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A former Seton Hall baseball player filed a lawsuit against the university Wednesday, alleging a culture of violent hazing and accusing the head coach of turning a blind eye.
The 16-page complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York claims the player, who was a freshman at the time of the alleged incidents, was subject to abuse that included a wrestling match against an older player who put him in a chokehold, being forced to show other players his genitals so they could “see what you’ve got down there,” and watch another player sit naked on the locker room floor and touch himself as teammates looked on. The filing says the coach was aware of this behavior and allowed it to continue.
“Seton Hall University’s baseball program turned a blind eye to a culture of vicious hazing, betraying the trust of young athletes and perpetuating a cycle of abuse under the guise of tradition,” the player’s attorney, Mark Shirian, said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “This deliberate indifference not only shattered lives but exposed a shameful failure to protect those they promised to uplift.”
Head coach Rob Sheppard has led the Pirates program since 2004. He inherited the job from his father, Mike, who had been coach for 31 years. The team had a 24–30 record each of the past two seasons. The complaint names the university, Sheppard, and teammates identified as J.D., J.T., and A.S. as defendants. A spokesperson for the athletic department did not immediately return a request for comment.
The player, identified only as John Doe in the complaint, was a 17-year-old freshman from Suffolk County, New York who attended Seton Hall this fall, but transferred to a Division III school after only a couple months, losing a year of eligibility. His suit argues violations of Title IX and New Jersey’s Anti-Hazing Law, as well as negligence, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is seeking at least $1 million in damages.
The filing says upperclassmen started talking about and showing pictures of a “team tradition” of freshman shaving their heads on the player’s move-in day. The complaint says J.D. “demanded” the new player reveal his genitals in the locker room, saying, “We’ve got to see what you’ve got down there.” The suit says the player didn’t want to do that but was “coerced,” after which the “locker room erupted in laughter” as teammates shouted things including “Whoa… you’ve got some balls down there!”
The complaint says the player one day found his name written on the locker room whiteboard to wrestle against A.S, who threw him “to the ground, dragged him across the floor, and body slammed him onto his back, placing him in a chokehold.” Doe was spitting up blood following the experience and still has scars, the suit says. After the wrestling incident, the player’s father called Sheppard, the complaint reads, who told the parent the hazing would end, but then allowed “the hazing to continue unabated.” The coach had also told the father he would keep his son’s name confidential, the suit says, but teammates then called Doe a “rat” for going to the coach, and “alienated” him from the team, including leaving him out of social gatherings and ignoring him at practice.
The suit also describes the “Lotus” ritual where players laid naked on the floor of the locker room and “manipulated their genitals in front of the team.” The complaint says Doe was called a “pussy” for not wanting to do the ritual. Other allegations include players masturbating in a way that was “treated as a ‘joke’ to entertain teammates.” The player said he heard of but did not witness a “drinking initiation” and nude wrestling matches called “Kangs.”
The complaint says the student decided to leave in September 2024, and when he told his coach, “Sheppard expressed disappointment but took no meaningful action to address the issues.”
The complaint says Seton Hall knew of the hazing before the player enrolled last August but failed to act on it, and says the school takes hazing allegations among its women’s teams more seriously. “This disparate treatment is based on outdated gender stereotypes that dismiss male hazing as “boys being boys” or acceptable masculine rites of passage, while treating misconduct in female programs as intolerable,” the suit reads.
In an interesting wrinkle, the suit says Doe “at all relevant times” met the definitions of both “student” and “employee” “under all applicable statutes.” The question over whether college athletes should be considered employees has been brewing in recent years, and on several occasions through hearings and bills found its way before Congress. The looming House settlement does not address athlete employment.
Former MLB All-Stars Mo Vaughn and Craig Biggio played for the Pirates. More recent alums including David Festa and Patrick Monteverde have been called up but are currently back in the minor leagues.
The suit is reminiscent of the 2023 Northwestern football hazing scandal, which also alleged sexualized acts and a longtime coach turning a blind eye. The school settled with a group of former players last month, but is still facing a wrongful termination lawsuit from former coach Pat Fitzgerald. Those players did not identify individual teammates the way the former Seton Hall student does.
