Chamber of secrets

Posted on Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Written by Adrian Cheung

The first rule of Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club.

This is the code followed by any of Ryerson’s athletic teams. From the mass suspension of members of the women’s volleyball team because of a drinking violation to the departure of the men’s basketball coach — sports is one area that always keeps quiet.

And it’s not just restricted to the Rams. Because there is such a strong emphasis on team cohesion in sports, athletes succumb to the additional pressure of protecting their adopted family.

Caroline Fuscos, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who has researched the sociology of athletes, says that athletes are “not really people who rock the boat often when it comes to challenging team norms.”

The men’s basketball team has notably taken on this self-imposed practice of keeping quiet. Last March, head coach Glenn Taylor, abruptly left the team and to date, no coaches or players have been willing to talk about his sudden departure.

“We really as a team decided that none of us are going to make any comments on this,” said star forward Boris Bakovic after Taylor’s exit.

There is one thing athletes can agree on however. It is that the code of silence does indeed exist.

Tessa Dimitrakopoulos, a fourthyear member of the women’s hockey has been one of few athletes willing to consistently speak publicly about team drama. While she was willing to talk to the Eyeopener about the reason she stopped playing soccer, she knows it’s not an easy task to go against the team.

“When it comes down to it, you don’t want everyone outside [of the team] to know what’s going on or know the weaknesses of the team,” she said. “[Speaking up] is what a leader has to do. Just to clear things up, you don’t want to hide things from people or not tell them the truth. That’s just one role,” she said.

But breaking the code of silence can’t be done with just any member of the team. Depending on the culture of the room, some athletes may feel they don’t have the authority to speak out. Richard Dean certainly believes in a hierarchy of powers. Dean was an assistant coach on the men’s basketball team for 18 years before the axe fell this past fall.

“Everybody has a certain role. For a player, their role is to play the game and listen to what their coaches have to say. To speak to the media, it might fall to another person like the athletic director or the coaches,” Dean said.

Athletes also feel the pinch of peer pressure or worry they may get left out from the rest of team if they spoke out on a prickly issue.

“Without conformity, athletes are not going to be able to produce worldclass times or personal bests,” Fuscos said.

“How do you produce these performances by taking into account everybody’s identity? Well, it’s not possible.”