WAG Maggie Haney suspended

[JBS]

I don't give my thoughts on the interweb very much anymore... but I am right now... so here you go...

What do a GOAT + a generation + a movement + a virus = CULTURE SHIFT

Is the culture of gymnastics changing?... you better believe it is. As a coach... I can definitely feel it shifting... and definitely in a good way. I could probably go on about this forever... but I'm not much of a typer (typist). I'd love to hear what everyone else is thinking about this...

www.chalkbucket.com

 

[bogwoppit]

I looked at the list just out of curiosity, not expecting to see anyone that I knew. But one of the names on there is the head coach from the first gym we went to. My girls were never on the team, just in the rec program, but we do know people who are on the team there. Is there any way to get more information - when they were put on the list, why they're on the list, etc? He's in the Pending Resolution section. I've always been glad we left that gym, but now I'm even more happy about it.

If there is information in the box next to it. Like a bylaw number, you could look that up.

 

[cmg]

So I have said this before and I will say it again on this website. I would like to think that the USA women's gymnastics program could produce elite level athletes that are competitive internationally without physical, sexual, or mental abuse of its athletes. I know that this can be done and should be done. I honestly don't understand how so many coaches abuse their athletes and yet still get results. In many cases it is compliance to their abusive conditioning not inspired athletic performance which is what most observers are hoping is the case. That the dream of making the Olympic team and pursuing excellence is because of an inner desire, hard work, perseverance, dedication etc. etc. not because the athlete is just complying to abusive techniques and performing to avoid the abuse. Yes if anything good can come out of the forced break we are calling Covid-19, lets make sure abusive techniques are extinguished.

The problem is that abusive behavior is not just at the elite gyms. Abusive behavior is all across the country. As other posters have mentioned most coaches just don't know any different. Please USA Gymnastics create a training program for coaches that teaches how to get the best out of our athletes without abusive behavior. Safe sport should be about quality coaching not just eliminating sexual abuse. It is just not that hard.

 

[suds]

NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/...tion=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

(Contemplate these two excerpts together):
"She [Laurie]considered it possible that many coaches publicly berated their gymnasts for gaining weight and developing the curves that come with puberty, and that they pushed athletes to train on dislocated knees and broken wrists. She had become convinced that was how Olympians were made."
(and)
“I’m grateful that I got to the Olympics, but at what cost?” she said.


(and these two together):
"...at the gym Hernandez invariably felt stuck. She wanted to leave, she said, but couldn’t speak up because she was just a child, unable to walk out or drive home."
(and)
"The gym was Haney’s dominion. The team handbook says in underlined red ink: “Parents are NOT allowed to stay and watch practice,” and “There are NO EXCEPTIONS!”


(and these two):
"After testifying for 80 minutes at the U.S.A. Gymnastics hearing in February, Hernandez left feeling uneasy, wondering if she had “just thrown Maggie under the bus.” She thought about apologizing and asked herself, yet again, if she had deserved Haney’s brutal treatment."
(and)
Regarding her current training situation: “Whether I make it to Tokyo or not, I’m doing something I love on my own terms,” Hernandez said, “and people treat me the way I want to be treated, and that makes me happy.”


I will be asking my daughter to please read the complete NYT article over the weekend.
So many important parts in it for us to discuss together.

 

[GymMom4]

In my opinion the coach that uses the “ignore” tactics are by far the most damaging. Again parents say “but our coach never yells” again arrogance veiled and the smart ones know it. We were at a meet with Haney, watched a kid struggle on bars fell twice. Both coached turned their backs on that kid after event and for the rest of that meet. Literally the kid came up to compete and they turned around backs to the child. It was horrible to see and yet that parent sat there and it was OK cause that’s what it takes to be on “the best team”.

My kid suffered from the fall from favorite, the ignore as if you don’t exist. To anyone else in that gym it went unnoticed and believe me it was abuse at its finest - calculated and intentional and beyond Horrible. Coach no longer at gym or we would have left

I agree. My daughter went through this and she was too little to try and stick up for herself and she didn’t want to be disrespectful. It was a gym with obvious favorites for this particular coach, one who would give extra time and attention to those he liked best, all the while ignoring others, not coaching them, and then getting mad when they couldn’t do the skills when asked. After a while of trying to talk to owner and coach about things with little to no improvement, we finally left and it made them really mad to the point that they said hurtful things about us. It was hard, but we made the best decision when we left there.

 

[Gymmommy2524]

I always felt Laurie & Riley's knees looked dangerously overextended. ...

 

[LemonLime]

And Levine , the co owner of MG Elite is on the list too....so that gym is basically done.

Vicky Levine is listed as unable to have unsupervised contact with minors. She can have contact with minors if she's supervised. I thought the gym facility was owned by Levine and Haney's mother. I presume it will continue to be operational aside from Covid-19 concerns. I'm not sure who would coach this select team, though.

