Marlene Stollings, former Gophers womens basketball coach, fired at Texas Tech following reports of abuse – Minneapolis Star Tribune

Stollings was worked with by Minnesota in 2014 and coached the Gophers for 4 seasons up until leaving for Texas Tech. She had actually been the ladiess coach at Virginia Commonwealth, where she worked for athletic directior Norwood Teague, who had actually been worked with by Minnesota in 2012.

The pandemic-shortened season that ended in March was Stollings second at Texas Tech. She had formerly turned around the programs at Minnesota and VCU and has done the same with the Red Raiders, a once-proud program that has fallen on tough times. Texas Tech completed 18-11 in Stollings 2nd season after going 7-23 the year before she showed up.

Numerous players stated coaches and staff berated post players with remarks such as “fat pig” and “grossly out of shape” and “gross disproportional.”

At Texas Tech, Stollings gamers dreaded a heart monitoring system they stated was misused in punitive methods, had to withstand demeaning and threatening comments and were subject to sexually suggestive behavior from a strength coach who has actually given that resigned, according to the report.

Athletic director Kirby Hocutt revealed the firing in a one-sentence declaration while including that he planned to resolve the choice Friday.

Emma Merriweather, a center who transferred to Kansas, said she was mocked about her weight in front of mens basketball players and admonished over showing signs of anxiety. She was later on identified with depression.

Hocutt initially defended the coach too, stating he was confident steps were being taken to enhance interaction in the program following a review of the program by a four-person committee.

Over two years, 12 of 21 gamers left the program, including seven recruited under Stollings, according to the report. She safeguarding her program in a statement to the newspaper.

Strength coach Ralph Petrella sometimes threatened players with violence and made sexually suggestive remarks, gamers said. One gamer implicated him of reaching under her sports bra and spandex shorts as part of a strategy to recover from physical effort.

LUBBOCK, Texas– Texas Tech fired femaless basketball coach Marlene Stollings on Thursday, a day after a scathing newspaper report declaring a culture of abuse in her program.

After the report was published, Hocutt said he spent more than an hour meeting with gamers and more than two hours in talks with coaches and players and that those conversations would continue Thursday. The firing was revealed late Thursday.

Petrella, who denied the accusations through his lawyer, resigned about the very same time the player reported the occurrence to a Title IX administrator.

Players stated the training personnel demanded that they keep a heart rate of at least 90% of capability during games which they faced loss of playing time or more conditioning work if they didnt. A pediatric sports medicine director stated keeping a heart rate that high would be “really difficult” to do.

Players made claims of abuse over the previous two years in season-ending exit interviews that were acquired through an open records demand by The Intercollegiate, an investigative media outlet for college sports. The information were published by USA Today.

Teague resigned in August 2015, following revelations that he sexually bothered 2 female university employees– wrongly touching both at a university-sponsored occasion, and sending out a slew of graphic texts to one. Teague now works for a service recruiting firm in North Carolina.

Brazilian center Marcella LaMark stated she was called “hazardous” by Stollings because the coach said her physical fitness lagged up until now behind her teammates. LaMark moved to Pittsburgh.