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Feb 2, 2017 · Members of the Lake Zurich High School football team routinely used sexual assault and acts of degradation to haze teammates while coaches and administrators ignored the abuse, according...
- Finding A Coach
- Starting Over
- A Feedback Forum
- Coming Full Circle
On the day Lambert signed his contract with Lake Zurich Community School District 95, he met with Superintendent Kaine Osburn to discuss the football opening. One coach on Lambert’s list was discussed: Luke Mertens. Mertens was preparing for his 13th season as head football coach at Lakes High School, 20 miles north of Lake Zurich. Mertens and Lamb...
By April, Mertens was hired. He brought to the job a proven track record, but Lake Zurich needed more than Xs and Os. It needed a leader who believed the program could thrive in the face of crisis. Later that spring, in his first players’ meeting, Mertens didn’t talk football. Instead, he wanted to get to know them as people. They did not choose hi...
Part of the collaboration between Lambert and Mertens involved the use of third parties. Lambert brought in a team from Positive Coaching Alliance, which met with Mertens and his staff throughout the 2017 season. Lambert also contracted with an organization called HUMANeX Ventures. They surveyed players on subjects ranging from performance and inte...
Soon after the team’s first game, a 21-3 victory, it was apparent the new partnership between coach and athletic director was working. Lake Zurich rolled through the regular season, finishing 9-0, the best record in the 53-year history of the football program. The Bears advanced to the Class 7A title game, losing in overtime, 21-14. One month after...
Feb 2, 2017 · The hazing scandal at Lake Zurich High School led to the resignation of athletic director, head football coach, an assistant coach and the dean of students.
Feb 1, 2017 · A lawsuit has been filed against a suburban school district Wednesday following a high school football hazing scandal that sent shockwaves through the community.
Feb 2, 2017 · The lawsuit, filed by lawyers representing the parents of two Lake Zurich students who are victims of the hazing incident, alleges that coaches and school officials allowed "acts of hazing and bullying to occur within the team locker room, including forcing teammates to strip naked and forced un-consensual sexual assault."
Feb 2, 2017 · High school football players in a Chicago suburb sexually assaulted their teammates for decades under a hazing ritual that involved urination and slapping each other with their penises,...
Feb 2, 2017 · Alleging systematic hazing going back two decades, the families of two Lake Zurich High School football players filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 1 against the school, administrators and coaches.
