Olson: Incident should be a nonstarter

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A Harvard student accused of driving under the influence, hitting a pedestrian and fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run accident last month in Crystal Lake shouldn’t have been starting for the Harvard football team a little more than two weeks later.

The two other players who were in the car with him and were charged with underage drinking probably shouldn’t have started in Harvard’s 15-7 win against Big Foot on Friday, either.

The school’s code of conduct, which all athletes are required to sign, says that students can be “excluded from activities or competition while the school is conducting an investigation regarding that student’s conduct.”

In this case, the investigation was handled by Crystal Lake police. And their reports on the incident, which happened at 9:59 p.m. Aug. 9, suggest that at the very least, some kind of suspension is in order, particularly for Brian Koester, a 17-year-old defensive end and wide receiver on the team.

The actions Koester is accused of by police are dangerous and could have been deadly to another young person. That’s not acceptable behavior for anybody. Until his case is resolved, he should not play. The two players who were with him should face some sanction as well.

For them to play without penalty is unfair to the other students who do follow the rules. It sends the message that what you do off the field doesn’t matter if you’re good at football. That’s not true even for people who play football professionally. Ask Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, or Plaxico Burress whether they were above the law.

It’s also unfair to the students at other schools who compete against Harvard who do enforce their rules. Or the parents of the 16-year-old who was hit by a car that night.

Crystal Lake police say Koester, 17, was driving east on Route 14 when he hit the pedestrian in the crosswalk at McHenry Avenue. According to police reports, Koester didn’t stop, but a witness called 911, described his vehicle and gave police his license plate number.

Police caught up to the vehicle soon after. Along with Koester were Austin Bielski, a running back on the team, and Patrick Towne, an offensive lineman. They both were charged with underage drinking. Koester was charged with DUI, as well as a felony charge of fleeing the scene of a personal-injury accident, which carries a sentence ranging from probation to as many as three years in prison.

A story on the accident appeared on the front of our Local & Region section two days later, the same day the Hornets had their first football practice.

Since we’ve been asking why the three were allowed to play, no one from Harvard District 50 – not football coach Tim Haak, athletic director Scott Striegel, Principal Rob Zielinski, nor Superintendent Lori Tobias – has explained the decision.

The only thing approaching an explanation has come from Bill Clow, community outreach director at District 50, who said that these incidents could be handled at the district’s discretion while they’re still being investigated.

Were there any discretion being exercised, those three would not have been on the field last week. Naturally, Harvard’s code of conduct lists drinking – or even being at a party where underage drinking or drug use are taking place – on the list of no-nos.

It says the code is enforceable 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That’s different from what Striegel, the Harvard athletic director, told us this week. His first explanation was that events during the summer didn’t count.

The next day, Striegel told reporter Joe Stevenson that the code did in fact apply during the summer.

It’s a joyless exercise bringing up the charges against these three young men. In court, they are innocent until proven guilty. But the rules that apply to students in the high school setting are different than those for criminal defendants in a court of law.

It’s OK to make mistakes while you’re young. America is the land of second chances, and these young men will get one.

But if you don’t pay a price for the mistakes you make, there’s little to keep you from repeating them. These players ought to have been held accountable by their school.

• Eric Olson is the Northwest Herald’s sports editor. Reach him at 815-526-4554, or e-mail eolson@nwherald.com.