your headline on today’s story says “A Kansas School…” The Seneca High
School team is actually from Missouri. They traveled about 45 minutes
northwest to Pittsburg, Kan., for the football camp. That’s where the
incident occurred, and that’s why the boys face charges in Kansas.

Seneca coaches have first meeting with players

By Greg Grisolano Globe Staff Writer

Excerpt

SENECA, Mo. — The Seneca High School football coach said he hopes the team and the community can start healing, amid the fallout from a hazing incident last month that left as many as 17 players injured.

Eleven other players are facing criminal charges in Kansas.

“Our entire community has been affected in some way, especially the football team and their families who we deeply care about,” head coach Robert Townsend said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “My thoughts and prayers are steadfast for the Seneca School District and the whole community that a process of healing can begin.”

Townsend made his first public comments in the wake of a hazing incident in which the 17 players among those attending a football camp at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University were injured. Upperclassmen on the team are accused of injuring some of the underclassmen players on June 10 in a dorm at PSU. According to a police report, upperclassmen used plastic window blind rods to strike 17 underclassmen. Some team members also allegedly placed their genitals on the faces of younger players.