Players to sit out for violating team rule

Today's game against Saint Joseph's will mark the second of a two-game suspension for seven players on the Penn men's soccer team. Nine players total were suspended -- including defending Ivy League Player of the Year Matt Haefner -- but Penn coach Rudy Fuller staggered the suspensions over three games.

Fuller would not specify what offense forced the players to sit out, saying merely that the players violated a team rule. The players came up with the rule themselves, and Fuller said he guessed it was a standard code for all Penn teams.

Citing habits -- including sleeping and eating properly -- that athletes need to maintain peak performance, Fuller said that the rule violation pertained to players not putting themselves in a good position to play well.

"This year we were not getting the results we wanted," Fuller said. "The team didn't seem as consistently sharp in training.

"We began to wonder why."

The University's director of the Office of Student Conduct, Michele Goldfarb, said she was unaware of the suspension.

"Everyone in our program needs to do everything in their power to give us the best chance to succeed," Fuller said.

Despite returning most of the players from a team that won a game in the College Cup a year ago, Penn is at the bottom of the Ivy League this season.

"We had many of the same people as last year," Fuller said. "One would expect that their results would be similar.... Clearly there was something going on."

Following a 1-0 loss to Yale, Fuller -- after discussing the situation with his assistant coaches -- brought up the issue of "something going on" to the team.

The nine players then admitted to having violated the rule and were suspended.

"The practices leading up to the Yale game weren't great, the Yale game wasn't great, so we had to figure out why that was," Fuller said.

"There has been a season full of those games," he added.

Several times this year, Fuller said, the team played worse than expected in games and practice.

"It's not brain surgery to know when a practice isn't sharp or a game isn't sharp," Fuller said.

Fuller stated that Penn's Ivy League title team of a year ago did not have the same sort of problems that faces this year's 4-7-2 squad.

"It was never in question as to whether the team rules were being followed," Fuller said. "There was nothing on the field or off it to signify something was awry."

Fuller said that there was no indication if the team rule was broken multiple times this season and he would have issued the same punishment regardless of when it happened during the season.

Penn lost, 1-0, at Brown on Saturday night without seven players due to suspension. While the loss mathematically eliminated the Quakers from defending their Ivy title, there was scant hope of doing so before the suspensions.

That was not a relevant factor, Fuller said.

"If you don't stand by the rules just because you're winning, you're sacrificing your integrity as a coach," he said.

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