Former wrestler claims NJ boarding school turned blind eye to years of hazing, abuse

A former grappler on Blair Academy's wrestling team is suing the elite boarding school in Warren County, New Jersey, claiming coaches and administrators turned a blind eye while he was subjected to years of hazing and sexual assaults by fellow wrestlers.

Shortly after joining the team as a freshman in 2016, the student was assaulted by two upperclassmen on a trip to a wrestling competition, when the two teammates forced him into a bed and later pulled him into a shower and stripped off his clothes, according to a lawsuit filed last month.

When the student reported the attacks to then-head wrestling coach Brian Antonelli, Antonelli laughed off the claims and dismissed hazing incidents as "rites of passage," according to the complaint, filed in state Superior Court in Sussex County.

Antonelli, who stepped down last month after leading the team to national titles from 2015 to 2019, remains active in the wrestling program and is assistant director of athletics at the school.

The suit identifies the alleged victim only as "John Doe." He's now a nationally ranked wrestler at a college program but remains in a "fragile" emotional state after his experience at Blair, his attorney, Michael Garcia, said in a telephone interview last week.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from the Blairstown, New Jersey school as well as four administrators and four wrestling coaches, including Antonelli. It also cites two unnamed former wrestlers at the school and other team members for their role in the alleged abuse.

Suzy Logan, a spokeswoman for Blair Academy, said the school does not comment on pending litigation.

The tony boarding school charges almost $70,000 for full-time residential tuition. It's been a national wrestling powerhouse for decades, consistently ranking first in the nation among preparatory schools and winning a record 40 titles at the national prep wrestling championships.

So in December 2016, during one of the biggest wrestling tournaments in the country, the Beast of the East, it came as no surprise that the team would grab its 20th consecutive win.

But it was at a hotel, in the hours leading up to when the team took the mat, that the then-freshman claims he was assaulted. Sharing a hotel room with two seniors and only two beds, the former student said, he was left to sleep on the pull-out couch.

According to the suit, the seniors taunted him and insisted he join them in bed. Despite his reluctance, he complied, but then was told to get under the covers, the suit states.

The next morning, the student said, the two seniors ordered him into the hotel shower and forced him to take off his boxer shorts. They then "wrestled and overpowered" the freshman and covered his face in soap, according to the suit.

The intimidation and hazing allegedly continued after the trip, with teammates often dunking the boy's head into a toilet and flushing it as they chanted "swirly, swirly, swirly!"

The former student said he reported the abuse to Antonelli. The coach "merely laughed the incident off," the suit alleges. Other coaches were informed as well, but to no avail, the student said.

The boy took a two-week hiatus from school to escape the hazing and humiliation, according to the suit. Antonelli allegedly came to his home and admitted he was aware of the assaults but brushed them off as "rites of passage" by seniors.

"Guys will pick on freshman the first few months. Then, it gets old and they get over it," Antonelli allegedly said. He also said "hazing" was a way for the team to bond, the boy claims.

New coach: Blair Academy hires alumnus with New Jersey ties as new head wrestling coach

Sports: Former Blair women's wrestler takes step toward Olympics, growing sport for girls

Schools: Sussex County Community College students can now live at Centenary University

Antonelli did not respond to a phone call and an email seeking comment.

According to the lawsuit, the boy returned to the team after Antonelli told him they "needed him for qualifying points," but the bullying did not let up in his sophomore and junior years.

The "swirlies" continued and the wrestling locker room was closed three times by Antonelli to prevent hazing, according to the suit.

The hazing intensified when the boy was a senior, the suit said. Antonelli allegedly witnessed one incident in which the boy was tackled to the ground on campus but did nothing about it. The boy said he also received explicit threats from a wrestler that he would be victimized by gangs. Someone also set up a "fake web account" in the boy's name on a Blair Academy computer server and filled it with pornographic images and threats, the suit said.

The boy said he had a meeting during his senior year with Christopher Fortunato, then the academy's head of school, and other administrators, but that they refused to look into the incidents. Fortunato, who left the school last December, told him to "fight through it and take a few days off," the lawsuit says.

Efforts by the New Jersey Herald to reach Fortunato were also unsuccessful.

After the meeting, the student told Fortunato and Antonelli he was not going to participate in the remainder of the season, including the National Championship tournament often held in February, saying he was not mentally or emotionally able to compete.

In retaliation, the lawsuit claims, Antonelli and other coaches tried to thwart his plans to move on to a college with a nationally ranked wrestling program.

The boy said he had his sights set on a prestigious university where he had been accepted to the wrestling team on a full scholarship. The Blair coaches allegedly called the college's coach and accused their former athlete of being a "baby" who needed to "toughen up."

The coach notified the boy of his conversation with his Blair coaches and told him that due to the allegations, his scholarship "could be at risk." The student did later attend the school.

The boy said he was interviewed by Fortunato in April 2020 regarding the allegations, but he graduated believing no investigations were ever done.

The years of hazing left the ex-student with lasting emotional scars, according to the lawsuit, which described him as depressed and emotionally distressed, fearful of intimacy and unable to trust others. He has suffered nightmares, fears physical and sexual contact and continues to suffer "severe mental anguish," according to his complaint.

Garcia, the defense attorney, said last week that his client's hope is that "no other student will have to go through the trauma he had to go through."

Lori Comstock can also be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Ex-Blair Academy wrestler sues NJ boarding school for hazing, abuse