Questions Surround Randall High JV Baseball After Alleged Hazing Incident

Over the weekend, some troubling news began to surface here in Amarillo. Sadly, this one hit way too close to home for me on so many levels. Unfortunately, it's something that seems to be a part of things like school sports, fraternities, and several other things.

Hazing. It's real. And it happens in more places than just the ones I mentioned above. Many times, it's just a part of everyday high school life. What so many don't realize is the lasting effects of what it does to those who get hazed.

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Why This Hit So Close To Home

I had caught wind that something had happened with the Randall High School JV Baseball team early last week. I immediately started digging into it for several reasons, but the top reason? I knew many kids on that team, from either coaching them personally or against them, during my oldest son's travel ball days.

I looked at the names on the roster and just started hoping it wasn't true, wasn't real. So many kids I knew, and deep down inside, I was just hoping that if it was real, it didn't involve kids that I knew or had coached. What I heard happened was wrong, regardless of who was involved. Selfishly, though, I just hoped it wasn't kids I knew personally.

Impact Of The Alleged Incident

I reached out to the school when I first heard about it and got the same response as everyone else from Coordinator of District Communications, Kirstyn Tarr:

Canyon ISD is aware of an incident involving Randall High School students that occurred off campus. The district is cooperating with law enforcement and working with the parents of those involved. For additional information, please contact the Randall County Sheriff’s Office or the Amarillo Police Department.

Now, I had heard that it was an incident that had affected the team so greatly that the entire team had been disbanded, and the team would no longer play baseball this season. I wanted to attempt to confirm that, and the response I received back was:

At this time, the incident remains under investigation, so the full impact has not yet been determined.

So What Exactly Happened?

This is where I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about what I've heard. These are all minors involved, and the alleged victim has already been through enough. It's not right of me to delve into the deep details of what I've heard. I'm very connected to the youth baseball world here, so I've heard many different things. There are a couple of things that have been mentioned by numerous people, however.

All I will say about it is this. Yes, it began as a hazing incident that involved pantsing someone associated with the team. After that happened, allegedly, a sexual assault of SOME sort happened. This is where things get a little muddy as to what actually happened, but from my understanding, SOMETHING happened further than the hazing incident. Again, I won't delve deeper into what I've heard as I can't confirm any of it, and again, it's minors involved.

What Is The Fallout Of The Incident

There is an app that many travel baseball teams and high schools use for family, friends, and fans to keep up with the games as they happen, called GameChanger. I have been following all the high school Freshman and JV squads since the beginning of the season. Again, I know a lot of kids who are playing.

I knew who was on what team early in the season, so I decided to go and look at my GameChanger for the Randall JV squad on Saturday. I noticed there were some kids missing from the team roster on the app. Again, I don't want to speculate or say those kids are missing due to the alleged events, but I can confirm they were not on the roster any longer, and they did not show up in the box score of their game on Saturday.

I'm sure more will come out from the incident over time, but at this time, I just can't consciously go into more of the details I've heard. They're disturbing, to be quite honest. If those details come to light, you will understand why I say that, but I simply can't allow myself to give more than I've given without having hard confirmation of those details.