TRIPP'S TRIPPIN': Unfortunately, hazing fairly common

We all know about the “alleged” hazing incident which occurred last week involving the Robertson football team, and until the official investigation is over I believe it is important to use the word “alleged.”

It seems everywhere you turn, people have an opinion about this subject and everybody has heard a version as to what took place, when in reality the only people who know for sure what happened are the people who were actually involved. Newspapers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque as well as television stations from Albuquerque jumped on this like flies on, well, you get the picture. All I want to say is this, until the state police and school officials have finished their duty, let’s not pass guilt.

It appears the Robertson football season will go on as scheduled as the Cardinals open up their season in a week against Portales, and to some it cannot come any sooner.

I respect the comments made by interim head coach Richard Martinez in saying that he contacted Robertson head coach Ray Woods and discussed the playbook as well as the practice schedule he has the team on. Martinez said he would follow the plan of Woods and keep the team headed in the direction Woods and his staff had the team going in. Richard is a class act to begin with; he understands that this may be temporary and I am sure in his mind there is the thought that this may last an entire season, but he is truly one of those coaches who thinks “kids first,” and that is what this is about to him.

Now before some media outlets think that Robertson allegedly invented hazing, it is a fact that hazing goes on throughout high schools all over.

According to “USA Today,” in 2003 at Woodridge High School in Peninsula, Ohio, soccer players had their heads forced into toilets.

Researchers at Alfred (N.Y.) University, in the first study of its kind, say about 1.5 million high school students are hazed each year, and about half of those victims are athletes, the group facing the greatest risk of enduring these often-dangerous initiations.

After the football team at Mepham High School in Bellmore, N.Y., held a training camp last summer in Pennsylvania, older players were charged with sodomizing younger players with broom sticks, pine cones and golf balls. The football season was canceled, the coaching staff was fired and three players face criminal charges.

My point is that this is not an isolated situation and I am confident in saying it happens or has happened in other New Mexico high schools. Bottom line is it happens — and is dead wrong.

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Well golfers, it has finally opened and doesn’t it look gorgeous? The Highlands Golf Course, AKA the Gene “The Rock” Torres Course, opened last week, and my golf buddy Lucas Griego said the course is beautiful and plays well. Lucas added that it is not as easy as it appears and does present problems for golfers like bunkers and traps.

That aside, is it me or are the prices a little steep for Las Vegas or are they just right? You be the judge. Let’s see, $49 for 18 holes and another $14 for the cart bringing the total to $67 for a round of golf. If you want to play just nine holes, it will run you $35 and $8 for the cart. If you want to know what the twilight fees are, call the golf course. In speaking with a few fellow hackers, some feel the prices are a little steep, including the $1,100 price tag for an annual pass.

Still there were others who suggested that the prices may be a little high, but reasonable considering how well the course plays and how nice it is. In any event, it sure is sweet to see the course up and running.

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Last word: Good luck to Chad Roanhaus as he makes his NMHU Cowboys debut nest Thursday, as Highlands travels to Fort Hays.

Tripp — out!

Richard Tripp is a longtime local educator who writes sports stories for the Optic.