ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two former Orange County high school soccer players, Danielle and Devin Scelsi, have withdrawn from the University of New Mexico after a hazing incident that involved alcohol.
The freshmen twins were starting their first year at the school after graduating from Mission Viejo High in June. They both attended Santa Margarita High, where they starred on the soccer team, for three years before transferring to Mission Viejo.
University police were sent to a dormitory on campus Sunday night in reference to a student who was highly intoxicated. Danielle Scelsi, 18, told police her sister was having trouble breathing and appeared to be vomiting.
Two other 18-year-olds in the apartment also appeared to be intoxicated, according to the police report. Devin Scelsi and one of the other teens were taken to the hospital.
The police report states Danielle Scelsi told officers they were all members of the soccer team and “had participated in some kind of initiation event.”
University officials revealed the team made stops at several houses that night, alcohol was consumed and at some point, liquid soap or window cleaner was sprayed on the freshmen players.
Athletic Director Paul Krebs said Wednesday there’s no question there was hazing by the women’s soccer team and that alcohol played a role.
“In this particular instance involving our women’s soccer program, we failed,” Krebs said during a news conference. “Whether it’s Coach (Kit) Vela, myself, as a department, we failed the young women in this program, that they didn’t understand and they didn’t know better that what they were doing was simply wrong and uncalled for and should have never happened.”
Karen Willis, a manager of a team in the Southern California Developmental Soccer League in which the Scelcis both played, told the Albequerque Journal, “They are great girls, beautiful, great, athletic girls. They were very easy to coach. They were probably forced to do whatever happened. They come from a great family and were never a problem. Obviously, the program got out of control.”
As punishment, the team’s season opener in Lubbock, Texas, was cancelled. The players also have to participate in a mandatory hazing-education class, and they will have to do community service.
The investigation is ongoing, and officials said additional sanctions are possible.
