A Boston Faculty swimmer is talking out on the college’s determination to droop the swim & dive program for the whole lot of the 2023-24 season, voicing her displeasure with the blanket determination and lack of transparency from athletics.
Katrina Sommer, a graduate senior who opted to make use of her fifth yr of eligibility at BC after 4 seasons at UCLA, says the group was left at midnight as the college first suspended the swim & dive program indefinitely after which in the end prolonged it by the season and “mutually parted methods” with the teaching workers.
In a letter shared with SwimSwam, Sommer expressed her confusion in initially suspending swimmers with out proof, the dearth of communication and transparency within the investigative course of and her shock when phrase broke your complete season was canceled, successfully forcing her into retirement.
In September, BC introduced this system’s indefinite suspension after receiving “credible experiences of hazing.” In the future after that was introduced, allegations that freshmen swimmers have been pressured to binge drink and devour their very own vomit surfaced.
“Seemly out of the blue, we had a gathering with our AD assistant the place we have been informed one thing occurred and the junior boys needed to be suspended from the group,” Sommer mentioned. “On September 20, the ladies’s group had a gathering with the coaches and we have been informed the practices the next week of observe have been canceled. I didn’t know what we have been accused of and I went by that assembly with a cloud of worry and confusion.
“I bathed within the information with the opposite senior ladies looking for an answer to the ‘group tradition’ challenge the college had raised. I had solely skilled a welcoming tradition. That they had as properly. Surprisingly, and with none communication from the AD or the coaches, the Athletics Instagram web page posted we have been suspended indefinitely,” she mentioned.
“All of it felt like a foolish dream. How may my finest yr start like this? We might be again quickly I believed. I don’t perceive why the college would put up something with none investigation or communication on what these allegations even have been.
“The next day, I sat in a gathering with the remainder of the group the place the AD walked in, informed us we have been all disgusting folks, and hoped a few of us have been to be suspended.
“In eight minutes, he canceled the remainder of my swimming profession with none proof or any look after the impression he may need prompted. I had witnessed the impression psychological well being had had on my athletic group and was shocked BC was subjecting an entire group to the emotional impacts of being charged earlier than we knew the allegations or may defend ourselves.”
Sommer mentioned she together with members of the group acquired a letter stating they have been below investigation “with zero proof or connection.”
“At this level, I misplaced religion that BC cared concerning the well-being of its college students. I used to be suspected responsible with none proof aside from I used to be on the swim group. After coping with the emotional burden of false accusations, I used to be interviewed a month later and cleared of any wrongdoing, together with nearly all of the group.
“The rationale why I used to be concerned within the allegations of hazing was by no means defined to me past the very fact I used to be listed on the swim group roster. The proof I used to be not there and I didn’t find out about something didn’t shield me from the allegations that blanketed the entire group. I, and plenty of different of my teammates, have been all cleared solely months after the college selected to publicize the suspension which supposed our guilt or complicity.”
Members of the group filed a lawsuit in October looking for reinstatement, which was dropped lower than two weeks later. The go well with included 37 of the 66 members of the group. Sommer, who’s pursuing her grasp’s diploma from BC in cybersecurity coverage and governance and is making use of to regulation faculties, didn’t be part of it.
Workforce members carried out unofficial practices whereas the group was suspended through the first semester, with coaches sending them exercises.
Sommer mentioned she made repeat makes an attempt to get in touch with the Athletics Division for any replace on the standing of the investigation, and after going into the workplace straight, she and a senior teammate lastly received a face-to-face assembly with athletic director Blake James.
“He acknowledged many people have been cleared of any wrongdoing however responded to any of my questions on reinstatement with ‘tradition’ issues nonetheless present. He had ‘received the lawsuit’ and the group was an issue regardless if I or anybody else was not concerned,” Sommer mentioned.
“How may there be cultural issues if we had not been a group for over three months after solely two weeks of being a group? How may he even justify his stance with none proof aside from utilizing the time period ‘allegation?’
“I knew we had a superb group tradition and I believed within the coaches and my teammates to proceed to construct it.”
Over the Christmas break, BC coaches organized for Sommer and some of her teammates to hitch a membership group for a coaching camp on the U.S. Olympic Coaching Heart in Colorado.
On January 4, the swimmers have been knowledgeable through e mail that their total season was canceled and that this system was suspended till August 2024. With Sommer’s grasp’s program ending that month, having accelerated it to coincide together with her fifth yr of eligibility, the information successfully ended her profession.
“It felt like my final yr of swim was pulled away proper from below me,” she mentioned. “After all, I used to be not alone in feeling this fashion. I felt deeply for the opposite seniors who needed to be compelled into early retirement and couldn’t be given the respect from the AD to clarify that in particular person. After 10-plus years of swimming, the graduating class was compelled to complete their swimming and diving careers over a single-page e mail.
“Wanting again, I imagine this was their plan the entire time. I want that they had given us and the coaches the respect of telling us at first. However, they dragged us all alongside with none communication for months.”
On January 11, coaches informed the swimmers they have been leaving after a mutual parting of the way with the college.
“My coronary heart broke, once more,” Sommer mentioned. “That they had been the most important motive why I selected BC for my fifth yr. They have been wonderful coaches and I’m past disheartened their time at BC was lower brief. For my part, they have been past not concerned in any of the alleged actions and had nice character all through their time at BC.”
In a story printed within the Boston Globe on Tuesday, James was unavailable to touch upon the state of affairs as he was conducting interviews for the college’s vacant head teaching place, based on a BC spokesperson. SwimSwam has reached out to the college for remark.
Sommer, 22, final competed on the Speedo Grand Problem in Might 2023. Final February, she was nineteenth in each the 200 and 400 IM on the Girls’s Pac-12 Championships for UCLA, matching her career-best end from 2022 within the 200 again.
She remains to be left questioning what she ought to take away from her time at BC, however hopes shedding mild on the story can assist future student-athletes and result in better transparency inside athletics departments.
“I’m nonetheless not sure of what classes I’m studying from this expertise. I’m not sure the place I stand with swimming or my Masters after all of the emotional stress throughout this course of,” she mentioned. “It has been a few of the hardest months of my life–which is loads to say, particularly after swimming by a single guardian having most cancers and the quite a few different adversity confronted all through a typical school swim expertise.
“I query if I made the proper option to go to BC or if making an attempt a fifth yr was price it. I’m wondering if there was something I may have carried out in a different way to advocate extra for our season or for myself. As of scripting this, I mirror on my actions. I imagine I attempted my hardest to decide to the values BC promised it comprised of, solely to have directors undercut BC’s mission.
“I take advantage of this chance to specific that issues is not going to go completely in your school athletic expertise. Nevertheless, being a school athlete has introduced me extraordinary alternatives, friendships, and reminiscences. I’ve cherished representing my college and my sport on an even bigger platform. I’m so passionate concerning the work I did advocating for feminine illustration and the legacy I hope to have left behind at my undergraduate establishment,” mentioned Sommer, who chaired an advocacy group for feminine athletes throughout her time at UCLA and helped signify the college’s athletes when it transitioned from the Pac-12 to the Massive Ten.
“I can stroll away from school swimming figuring out that I did my finest and that these reminiscences will at all times be there. I nonetheless have hope for the way forward for school athletics and BC Swim and Dive. I hope scripting this contributes to that brighter future and provides different athletes the braveness to talk up about their experiences throughout the restricted transparency of school athletics.”