There are some absolutely spectacular gymnasts on this team from Level 7 on up. I hope they find great coaching that builds them up, but it's not easy to pick up and move during a pandemic.

 

[LJL07]

Vicky Levine is listed as unable to have unsupervised contact with minors. She can have contact with minors if she's supervised. I thought the gym facility was owned by Levine and Haney's mother. I presume it will continue to be operational aside from Covid-19 concerns. I'm not sure who would coach this select team, though.

There are some absolutely spectacular gymnasts on this team from Level 7 on up. I hope they find great coaching that builds them up, but it's not easy to pick up and move during a pandemic.

Personally, I would have been scouting out other options as soon as I learned that coach was under investigation and certainly upon learning that a hearing was scheduled. Re: the spectacular gymnasts in Haney’s gym: I have no doubt that there are a number of amazing gymnasts in that gym. People stay with coaches like Haney because they think her methods are necessary to produce results. Unfortunately, her coaching DOES produce great results and to such an extent that parents overlook all of the damage that accompanies her great results.

 

[bookworm]

I'd have a hard time keeping my kid in a gym where one coach was suspended by USAG for almost a decade and the other can't be alone with minors....and even the gym being owned by Haney's mother... it just seems to be tons of fruit from a poisonous tree...

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Personally, I would have been scouting out other options as soon as I learned that coach was under investigation and certainly upon learning that a hearing was scheduled. Re: the spectacular gymnasts in Haney’s gym: I have no doubt that there are a number of amazing gymnasts in that gym. People stay with coaches like Haney because they think her methods are necessary to produce results. Unfortunately, her coaching DOES produce great results and to such an extent that parents overlook all of the damage that accompanies her great results.

Part of the success is cherry picking of talent in the first place. They are not taking kids with average talent and making them great. These are kids that would probably be successful in any quality program. Many of the home-developed kids left the program in recent years.

 

[bogwoppit]

Part of the success is cherry picking of talent in the first place. They are not taking kids with average talent and making them great. These are kids that would probably be successful in any quality program. Many of the home-developed kids left the program in recent years.

100% this. We know Maggie was very selective who she took, in the way many "elite" gyms have been over the years. She became a magnet in the NE, it is easy to see how gymnasts migrated there from regular USAG gyms.

It will be interesting to see where those kids end up now.

 

[flippin out]

It will be interesting to see where those kids end up now.

I'd guess a lot (of the regular JO kids) will end up at Premier. It is the gym Ari went to after MG and it is only like 3 min away from MG

 

[CuriousCate]

I don't know the reason, but we saw that Zoe Gravier went to First State in DE for this past season. That might be doable, though not convenient, if you lived in south Jersey...

 

[LJL07]

I don't know the reason, but we saw that Zoe Gravier went to First State in DE for this past season. That might be doable, though not convenient, if you lived in south Jersey...

First State has some great gymnasts!

 

[bogwoppit]

First State has some great gymnasts!

They also seem to have compassionate coaching. The ultimate combination.

 

[Flyaway]

It always blew me away how they could have like, 3 super young level 7's and they all come out of a competition earning high 38's and winning 1st place team. I now know why. It's easy to have a rock star team if you are able to be super selective. Unfortunate that the perceived success was bought at a price.

 

[Jamie1999]

I don't know the reason, but we saw that Zoe Gravier went to First State in DE for this past season. That might be doable, though not convenient, if you lived in south Jersey...

I am pretty sure Zoe Gravier, etc left for First State because they had filed complaints about Maggie.
I really don't see families who have supported Maggie so far wanting to join them at First State. Huge potential for drama especially for the higher-level gymnasts. I hope First State takes great care in handling this situation.

 

[sewgood]

I'm glad that Haney was suspended for so long. Still concerned about the number of coaches that have NOT had hearings yet, most notably John Geddert. Seriously, why has he not had to answer for anything yet???

 

[wandrewsjr]

I'm glad that Haney was suspended for so long. Still concerned about the number of coaches that have NOT had hearings yet, most notably John Geddert. Seriously, why has he not had to answer for anything yet???

There is an active criminal investigation of Geddert. Safesport/USAG would not want to risk interfering in a criminal prosecution by holding a hearing/interviewing witnesses. That is why he is currently on the suspended with no contact allowed list until that investigation plays out.

 

[bogwoppit]

Special report: Families detail Maggie Haney’s abuse of young gymnasts

An investigation reveals gymnasts and parents describing the coach’s physical, emotional and mental abuse since 2016, though it took USA Gymnastics until last month to suspend Haney for eight…

www.ocregister.com

If that doesn’t turn your stomach, nothing will. She should be banned for life and criminal charges should be laid.