This is not tough coaching. I have no problem with tough coaching.The allegations against these coaches include mocking athletes about weight, forcing them to train on injuries, making inappropriate comments about their bodies and personal lives, and on and on. I mean, 8 athletes left a collegiate gymnastics team. 8!!
8 from the incoming class from 2012. There were others prior to that and I believe others after that but I'm not positive why the others left. The 8 from the incoming 2012 class were the first recruits for those coaches and let's just say it was pretty quickly off the rails. Injuries, eating disorders, mental breakdowns and they were top JO athletes accustomed to tough coaching and results driven coaching. It didn't make sense how they all fell apart in college. All the red flags should have been obvious. The common thread between their accounts and those of many athletes from the prior few years at that school and the decade before at the other school was clearly the coaching staff. The coaches and some team members wanted us to believe each of these 11 or so athletes had issues. I never bought into that byline. One year there were only 11 scholarship athletes on the team come competition season (there are 12 available) and I believe there were only a total of 12 or so total left on the team. That's one of the smallest rosters ever. The stuff really hit the fan when an asst coach lodged complaints and said she was being mistreated as an employee and was concerned for the athletes. In the end, several of the remaining athletes complained to adminsitration. Because personnel records are closed, we will never know the reason the associate head coach resigned or why the head coach was fired but most of us believe the writing was on the wall. You would think if their approach was going to change it would have happened after their first college contract was supposedly not renewed when they had a fresh start at the other school.This is not tough coaching. I have no problem with tough coaching.The allegations against these coaches include mocking athletes about weight, forcing them to train on injuries, making inappropriate comments about their bodies and personal lives, and on and on. I mean, 8 athletes left a collegiate gymnastics team. 8!!