Yet Another Rutgers Bombshell.

[Kibitzer]

It's in the news this morning. The new Rutgers AD reportedly treated her volleyball players shamefully at [gasp] the University of Tennessee when she coached there years ago. Amazingly, there are similarities to coaching methods applied by recently fired Tim Rice. I read this this morning on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette but I am sure the Newark Star-Ledger either launched it or will get after it.

Typically, the article concludes with a statement about Rutgers joining the Big Ten next year.

I am reminded once again about what Mark Twain said, that fiction writers are constrained to write about realistic possibilities but journalists can deal with much more amazing facts. Something to that effect. No one could sell this story if they made it up.

 

[UConnCat]

Here's the link to a Star-Ledger story:

http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/05/rutgers_new_athletic_director.html

A letter signed by every member of the LV Volleyball team was submitted to the Tenn AD:

"The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable," the players wrote. Specifically, they said the coach had called them "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled."
In blunt terms, the players wrote, "It has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue."

Their accounts depict a coach who thought nothing of demeaning them, who would ridicule and laugh at them over their weight and their performances, sometimes forcing players to do 100 sideline pushups during games, who punished them after losses by making them wear their workout clothes inside out in public or not allowing them to shower or eat, and who pitted them against one another, cutting down particular players with the whole team watching, and through gossip.

Several women said playing for Hermann had driven them into depression and counseling, and that her conduct had sullied the experience of playing Division 1 volleyball.

According to the Ledger story which is based on comments from the former players, a meeting was held with Hermann, the Tenn AD and the volleyball players and Herman's responded by telling the players: "I choose not to coach you guys."

 

[UConnCat]

The articles also reference the lawsuit settlement involving one of Hermann's former assistants who sued Tenn claiming she was fired because she became pregnant. Hermann was asked about this lawsuit at her introductory press conference (RU reportedly did investigate the case), and a wedding video in which she tells the asst coach not to produce any surprises, it would be hard to have a baby in the office, etc. Hermann said she didn't remember the wedding; the former asst coach and bride says she was a bridesmaid.

 

[semper]

Why can't WE join the Big Ten....Sigh.

 

[jplotinus]

It's a good thing Geno understands the limits of motivation. It's ok to call a person the worst center in America--Rebecca; it's ok to kick a player out of practice--Tina and even kick one out of practice and aim a ball at or near her head if you can throw that high--Kara, all while not being perceived as crossing the line of being abusive.

I'm glad Geno gets it.

 

[pap49cba]

Interesting. Seems like a lot of memory loss for someone her age...

 

[Santini35]

Interesting. Seems like a lot of memory loss for someone her age...

There's a really bad joke in there somewhere considering where she was a coach, but I can't go that far

 

[pap49cba]

The long knives are coming out...

"Two sources familiar with the search process for the new athletic director said the headhunter firm, Parker Executive Search, submitted an initial list of 47 candidates to Rutgers. Hermann was not part of that initial group, added later by committee co-chairwoman Kate Sweeney.
So Rutgers hired a search firm, then ignored it, then failed to do a thorough background check on the woman it eventually hired. So Rutgers takes what should have been an easy decision in November – firing an out-of-control coach – and embarrasses itself again in May."

LINK

 

[HuskyNan]

It's a good thing Geno understands the limits of motivation. It's ok to call a person the worst center in America--Rebecca; it's ok to kick a player out of practice--Tina and even kick one out of practice and aim a ball at or near her head if you can throw that high--Kara, all while not being perceived as crossing the line of being abusive.

I'm glad Geno gets it.

Rebecca Lobo:
And how Coach Auriemma got me [to the Hall of Fame] was everyday calling me the worst post player in America, and my favorite - the dumbest smart person in America.

And saying it with all the love that you can imagine he was saying it with.

Tina Charles:
And after she became the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Huskies history on the same night -- with UConn finishing out another perfect regular season with a win at Notre Dame on Monday -- Charles thanked coach Geno Auriemma for keeping his belief in her.

"I believed in what I could do, but it wasn't the same as what he believed in for me," Charles said. "My first two years here, I would take possessions off. Or I would just let somebody else do it. So I had to have that mindset that, 'This is yours,' and to own it."

