College of Charleston being sued because of coach

[HuskyNan]

This one sounds bad. If true, the coach should be arrested, IMO.

Former women’s basketball player sues College of Charleston

 

[TFintheMix]

After hospitalizing this student, her scholarship is revoked? Some people tend to be anti-student/athlete but they are generally powerless when being abused and this shows how much so.

 

[NewCorn]

Perhaps it will be clear that I am not a lawyer, but if the facts in this case are verified to be as stated, I would like to see a criminal prosecution. This seem like careless, criminal disregard for the welfare of the student.

 

[Alydar]

Another injustice is that she was required to exhaust her administrative remedies before being able to file this suit in a court. Having been involved in several situations as a union representative, too often internal hearings are little more than kangaroo courts. Administrators will defend incompetent behavior by their managers (or coaches in this case) despite the evidence. So it takes years to get a truly fair hearing.

The concept of "tough love" has been used to justify this sort of thing. What they forget is that there needs to be love before there is toughness. In far too many cases tough love is really a sadistic power trip on the part of the person in the power position.

 

[BISweet]

This one sounds bad. If true, the coach should be arrested, IMO.

Former women’s basketball player sues College of Charleston

The coach will be fired---16 wins 45 losses!! Using a car and not waiting for an ambulance probably says the coach saw the seriousness of the situation and realized the player wasn't faking and that her decision to push forward wasn't right. When coaches give physically demanding activities someone is always complaining--loudly. Was this to the extent of a criminal act?? Who knows--was this abuse or a conditioning activity that went wrong? Who knows?? But bringing a suit would have more meaning if not for being removed from the team. A judge will decide..

 

[NewCorn]

Another injustice is that she was required to exhaust her administrative remedies before being able to file this suit in a court. Having been involved in several situations as a union representative, too often internal hearings are little more than kangaroo courts. Administrators will defend incompetent behavior by their managers (or coaches in this case) despite the evidence. So it takes years to get a truly fair hearing.

The concept of "tough love" has been used to justify this sort of thing. What they forget is that there needs to be love before there is toughness. In far too many cases tough love is really a sadistic power trip on the part of the person in the power position.

Well said, Alydar. This case came close to homicide.

 

[NewCorn]

The coach will be fired---16 wins 45 losses!! Using a car and not waiting for an ambulance probably says the coach saw the seriousness of the situation and realized the player wasn't faking and that her decision to push forward wasn't right. When coaches give physically demanding activities someone is always complaining--loudly. Was this to the extent of a criminal act?? Who knows--was this abuse or a conditioning activity that went wrong? Who knows?? But bringing a suit would have more meaning if not for being removed from the team. A judge will decide..

An ambulance would probably have gotten to her faster than the car got her to the hospital. If an ambulance had been called, the player would likely have received emergency medical attention on the way to the hospital, and the hospital would have been notified before the patient's arrival what her condition was, which would have expedited her treatment at the hospital, perhaps reducing organ damage. A coach at this level is suppose to be an expert on the proper intensity of physical activity. In my opinion, this is malpractice. This is an outrage.

 

[UcMiami]

It is similar to what was happening to football players on practice fields a while ago with some very serious results, but has generally been controlled.

On the face of it a 5 mile run is not a significantly strenuous activity to expect a D1 basketball player to have serious complications from. That it was 'timed' doesn't by itself mean anything though if it was required to be completed in an unreasonable time period that would. That it was mid-august in SC calls into question what time of day and air temperature/humidity. That the coach was pushing her isn't that surprising, and presentation of medical distress vs. physical effort is not necessarily clear. I don't know all the medical terms but the renal failure from a five mile run by an athlete sounds to me like there were some underlying medical issue present before the start of the run. A 5 mile run at a sedate pace of 10 minute miles is less than an hour of physical exertion - that is not the same as most of the football issue that involved hours of practice on a field in full pads.
As far as ambulance vs. car - the closest hospital is five blocks from the arena/locker room area which is likely the 'finish line' for the run and less than a mile from the bridge if the finish line was somewhere closer to the bridge, so using a private car was probably the fastest way to get the athlete to medical care and might have been significantly faster than getting an ambulance to the patient.

All that said - pulling the scholarship seems very strange and harsh.

 

[TFintheMix]

Another injustice is that she was required to exhaust her administrative remedies before being able to file this suit in a court. Having been involved in several situations as a union representative, too often internal hearings are little more than kangaroo courts. Administrators will defend incompetent behavior by their managers (or coaches in this case) despite the evidence. So it takes years to get a truly fair hearing.

The concept of "tough love" has been used to justify this sort of thing. What they forget is that there needs to be love before there is toughness. In far too many cases tough love is really a sadistic power trip on the part of the person in the power position.

Well said! There has to be love before there is toughness!