When Dhaval Solanki learned some of the details of the hazing scandal that has engulfed the Sayreville War Memorial High School football program, he was stunned. During his four seasons with the team from 2003 through 2006, there were moments he said when messages needed to be sent or jokes were played.
“A guy would rip the top off the baby powder and cover everything in another guy’s locker. That was the worst thing I ever saw one player do to another,” Solanki, a 2007 grad who now works in finance in Delaware, told the Daily News. “There isn’t much that sounds familiar about what happened here and what happened when I played. This is way too extreme. This is criminal behavior.”
“I saw teammates yell at one another. I saw someone get whipped on the butt with a towel,” said another former player who graduated in 2008 and asked for his name to be withheld. “I’ve heard of things like this at other schools. At Sayreville - in that locker room - teammates didn’t always get along but it never crossed a line like this. ... The team leaders knew right from wrong.”
According to prosecutors, that’s no longer the case. On Friday night, seven members of the football team were charged with an array of crimes - some sexual in nature - that were allegedly part of a horrific hazing ritual. The Bombers’ season was cancelled early last week by superintendent Richard Labbe during a school board meeting.
The seven players arrested - all 15 to 17 years old and alleged to have attacked underclassmen — remained in police custody on Saturday.
A member of the boys soccer team who identified himself only as Joe P. on Saturday told The News that after classes end at 2:30, players on the soccer and football team — perhaps a total of 90 people — are in the room dressing for their respective practices. He said there is usually an adult present when players are there.
He never heard of football players making howling noises or saw the lights turned out abruptly - two things that allegedly preceded the hazing attacks.
“That’s what blew me away, when they said about the lights and the howling,” Joe P. said. “I never heard of anybody doing such a thing. I don’t want to believe that actually happened. That’s just...that’s absurd.”
Another former soccer player who graduated in 2011 was watching a girls soccer game at the school Saturday and said that when he attended the school, the soccer and football teams also used a locker room at the same time. He saw no hazing.
Solanki said that while he is proud of having played football at Sayreville, he agreed with the decision to cancel the remainder of the season “because everyone involved with the program needs to get some perspective about what may have been happening here.”
But he withheld judgment about what should happen to 20-year coach George Najjar.
“Coach Najjar, he definitely let players police the locker room - that was part of the culture when I was there - but he insisted on a high level of conduct from the players,” Solanki said. “We had meetings where he instructed us on how to act. He insisted on respect for our teammates. I am not saying everyone got along — there were verbal disputes I remember - but there was always respect.
“I thought he was good about identifying people with leadership qualities and teaching them how to lead.”
The soccer team now has the locker room to itself and Joe P. said coaches have addressed the situation with the players. “They just said we’ve got to do our normal thing: get in there, get dressed and get out and this is the way it’s going to be,” he said.
Like the other former Sayreville athletes, Joe P. is also upset by the attention the hazing case has brought to the school. He said he was eating at a local Chipotle restaurant last week with other members of the soccer team when students from another school started mocking Sayreville. He said Sayreville students feel “weak, embarrassed.”
“It’s not just the players on the football team who are being affected. It’s the whole school,” Joe P. said. “You’d think our school would be known for something better than that, but to be known for this is bad.”
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