Auriemma, of course, has sort of made life "harder" -- at least in practice and games, that is -- for Charles these past four years. She's very grateful that happened.

Kara Wolters:
"I went into his office one day and said, 'Why are you always on me? I can never please you. Why are you always yelling at me?' And he told me, 'The day I don't yell is the day you should worry because that will mean I don't see the potential in you anymore.

"I left his office thinking, 'Wow, he must really like me.

"The program does a great job balancing things. The goal is to win basketball games, but he knows he's working with a bunch of girls and they are very emotional at times.

"Parents send their kids to UConn because he likes to win, but he takes care of his athletes. It's not an easy place to play, but the rewards for doing so are great. It's hard to do what UConn does, and you can't do it without hard work. Some people are just not cut out for it."

[On edit] Diana Taurasi:
Taurasi on how she handles being yelled at by Auriemma during practice: "I give him a look, to make it look that he got to me." Then, after practice, she'll put her arm around her coach and ask, "How's the wife and kids?"

Taurasi on Auriemma's true personality: "As much as he wants to show all that machismo, he's an Italian softie. He drinks a little bit of wine, and that's all he is."

Demanding someone you care about becomes the best person they can be is not the same as being abusive.

Sometimes I wonder why you root for UConn, plot. You don't seem to like much about the program.

 

[TRest]

I wonder if C. Viv. will still be locking players out of the locker room and taking away their privileges.

 

[UConnCat]

One would think, at a minimum, that Rutgers' search process would have ensured that Hermann's history did not include even a hint of the type of coaching misconduct that started this mess.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Times may be turning for the better, though clearly Rutgers is challenged in many ways. I hope the money can fix the ethical mess there. Sounds like with the new AD there is a huge potential for more unpleasant surprises down the road.

About 50 years ago we often glorified behavior like Herman's. I remember seeing a sports piece on the coach of the Japanese national volleyball team back then who took smallish young women from one of the factories there and used totally abusive and relentless training methods to make a hardened squad that would drive finally to the gold medal in 1972. The methods seemed to be widely admired at the time, but I'm not sure any of the athletes got much joy in the process of winning their medals. Sounds like there's still coaches and ADs who have no clue about where the line is between being tough and being monsters.

 

[UcMiami]

Times may be turning for the better, though clearly Rutgers is challenged in many ways. I hope the money can fix the ethical mess there. Sounds like with the new AD there is a huge potential for more unpleasant surprises down the road.

About 50 years ago we often glorified behavior like Herman's. I remember seeing a sports piece on the coach of the Japanese national volleyball team back then who took smallish young women from one of the factories there and used totally abusive and relentless training methods to make a hardened squad that would drive finally to the gold medal in 1972. The methods seemed to be widely admired at the time, but I'm not sure any of the athletes got much joy in the process of winning their medals. Sounds like there's still coaches and ADs who have no clue about where the line is between being tough and being monsters.

I think there is also a huge cultural divide between west and east on discipline in the work place, athletics, and in child rearing - just look at the reactions re the 'tiger' mom.

 

[Phil]

One would think, at a minimum, that Rutgers' search process would have ensured that Hermann's history did not include even a hint of the type of coaching misconduct that started this mess.

Exactly, that's what has me stunned - not so much that a coach is capable of this, but that a school in the position of Rutgers was not ultra careful to make sure that whomever they chose was squeaky clean.

 

[msf22b]

If Rutgers was smart, they would ask Hermann to resign as well as the two or so Admin types most reponsible for her hiring.
If they do that tomorrow, they can be seen as being responsible and responsive.
Will anything vaguely similar happen?
Of course not.

 

[UConnCat]

Exactly, that's what has me stunned - not so much that a coach is capable of this, but that a school in the position of Rutgers was not ultra careful to make sure that whomever they chose was squeaky clean.

Exactly. That's the real issue here. As this Deadspin piece so correctly states:

At this point "have you ever been accused of physically or verbally abused any students" should be a standard question in an interview for any position of authority at Rutgers.

