Who Drinks Soda from a Shoe?

Eight girls of the South Lake Tahoe Vikings High School Varsity softball team drank soda from a dirty softball cleat.

At 10:00 am, Saturday, May 1^st, the South Lake Tahoe Varsity Softball team met the Wooster High School girls' softball team for a double header at Todds Field. In the 10:00 am game, Wooster High School beat South Lake Tahoe Vikings 13-2. The second softball game of the day ended with better results for the South Lake Tahoe Vikings, who won with a slim margin of victory, 3-2 (in the 12 o'clock game).

Maybe it was a result of having a 2-14-1 regular season record entering the day (that's 2 wins, 14 losses and 1 tie) or due to having lost their ninth game of the regular season by ten or more runs. At that point in the season, they'd also lost three games by nine runs. Two of those softball games being 9-0.

This does not include tournament play, however. Before the season, the South Lake Tahoe Vikings Varsity girls' softball team won three out of four games in the Yerington Tournament. However, it was obviously not an indicator of things to come. The mid-season tournament, the Reed Invitational, was more telling of the girls' varsity softball Vikings. In the mid-April Reed Invitational, the Vikings lost all four of their matches, two by ten points or more.

So What About the Shoe?

It was May 1^st and the girls' softball team of South Lake Tahoe had just split a double-header with Wooster High School. The Vikings could have been fairly happy given they'd won 50% of their games that day (a much higher total than their season average percentage). However, as reported by the Associated press early this morning and the Tahoe Daily tribune yesterday, the slumber party the Vikings held that night resulted in eight players drinking soda from a shoe. Apparently, they drank soda from a shoe as punishment for striking out. According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune, eight players "were required by Coach Anneliese Neitling to drink soda pop out of a team member's softball cleat at a team slumber party that night." One team member said she was "shocked" and "thought she was joking about it at first." A softball player who did not strikeout, and did not have to abide by the strikeout rule, said, "She was motivating us to do good, try hard and do our best."

Coach Anneliese Neitling has since apologized for the incident, according to James Tarwater, Lake Tahoe Unified School District Superintendent.

Was the Shoe About Motivation?

With four games left in a pretty abysmal season, would winning the last four games accomplish enough for someone to attempt extreme forms of motivation? We'll never know, as the Vikings lost each of their last four games, albeit none by ten or more points. Ending on a winning note always looks better, but at what price? Hazing?

No one seems to be talking about firing Coach Anneliese Neitling. One offended parent even said, "I don't want her to be fired." But talks of hazing are swirling. South Lake Tahoe High School is part of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association and follows their hazing policies. So, a fine (up to $5,000) or jail time could be in the works if drinking soda from a shoe is deemed as hazing. One father reportedly thought the shoe incident at the slumber party was hazing. District Superintendent James Tarwater said, "It was meant as a joke and it obviously went too far," and that "people learn from mistakes." It sounds like Tarwater believes in Coach Anneliese Neitling.Drinking soda out of a dirty softball cleat is totally gross and disgusting. But, what is the punishment suitable for this crime? Perhaps returning to a team with such a poor record is punishment enough, no offense lady-Vikings.