The New Mexico State College males’s basketball coach has been fired days after this system was suspended for the remainder of the season amid an investigation into alleged hazing incidents, the varsity’s chancellor stated.
Dan E. Arvizu, chancellor of New Mexico State College, stated he determined to terminate coach Greg Heiar earlier on Tuesday, after studying of the hazing allegations involving the scholars on the workforce.
“As I’ve said beforehand, hazing has no place on our campus, and people discovered accountable might be held accountable for his or her actions,” Arvizu stated in an announcement. “I’m dedicated to the security and well-being of all members of our campus neighborhood, in addition to to the integrity of our college.”
Then-LSU assistant coach Greg Heiar, middle, shouts from the sideline throughout the workforce’s NCAA males’s faculty basketball match recreation in opposition to Yale in Jacksonville, Fla., March 21, 2019.
Stephen B. Morton/AP, FILE
The chancellor added that the varsity will work to “be certain that assist methods are in place to forestall this from taking place once more.”
Arvizu stated he knowledgeable the college’s director of athletics, Mario Moccia, of his determination Tuesday afternoon.
Heiar, the previous Northwest Florida State coach, was hired by New Mexico State College in March 2022.
ABC Information was not instantly capable of attain Heiar for remark. On this July 21, 2020, file picture, a New Mexico State participant shoots a 3 at a pre-season observe for the NMSU males’s basketball workforce in Las Cruces, N.M.
Nathan J Fish/Solar-Information, Las Cruces Solar-Information through USA At the moment Community, FILE
The choice to terminate Heiar comes two days after the chancellor introduced he had suspended the boys’s basketball program for the remainder of the season.
“This motion is clearly wanted, particularly after receiving extra information and reviewing investigation studies associated to the hazing allegations involving student-athletes on the workforce,” Arvizu stated in an announcement on Sunday, including that it is “time for this program to reset.”
The allegations surfaced Friday as the boys’s basketball workforce was in Southern California making ready for a recreation in opposition to California Baptist College in Riverside, Arvizu stated in an announcement Saturday night time. He stated he instantly suspended the basketball program, canceled Saturday’s recreation and positioned the teaching employees on paid administrative go away.
“We took this motion after receiving studies of alleged hazing incidents inside our males’s basketball workforce,” Arvizu stated in his assertion.
Based on a New Mexico State College Police Division report, a participant reported the alleged incidents on Friday, claiming they’ve been “hazed” by three teammates within the locker room of each residence and away video games for a number of months, often in entrance of your entire workforce.
Arvizu stated the gamers and training employees have been referred to as again to the varsity in Las Cruces and interviewed by college personnel specifically skilled to conduct investigations into hazing incidents.
“A very powerful job I’ve as Chancellor of the NMSU System is to make sure our college students are protected and shielded from hurt,” Arvizu stated. “That is why I used to be so heartbroken and sickened to listen to about these hazing allegations.”
Arvizu didn’t present particulars of the incidents or say after they occurred. In his assertion, Arvizu added, “hazing is a despicable act. It humiliates and degrades somebody and has the potential to trigger bodily and emotional hurt, and even dying.” “Sadly, hazing can change into a part of a corporation’s tradition left unchecked,” Arvizu stated. “NMSU coverage strictly prohibits hazing, in all varieties, and it is one thing we merely is not going to tolerate.”
College personnel have been “not too long ago knowledgeable of latest allegations” involving the potential violations of faculty coverage, the Las Cruces college stated in an announcement.
The New Mexico State College Board of Regents stated in an announcement that it “helps the motion taken by the college leaders and is assured a full and thorough investigation might be performed.” The board famous it was knowledgeable of the suspension Friday night.
On this Oct. 29, 2019, file picture, the NMSU males’s basketball workforce practices on the Pan American Heart in Las Cruces, N.M.
Nathan J Fish/Solar-Information, Las Cruces Solar-Information through USA At the moment Community, FILE
In an announcement on the college’s web site, the Board of Regents introduced it would maintain a closed-door assembly on Tuesday on issues that “might embody dialogue of personally identifiable details about particular person NMSU college students.”
The lads’s basketball workforce competes within the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Convention.
In an announcement Sunday night time, WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton stated: “The Western Athletic Convention is dedicated to each the psychological and bodily well-being of all of our student-athletes. We’re saddened and disillusioned that hazing continues to be part of our society at any degree.”
“During the last 48 hours, our employees and membership have been working to discover a answer that greatest protects each WAC student-athlete and establishment,” Thornton stated. “We totally assist New Mexico State’s determination to droop the remainder of its season, as they take this time to give attention to the well being and security of their student-athletes.”
The allegations are unrelated to a deadly capturing involving one of many males’s basketball workforce gamers that occurred in Albuquerque late final 12 months, the varsity stated. On Nov. 19, ahead Mike Peake was allegedly concerned in a pre-dawn shootout on the College of New Mexico’s campus whereas in Albuquerque for a recreation in opposition to the varsity, New Mexico State College officers said.
Brandon Travis, 19, and three different College of New Mexico college students allegedly lured Peake to the campus to assault him, New Mexico State Police said.
Travis allegedly confronted and shot Peake, 21, who returned gunfire, police stated. Travis was pronounced lifeless on the scene, and Peake was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening accidents, police stated.
A 17-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and conspiracy in connection to the capturing, and no extra arrests have been introduced. The incident stays beneath investigation by state police.
That weekend’s Albuquerque recreation and a Dec. 3 rematch in Las Cruces have been canceled, and Peake was suspended from the workforce.
In December, New Mexico State College announced it would launch an impartial investigation into the occasions and college response involving the capturing.
ABC Information’ Nick Kerr contributed to this report.