Even looking at this in the light most favorable to Hermann, for the sake of argument, this was a very long time ago. People make mistakes all the time and they should be permitted to learn from them. Julie Hermann is entitled to the same process—for what it's worth, colleagues from her 16 years at Louisville have nothing but praise for her—but maybe Rutgers is not the best spot for that second chance. Maybe if Rutgers was not asleep at the switch she wouldn't be, but then they probably wouldn't have needed to hire her in the first place.

http://deadspin.com/rutgers-has-a-p...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

BTW, this same Deadspin piece reports that Rutgers didn't even know about the lawsuit until read reading about it in an article the day before the announcement that Hermann had the job. How is this possible?

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

It's a good thing Geno understands the limits of motivation. It's ok to call a person the worst center in America--Rebecca; it's ok to kick a player out of practice--Tina and even kick one out of practice and aim a ball at or near her head if you can throw that high--Kara, all while not being perceived as crossing the line of being abusive.

I'm glad Geno gets it.

The Plot thickens.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Exactly. That's the real issue here. As this Deadspin piece so correctly states:

At this point "have you ever been accused of physically or verbally abused any students" should be a standard question in an interview for any position of authority at Rutgers.

Even looking at this in the light most favorable to Hermann, for the sake of argument, this was a very long time ago. People make mistakes all the time and they should be permitted to learn from them. Julie Hermann is entitled to the same process—for what it's worth, colleagues from her 16 years at Louisville have nothing but praise for her—but maybe Rutgers is not the best spot for that second chance. Maybe if Rutgers was not asleep at the switch she wouldn't be, but then they probably wouldn't have needed to hire her in the first place.

http://deadspin.com/rutgers-has-a-p...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

BTW, this same Deadspin piece reports that Rutgers didn't even know about the lawsuit until read reading about it in an article the day before the announcement that Hermann had the job. How is this possible?

I 100% agree with the point that she may very well be rehabilitated, but RU isn't a good fit for someone with that record. As to how they missed the facts, she lied and no one furnished them, I assume. Even Cronin from UT (and I know the BY doesn't like her) "claims" to not remember the letter about her behavior.

On a completely different tact, this only highlights what digging can determine. How many other coaches do / have done this? Is anyone naive enough to think Mike Rice and Hermann are the only 2??

At the rec facility where I walk, there is a private coach teaching a couple of 6-10? or so year old boys (I have no idea of the age, but they are young, he has to tie their shoe laces for them) basketball. They are good from what I see, but I have been appalled by some of what he tells them- it doesn't "cross the line", but telling a child that age "you have no more growing up time, you have a profession and this is it, and you need to dedicate 100% to it" is appropriate??

 

[Kibitzer]

Exactly, that's what has me stunned - not so much that a coach is capable of this, but that a school in the position of Rutgers was not ultra careful to make sure that whomever they chose was squeaky clean.

Phil, there is a very obvious reason that Rutgers was careless with this hire. The people in charge combine incompetence, stupidity and irresponsibility to an unfathomable degree.

They have betrayed their students, faculty/staff, alumni, fans and NJ taxpayers. Disgraceful.

OOPS! Almost forgot the obligatory closing line: Rutgers will join the Big Ten next year. BFD.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Phil, there is a very obvious reason that Rutgers was careless with this hire. The people in charge combine incompetence, stupidity and irresponsibility to an unfathomable degree.

That sums up Rutgers far better than you could know.

Google "RU Screw" some time. The pub (drinking age 18) at the student center was the "RUsty Screw" when I was in school.

What is unfathomable is how it never changes. There are exceptions - even on the athletic side - if many might object to her current salary, CVS was a good hire when she was hired, as was Schiano at the time. But in general, RU can mess it up with the best of them.

 

[ScarlettB]

Something I found interesting is that in 1997 - right when Julie stopped coaching - she was chosen as an assistant coach for USA volleyball and coached in the Pan Am games that year. She also coached volleyball at UT for 6 years before the player's finally wrote the team letter to the administration. She was not dismissed from UT, but was given a position in the athletic department and it also didn't hurt her in her tenure at UL.

I wonder if there was some type of legal contract that no one was supposed to talk about what happened to cause her to stop coaching. Otherwise, I don't understand how she could even think it wouldn't ever come to light with all the media scrutiny that has been focused on abusive coaches lately in general and on RU in particular.

