Harvard suspends men's soccer season for vulgar 'scouting report'
Harvard suspended its men's soccer team for the rest of the season after members of the team made sexual comments about players on the women's soccer team.
An investigation into the 2012 team found that the team's actions were not isolated to one year, but appeared to be widespread across the team, continuing through this season.
"The decision to cancel a season is serious and consequential, and reflects Harvard's view that both the team's behavior and the failure to be forthcoming when initially questioned are completely unacceptable, have no place at Harvard, and run counter to the mutual respect that is a core value of our community,'' Harvard president Drew Faust said.
Last month, The Harvard Crimson student newspaper uncovered a document that rated the attractiveness of recruits on the women's team. The document served as a "scouting report” of the women’s soccer recruits. It rated them numerically and assigned each a hypothetical sexual position, the paper said.
''As we move forward, Harvard Athletics will partner with the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and other Harvard College resources to take additional steps to further educate the members of our men's soccer team, and all of our student-athletes, about the seriousness of these behaviors and the general standard of respect and conduct that is expected,'' Harvard athletics director Robert Scalise wrote in an email to student athletes.
The Harvard men's team is in first place in the Ivy League with a 10–3–2 overall record and a 4–0–1 mark in the Ivy League. The team won't play in its two remaining regular season games or the NCAA tournament.
– Scooby Axson
