Many people will sweat for their colleges; few expect to bleed for them.
A Morse victory in an Oct. 4 intramural soccer match against Pierson cost Emre Ozcan ’03 a broken nose after an altercation with Joe Gennaro ’04.
“It was not a fight at all because I did nothing,” said Ozcan, who added that he was in the process of bringing a case against Gennaro before the Executive Committee.
Gennaro declined to comment about any aspect of the incident.
Ozcan confirmed that he fouled Gennaro in the course of the game, but claimed that the extent of his action was pulling Gennaro’s T-shirt from behind. Gennaro, according to Ozcan, then pulled him to the ground and punched him in the face.
Frank Walsh ’04, a member of the Morse team, said that he turned around and saw Ozcan, also of Morse, and Gennaro on the ground and that Gennaro’s hand was drawn back.
“He hit Emre,” Walsh said.
Referees called an end to the close game in which Morse emerged victorious.
“This apparently was pretty dramatic,” said Betty Trachtenberg, dean of student affairs. “You know, unless it’s really egregious, I don’t know if I would have heard about it.”
Trachtenberg will head the Yale Executive Committee which will judge the case.
The committee has 10 regular voting members: three tenured and three untenured members of the Yale College faculty, the dean of Yale College (or a representative appointed by the dean), and three undergraduates.
“[Ozcan] has the right to bring the case to the Executive Committee,” Trachtenberg said.
While a complaint cannot be brought to the committee by a student alone, a case can be brought by a student in association with an appropriate administration member, such as a college master or dean.
Morse Master Frank Keil and Pierson Master Harvey Goldblatt both declined to comment.
Intramural competitions have left at least two other Morsels seriously injured. Walsh and Dave Ahn ’03 both broke their ankles, Walsh in an IM football game against Berkeley and Ahn in an IM soccer match against Branford.
“There have been cuts and bruises all over the place,” said Walsh.
The Davenport IM football team was also recently suspended for one game for violent play, said Matt Vogel ’02, an intramural secretary for Morse.
Though residential colleges vie for the Tyng Cup, the outbursts of aggression cannot be blamed solely on fierce college rivalries.
“There is absolutely no ill will between Morse and Pierson. None,” said Morse College student Brad Shy ’02, who named Saybrook as a bigger rival.
Intramural secretaries from all 12 colleges met to discuss the situation between Ozcan and Gennaro and what it will mean for the future of IMs.
Vogel said the group agreed that fighting goes against the spirit of intramurals and threatens to ruin one of the best extracurriculars, but that this was an isolated event in which emotions ran too high.
“I think [this violence] is largely due to the fact that certain players try to compensate for a lack of skill by playing super aggressively,” Vogel said.