Kicking Incident Prompts Harvard to Dismiss Angellini

Dwight Angellini, a two-time All-Southern Section soccer player for Harvard-Westlake High, has been dismissed from the team because he kicked an opponent in the head during a match last week.

A Notre Dame player took the blow in the back of his head Feb. 3. The match was delayed 45 minutes and the player was taken from the field by ambulance.

Angellini, the Mission League’s most valuable player last season, was thrown out of the game and dismissed from the team.

“It was a pretty obvious decision, even though Dwight is like a son to me,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Barclay McKinnon said. “He knows we can’t condone that kind of thing.”

Angellini is being recruited by Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, Clemson and North Carolina State. He has 33 goals and 27 assists over the past two seasons.

“You never know if it will affect his recruitment,” McKinnon said. “We had to be up front and notify the schools.

“We can’t hide it. But the coaches seemed very enthusiastic still. Some don’t see it as problematic as we do.”

Harvard-Westlake (15-1-2, 9-1-2 in league play) is ranked fourth in Division III and has played four matches since Angellini’s dismissal, winning three and tying one.