Undeterred by Incident, Yale Welcomes Angelini

Dwight Angelini, the Harvard-Westlake High soccer player who was arrested in March after kicking an opponent in the head during a match, has chosen to attend Yale and play soccer for the Ivy League school.

Angelini, an All-Southern Section selection his sophomore and junior years, also considered California and Penn.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office has not decided whether to file criminal charges against Angelini, who was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon--his foot. A decision is expected soon.

Yale Coach Steve Griggs said Thursday that he continued to recruit Angelini after the incident, for which Angelini was dismissed from the Harvard-Westlake team.

“I didn’t hesitate because I really felt that his true character was not represented by that one incident,” Griggs said. “I feel it was very important after talking to him that he had learned a lot and was going to become a better person and a more controlled person as a result of the incident.

“He knew he had done something for which he was not proud, and he wasn’t trying to blame anybody or make excuses.”

Griggs emphasized his view that Angelini’s character and academic ability were well-suited for the university.

“Despite what happened--in the sense that he sort of got a reputation for what occurred--I think he’s a great young man, and Yale would not admit someone who didn’t show tremendous potential for life as well as academically. Yale looks very carefully at a person’s character as well as their intellectual side,” Griggs said.

Before the incident, Angelini also had been recruited by Stanford, North Carolina State, Dartmouth, Clemson and Georgetown, but Harvard-Westlake Coach Barclay Mackinnon acknowledged a few weeks after the arrest that some schools shied away from Angelini because of the episode.

Angelini, 17, was arrested after he kicked Notre Dame player Ryan Herrera in the head during a Feb. 3 soccer match.

The event was captured on videotape by a parent of one of Herrera’s teammates and was the key piece of evidence that caused the North Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department to recommend that charges be filed.

William Ryder, deputy district attorney of the Sylmar Juvenile Office, said he hopes to have a decision on whether charges will be filed against Angelini by next week.