I hate to even think this, but she must have lied in her interviews because I can't imagine that she wasn't asked her reasons for leaving every job she ever had. That question is asked at any interview I have ever gone on or conducted. She had to know that the letter from an entire team of her former players alleging abuse would have disqualified her from consideration for the AD job at a school that was trying to recover from a coaching abuse scandal.

This whole situation is completely unbelievable!

 

[jplotinus]

Rebecca Lobo:
And how Coach Auriemma got me [to the Hall of Fame] was everyday calling me the worst post player in America, and my favorite - the dumbest smart person in America.

And saying it with all the love that you can imagine he was saying it with.

Tina Charles:
And after she became the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Huskies history on the same night -- with UConn finishing out another perfect regular season with a win at Notre Dame on Monday -- Charles thanked coach Geno Auriemma for keeping his belief in her.

"I believed in what I could do, but it wasn't the same as what he believed in for me," Charles said. "My first two years here, I would take possessions off. Or I would just let somebody else do it. So I had to have that mindset that, 'This is yours,' and to own it."

Auriemma, of course, has sort of made life "harder" -- at least in practice and games, that is -- for Charles these past four years. She's very grateful that happened.

Kara Wolters:
"I went into his office one day and said, 'Why are you always on me? I can never please you. Why are you always yelling at me?' And he told me, 'The day I don't yell is the day you should worry because that will mean I don't see the potential in you anymore.

"I left his office thinking, 'Wow, he must really like me.

"The program does a great job balancing things. The goal is to win basketball games, but he knows he's working with a bunch of girls and they are very emotional at times.

"Parents send their kids to UConn because he likes to win, but he takes care of his athletes. It's not an easy place to play, but the rewards for doing so are great. It's hard to do what UConn does, and you can't do it without hard work. Some people are just not cut out for it."

[On edit] Diana Taurasi:
Taurasi on how she handles being yelled at by Auriemma during practice: "I give him a look, to make it look that he got to me." Then, after practice, she'll put her arm around her coach and ask, "How's the wife and kids?"

Taurasi on Auriemma's true personality: "As much as he wants to show all that machismo, he's an Italian softie. He drinks a little bit of wine, and that's all he is."

Demanding someone you care about becomes the best person they can be is not the same as being abusive.

Sometimes I wonder why you root for UConn, plot. You don't seem to like much about the program.

The background:

This is a thread on Rutgers' troubles. Some posters may be understood as taking some kind of pleasure at Rutgers' expense.

The points:

1-Glass house...stones; and

2-But for...there go us.

I feel badly for Rutgers and grateful our coaches know how to coach and how not to abuse. And also grateful no accusations that have been made (and some have been) have been found true.

 

[RadyLady]

oh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I agree and disagree with KnightBridge. She is not the one for Rutgers, even is she is reformed. But people capable of performing as she did at Tenn do not change - they just knock it off cuz they are taken out of the situation. The tendency to abuse power will resurface and, of course, she has no moral authority to deal with the problem that may be embedded in the RU Athletic Department. An article on Fox News is disquieting. It reports her as saying in her introductory presser that the problem "is already fixed." That statement may explain her selection.

 

[ThisJustIn]

She was not dismissed from UT, but was given a position in the athletic department and it also didn't hurt her in her tenure at UL.

There is a long history of shuffling coaches within a program, or sideways to another program, in high school. No surprise that it happens at the college level. Fear of retribution (if you speak out, if you fire "without cause") and fear of damage to the program.
http://fraser61.wordpress.com/2008/...l-abuse-by-coaches-january-2005-and-addendum/

But let me offer you this food for thought. After the publication of Maureen O’Hagan and Christine Willmsen’s four-part series in the Seattle Times, “Coaches Who Prey,” O’Hagan wrote a follow-up piece for the Education Writers Association, “Exposing Abuse in Washington State Schools: A Case Study in Investigative Journalism.” The article began:​

It started out as a simple crime story: a popular basketball coach was charged with sexually abusing a player. That in itself was no big surprise. Stories about sexual abuse by trusted elders have become so prevalent that they are almost a clichŽ.​

Hey, happens at the USA level, too -- Swimming anyone?