Students attend ball game with a green hair protest

Between 20 and 30 people gathered to show support for Daniel Romano at the baseball game Sunday. Supporters sported green wigs and heckled the opposing teams in the home stands during the first game of the double header.

Junior Matt Meisenhelder, an organizer of the protest, said he was pleased with the turnout. "I was pleased because there were people there I didn't know," Meisenhelder said.

Before spring break, first-year Romano was cut from the baseball team after dyeing his hair green. The coach, Tom Mooney, felt the hair was against team unity and demanded Romano wash it out.

Romano chose not to wash the color out of his hair and to not join the team on its trip to Florida and so was cut from the team. The issue incited a protest from students concerned with the direction of Oberlin athletics.

Sophomore John Fedota, another protest organizer, said the home stands were pretty much filled with students with green wigs. He said the protest was highly visible with Athletic Director Donald Hunsinger and Director of the Recreation Center and Intramural Sports, Jeff White, attending the game.

Meisenhelder said the protest was held on two levels. "The smaller issue was that of the green haired kid," Meisenhelder said. The deeper issue was addressing "the trend in the athletic department to do what ever they feel like," he said.

Meisenhelder said there is no way for student athletes to address the athletic department with grievances. He said an athlete can only go to the coach or the athletic director who always supports the coach's decision in a dispute.

"Student athletes have been treated unfairly," Meisenhelder said. He cited the women's varsity basketball team as one that has been damaged because team members could not confront the coach.

"There is a lack of a check and balance system within the athletic department," Fedota said. "The athletic director always backs up the coach. We don't have anywhere to go if we have a problem. It is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed."

Fedota said team numbers reflect how well the coaches are accepted. Some teams, he said, barely have enough players to scrimmage themselves in practice. Other teams, such as women's lacrosse and men's soccer, have healthy crowds and solid teams because the players like the coaches.

"There needs to be a change in the mission statement of the athletic department," Fedota said.

Meisenhelder said the future of the protest may include sending letters to the long range planning team for Oberlin athletics. He said he might work to form some kind of organization to see that there are channels for students to address problems.

Rafael Haciski, college sophomore and member of the baseball team, supported Mooney saying, "It's the coach's decision."

On the protest, Haciski said, "That was probably the most heckling that's been done so far this season."

It's easy being green: Here an obviously incensed group of protestors heckled their lungs off while sporting fake green hairdos. (photo by John Matney)