Penn State’s Tim Piazza was preparing to rush fraternities. Piazza, a 6’2” former high school football player with fiery red hair, was excited as he talked with his peers during rush week. He had a girlfriend back home, and parents who adored him. All he needed were some brothers.

So when Beta Theta Pi offered him a “bid,” or a spot in their fraternity, Piazza put down his mechanical engineering homework and took the chance to be a part of something. He arrived at the fraternity house at 9:07 p.m. with a jacket, as he was instructed. He arrived at Mount Nittany Medical Center the following morning with 80% of his blood in his abdomen and unsurvivable brain damage. He died the next day.

Piazza was a victim of hazing. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the term, which originated in 1850, as “an initiation process involving harassment.”

This concept, despite media portrayal, is not exclusive to college fraternities. In a 2008 study performed at the University of Maine, researchers Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden reported that 47 percent of high school students experience some type of hazing by the time they go off to college.

Hazing is an unspoken tradition in Parker athletics’ history.

Up until five years ago, Parker’s boy’s soccer team would make the freshmen wear shin guards to school on the Friday before Homecoming. If they chose not to, the seniors would kick their shins.

After a parent complained, Parker’s administration stepped in.

Current Athletic Director Bobby Starks was not at Parker when the incident happened. “It sounds like a unfortunate incident,” Starks said. “But I am confident that department handled the situation appropriately.”

With five teams warming up for the fall season, it’s hard to keep an eye on everything. Unfortunate events can transpire without adults noticing. “We have to be vigilant everyday about these behaviors,” Starks said, “because our coaches and the athletic department cannot be everywhere at all times.

At Parker, hazing is considered a “Major Offense and Violation.” According to the Parker handbook, violators should expect “the most severe consequences.”

“It’s not defined because hazing seems to take so many shapes and forms,” Parker Upper School Head Justin Brandon said. “It’s hard for us to say without context, ‘Well that’s hazing but that’s not hazing.’”

Despite it being in the handbook, some Parker students have no idea there’s a rule about hazing. “I didn’t even know that there was a no–hazing policy,” sophomore Joey Kagan said. “But since it’s Parker, it doesn’t surprise me.”

Senior Jacob Levy was aware about the boys soccer team’s dark history as he stepped into the role of this year’s captain. “It’s very disheartening to know that a team that has had such a positive influence on me personally had once participated in such negative traditions,” Levy said. “As captain, I knew I didn’t want to lead a team that stood for those values.”

In recent years, captains have replaced their predecessors’ unorthodox traditions with team bonding exercises as a way to connect with their teammates.

The boys soccer team goes out to dinner every preseason. They are also planning on volunteering at Cradle and Crayons, a non-profit organization that provides underprivileged children with the essentials they need. Both the girls’ field hockey and tennis teams hosts an annual sleepover as a way to bond with each other. No one has commented on the record about the activities held at the sleepovers.

Alumni and former field hockey captain Evan Hughes ‘17 believes that these traditions are ways to bring the team together. “Traditions like the field hockey sleepover and the soccer team’s dinner are not only important for bonding the team,” she said, “but for bonding the freshman class to prepare them for the next three years.”

As the beginning of school approaches, so does the opportunity for upperclassmen to establish a pecking order. And alas, not all situations are brought to the administration’s attention. “The challenge for us,” Brandon said, “is that we don’t always know what’s happening. There is so much that happens inside the student world that we are unaware of.”

Brandon understands the courage it takes for students to speak up. “We appreciate when students are comfortable enough, courageous and brave enough to come forward to the adults in the community so that we can help and solve the issues.”