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Former Maine High School Soccer Player Claims Sexual Hazing Went on Four Years Ago

Here is the link to the Journal Online

Excerpt:

A varsity soccer player who was among the group that allegedly hazed freshmen teammates at Maine West last year told the court this morning (Wednesday) that the same type of incident happened to him four years ago.

“I got initiated,” the player, now 19, said during the trial of former Maine West coach Michael Divincenzo. “I got taken down and wedgied and they poked me between my buttcheeks.”

Divincenzo is charged with multiple counts of battery, hazing and failure to report hazing. He is the only person charged in the case, which stems from a Sept. 26, 2012 soccer practice in which two freshmen boys were allegedly tackled and sodomized with sticks and fingers by varsity players.

But the player, known as CT, characterized the incident as minor, saying that he was physically OK and even shook hands with the varsity players who attacked him.

“I was totally fine,” CT said. “I didn’t feel like I was getting hurt or anything.”

The player said the team sometimes had conversations about initiating freshmen players during their stretching warm ups at the start of practices. The prosecution tried to demonstrate that Divincenzo was aware of those conversations by showing that he was standing 12 to 15 feet away and attentive during those warm ups. The defense argued the coach was often busy setting up drills during stretching and paid little attention to what players talked about.

On Sept. 26, the former varsity player said he was one of four who held down and initiated the two freshmen players. He did not know the names of the younger students at the time.

 

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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