A lawsuit from a former Seton Hall freshman pitcher has alleged the famed university’s baseball program hosted a series of “sick” and abusive hazing rituals that included group masturbation, naked wrestling, and physical punishment.
The lawsuit, which does not name the former pitcher, alleges that students subjected freshmen to being choked, dragged, and body-slammed to the point of spitting up blood, along with several other overtly sexual hazing rituals like forcing underclassmen to masturbate in a circle.
“What’s going on in the locker room is some sick, sick stuff,” the former student told the New York Post. “I was spitting blood everywhere. It was a feeling that I’m really never gonna forget.”
The school reportedly recruited the star pitcher for his 91-mile-per-hour fastball. He had nearly 10 offers from Division I schools all over the country before he joined Seton Hall, which he claims ruined his college baseball career by subjecting him to brutal hazing.
The lawsuit also claims that the head coach, Rob Sheppard, and Seton Hall turned a blind eye and “failed to investigate or discipline the perpetrators, allowing the toxic culture to persist.”
According to the student, the hazing began days after his arrival at Seton Hall when “a sophomore on the team inside the locker room said that the player had to show everyone his genitals,” per the NY Post.
“We’ve got to see what you’ve got down there,” the older player allegedly told the pitcher.
When the student complied with the order, the locker room reportedly “erupted in laughter.” The hazing would eventually escalate into a brutal wrestling match that left the pitcher bruised and bloodied. When his angry father called Sheppard, the coach reportedly denied the hazing. The pitcher finally resisted when the freshmen were asked to lie down in the center of a circle and masturbate in front of their teammates as they laughed and cheered.
“One day in the locker room, I came in and they got everyone ready to do this ‘Lotus’ to this kid, and they had him lay down butt naked in the middle of the locker room and touch himself,” he said.
“Seeing that was just awful,” he said. “That’s what you’re dealing with — something new like that, everyday.”
The pitcher resisted and he was allegedly called a “pussy.” Later, when it came time to participate in a nude wrestling match, the pitcher finally told Coach Sheppard that he quit. The coach reportedly expressed disappointment and “took no meaningful action to address the issues.” Other players called him a “rat” and began bad-mouthing him behind his back.
The pitcher left Seton Hall just two months into the school year and was unable to transfer to a Division I school, forcing him into a Division III program.
“It was a dark time for me — I was sad, depressed,” he said. “I was down in the dumps every day.”
While he still got to play in Division III, the transfer from a Division I “cost him a season of eligibility and forced him to transfer to a Division III school, diminishing his visibility and professional baseball prospects,” his suit said.
“To spend my whole life trying to get to that point, and I finally got there, and then had this all happen, and it’s just derailed my whole career,” the pitcher told the NY Post.
“There’s gotta be some accountability taken by the coach,” the player said. “He’s gotta lay his foot down and take control of that whole situation and try to make things a lot better.”
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