Team Forfeits Game After Trashing Locker Room

he Tolland boys basketball team forfeited its home game against East Catholic Monday night, as a result of its team's incident in the visiting locker room at E.O. Smith Thursday night.

"At this point, the forfeit [which officially is a 2-0 win for East Catholic] was due to an unresolved team issue," Tolland athletic director Pat Cox said Tuesday.

Tolland had lost the game Thursday to E.O. Smith, 50-33. With the forfeit, its record is 4-7. East Catholic is 4-6.

"My athletic director [Steve Robichaud] told me our janitor found something inappropriate in the locker room afterwards," E.O. Smith basketball coach Ron Pires said.

In an e-mail to the Tolland players' parents sent Saturday, coach Mike Lewis said the team room "was left in disarray. Items were pulled from unlocked lockers and someone defecated on a textbook and left it on the bathroom floor.

"The locker room was not a mess when an E.O. Smith official entered the locker room after half time. It was a mess when the same official went in after our team exited. To be clear, Pat Cox was assured by the E.O. Smith official that the room was not available to anyone else before, during or after the game."

As of Tuesday afternoon, no Tolland player had admitted to the wrongdoing.

"We cannot move forward as a program until this situation is resolved," Lewis wrote in the email to the Tolland players' parents that had been forwarded to The Courant. "I am asking you to speak to your son and encourage him to come forward if he has any information about the incident described above, whether he was involved or not."

Lewis did not return a phone call from The Courant, and Robichaud said he had no comment.

Lewis wrote in the email that this week he "will be working with E.O. Smith High School to identify a community service project for our team to begin to mend a relationship that we damaged and express our sincere regret for this incident. This will be a mandatory participation event."

Asked if the forfeit against East Catholic would be the extent of the discipline against Tolland or if there would be additional forfeits, Cox said," I can't comment on that. That decision will be made by the members of our school administration."

Tolland's next scheduled game is at home against Hartford Public on Thursday night.