Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team suspended for seven days for alcohol infractions

Ryerson University announced today that it's suspending its Rams men’s hockey team for seven days, and consequently forfeiting two games, for the consumption of alcohol on a recent pre-season road trip to New Jersey.

The infraction is "violations of the student-athlete code of conduct" according to a statement released by the Rams. The statement also indicates that part-time assistant coach Lawrence Smith is no longer employed by Ryerson University.

"This is a personnel matter and the University will not be providing further details," Ryerson said in a statement on Monday.

Athletic director Ivan Joseph re-iterated this in an interview on Tuesday, and confirmed that the coaches were all watching film together when the drinking incident took place at a New Jersey hotel following pre-season games against the Princeton Tigers. The hotel received complaints from guests about rowdy behaviour from the Rams players.

In 2009, Ryerson also suspended eight women's volleyball players and three men's basketball players for a drinking incident in the varsity locker rooms.

Ryerson has been clear on its position.

"All the coaches are in leadership positions and have a responsibility to ensure this kind of behaviour does not occur. With what happened, it's why they've been suspended," Joseph said. "It was a difficult decision for us, and the disappointing part of all of this is that all the attention other top-notch programs should be receiving - like our men's soccer team at CIS nationals, men's basketball team being nationally ranked, and our volleyball teams starting very well - it's all getting lost."

Rams head coach Graham Wise has also been suspended for four games as a result of the incident.

Should student-athletes be held to a higher accord than other athletes? In major junior hockey team, it's often just the individual involved who is punished, not an entire team.

However, reading the Ryerson statement, something more must have transpired, especially if a "personnel matter" factors into the equation.

"It's a human resources decision and we cannot comment further," Joseph said Tuesday. "And I should add we asked the captains to provide us with input on what they thought reasonable sanctions should be and we incorporated their feedback into our decisions."

The Ryerson student-athlete handbook states that athletes may not consume alcohol at any time during road trips. It also states, “Each student-athlete is a representative of Ryerson and is highly visible to other people, regardless of whether the team meets on or off campus. The student-athlete is responsible for his or her own behavior at formal and informal, scheduled and unscheduled events.”

"We are educators here at the university so we need to take this as a teachable moment. But it's not a decision that comes about easily," Joseph said. "Upon the receipt of the accusation on drinking, we went through an exhaustive investigative process meeting with every player, the coaching staff, and interviewed the hotel to corroborate evidence and form an opinion."

The men’s hockey team returns to play on Nov. 15 against RMC at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the old Maple Leaf Gardens, but forfeits its next two games against UOIT on Thursday and against Queen’s on Saturday.