Facebook boast costs lacrosse players

Facebook boasting earned 10 Lindenhurst High School boys varsity lacrosse players a three-day school suspension after officials learned from the social network that they drank alcohol from Gatorade bottles during a team trip to Rochester.

The students, who range in age from 16 to 18, also were barred from playing or practicing for four days and were not allowed to participate in one game.

The incident happened on April 13 as the team headed back to Long Island by bus from a tournament in Rochester, officials said.

Lindenhurst Superintendent Richard Nathan said the district will have a new code of conduct for all student athletes come fall; they started crafting the regulations at the beginning of this school year.

"They were not drunk," Nathan said of the offenders. "It was discovered because they self-reported. They bragged about it on Facebook."

Nathan said the team's coaches were on the bus but not aware that the students were drinking.

The coaches confronted the athletes as soon as they learned what had happened. The athletic director declined to comment Friday.

Of greater import to the students than the punishment, Nathan said, was the district's decision, after the incident, to bring in teenage speakers to talk to the team about their own experience with alcohol abuse and addiction.

"I have been told it was extremely powerful and made more of an impact that not letting them play or not allowing them to attend school," Nathan said.

The students were upset by the punishment but also angry with themselves for betraying their coach, he said. The team has become a stronger unit as a result of the experience, Nathan said.

With Bob Herzog