It’s been a rough couple of weeks for young D.C.-area athletes.
Bethesda’s David Evans, 23, a former co-captain of the Duke lacrosse team, has been indicted on rape charges stemming from a riotous party he threw at his off-campus home. Catholic University is now investigating an alleged hazing involving its women’s lacrosse team and a male exotic dancer.
And on Friday, five juniors at Whitman High School — one of Maryland’s top public schools — appeared briefly in court, charged with robbing a smoothie stand. All five of the accused are athletes at Whitman; one of them, Pat Lazear, is the school’s all-star linebacker.
Nothing has been proven against any of these athletes but the mere appearance of trouble is costly. Duke canceled its lacrosse season after the alleged rape. Catholic continues to review the alleged hazing. Lazear has scholarship offers from dozens of top football colleges, which the charges could jeopardize.
It’s not new to have athletes in trouble. What is changing, though, is that the public is more worried about it and schools are less willing to hush incidents up, says Bob Reno, Michigan-based publisher of the Web site Badjocks.com, whose site first ran pictures of the alleged Catholic University hazing.
“The programs are so valuable that they don’t want to let one person to ruin it,” Reno said.
Marcus Vick is a case study, Reno says. The immensely talented quarterback was tossed off the Virginia Tech football team after a string of on- and off-the-field outrages.
Reno says that their gifts give athletes “a popularity account.” But those accounts drain more quickly than they used to.
“And now the schools are saying, ‘How big is our popularity account?’” Reno said.
The seriousness of the charges — when juxtaposed with the advantages usually attributed to these largely middle-to-upper class students who come from quality schools and upscale neighborhoods — flummoxes some experts.
“This is a big story because all of the sudden man bites dog,” said American University professor Richard R. Bennett. “This is more random violence than we could sit down and try to explain.”
