Cooper O'Conner ’30 showed up to Covenant and was bummed because he wasn’t walking around campus with a buzzed head.
This freshman is part of the first group of new soccer players who aren’t allowed to shave their heads. This had been a tradition on the team for decades, and it’s now gone.
“I was super excited when I got to campus for the opportunity to join the tradition of shaving my head, and I felt kind of guilty because all of my other teammates had to go through it, and I feel like I’m being left out of something great,” O'Conner said.
O'Connor feels that the college doesn’t realize that they aren’t just taking away buzzed heads, but they are getting rid of a building of brotherhood.\
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Scots seniors, as they have decided that they will protest the decision made by the college.
All upperclassmen have decided to shave their heads. They are hoping that this starts a new tradition on the soccer team, but they are mostly hoping for the old tradition to make its way back to the college.
For more than fifty years, Covenant soccer seniors would get together and shave the freshmen’s heads, not as an act of cruelty but as an act of camaraderie and a bonding of teammates.
It’s not just upperclassmen — so do the freshmen. Senior goalkeeper J. T. Gard says the soccer team has been done wrong.
“When I was a freshman, I was a little nervous because I had never had my hair cut like that before, but also I had excitement because the upperclassmen wanted to do it so we knew they cared about us,” Gard said.
“The haircut tradition helped us become closer with our teammates, not only the freshmen because they all had goofy haircuts, but it built companionship through the team with the upperclassmen as well, getting to know the whole team better,” Gard said.
Gard was adamant about where the line should be drawn.
“Nothing should be forced; absolute willingness has to be in order for this to happen, but most of the freshmen look forward to it,” said Gard.
“I think people would regret not doing it, but also it would be a problem when someone is completely against it,” O’Connor said.
A lot of the freshmen feel like they have been cut off when it comes to this opportunity.
Covenant College looks to the handbook to handle all issues about hazing.
Georgia state law brings up the Max Gruver Act, which, in the college’s opinion, handles this new head shaving rule. The student handbook reads, “Hazing is generally construed as any act at an educational institution in which the purpose is to ridicule some for the enjoyment of others.”
With hazing becoming such a hot-button topic across campuses around the country, Covenant Soccer looks to save its tradition while the school looks out for the physical and mental health of its students.