Where do our Priorities Lie?

Play Like a Champion Director Clark Power offers some insight on the current storm at Rutgers, and how it reflects the current state of college athletics.

Once again President Robert Barachi is on the hot seat. He chose Julie Hermann as Rutgers' new Athletic Director in a move designed to restore integrity to Rutgers' beleaguered athletic department. Hermann replaces Tim Pernetti, who resigned under pressure for not responding more decisively to a videotape showing basketball coach, Mike Rice shoving his players, throwing basketballs at their heads, and berating them with slurs. Maybe Barachi wishes he had Pernetti back. Hermann, it appears, may have been abusive herself, something that Rutgers' search committee was unaware of when they hired her. The search committee, in fact, viewed Hermann as the answer to an athletic department culture more protective of coaches than players. In a press release announcing the search committee's decision, Kate Sweeney, the co-chair, noted that the "committee was particularly impressed with Julie Hermann's student-centered approach to athletics."

Less than two weeks after Herrmann's selection, Hermann's "student-centered approach to athletics" was challenged in a New Jersey Star-Ledger story, which published a copy of 16-year-old letter written by former student athletes, who alleged that they suffered "unbearable mental cruelty" while Hermann was their volleyball coach. Players recalled reading that letter to Hermann and the women's athletic director, Joan Cronan, in an intense and uncomfortable meeting. Hermann denies knowing about that letter. She also denies the allegation in the letter that she called her players "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled." "For sure, I was an intense coach," she explained, "but there is a vast difference between high intensity and abusive behavior."

Cronan couldn't have been too bothered by the student athletes' discontent because Hermann went on to become an assistant coach for USA Volleyball before becoming an Assistant Athletic Director at the University of Louisville. Louisville Athletic Director, Tom Jurich, who hired Hermann admits knowing that "things didn't end well at Tennessee" but that "everything was clear sailing" after speaking with the AD at Tennessee and the coach of the Olympic Team under whom Hermann coached while still at Tennessee. He admitted, "She is intense" but added, "I don't know a coach who isn't."

Kim Tibbits, Hermann' assistant coach at Tennessee upholds Hermann's side of the story, "I was by Julie's side in every meeting and every practice, and she never did what they're saying. What they are saying is not true. She was the most supportive coach. She loved those kids. What I'm hearing and seeing now is just shocking." Cronan said that couldn't recall the letter itself or the high drama of the team meeting that precipitated Hermann's departure. She does remember, however, that the players were somewhat "disgruntled." But she attributed their displeasure as due to "frustration" at their team's lack of athletic success.

Those who defend Hermann, including Hermann herself, see her as the real victim in all of this. Without a videotape like the one that led to Rice's demise there is no way of verifying the players' story. All we have is the testimony of the student athletes themselves, all of whom received counseling following their unanimous expression of "irreconcilable differences with their coach." The only uncontroverted part of this unfolding story is that none of the administrators, who vetted Hermann as she rose up the administrative ladder, ever bothered to ask her players why "things didn't turn out well" at Tennessee.

If we can learn anything from this latest Rutgers controversy, it is that in a "student-centered" athletic environment, the student athletes ought to be consulted and taken seriously, particularly when allegations of abuse arise. Students may well be in the best position to help the athletic community to determine the difference between being intense and being abusive.

Learning as an Official

Today's blog comes to us from Social Foundations of Coaching student Liam Madden. Liam reflects on his experiences as a basketball official and how his decisions affect his coaching strategy. To learn about Play Like a Champion Today's Official's Workshop, check out our website.

I had the chance to officiate an extramural basketball tournament at Oakland University in Michigan and dealt with many hot-tempered coaches, whom we are trained as officials to communicate with.  However, in the men’s semifinal game of the tournament, in a close game that would crush the hopes of one college club team and advance the other to the highly-coveted championship game, I was in a bind that changed the way I view coaching from the sidelines.    

After another official on my crew called an intentional foul on a player who clearly hacked an opponent on a fast break, the fouling player’s coach began a tirade on the sideline and contested that the play was not overly violent (the coach clearly misunderstood the difference between an intentional foul and a flagrant foul).  The third official on my crew gave the coach a much-deserved technical foul and told him that he had to sit down, or else he would be kicked out of the game.

The coach proceeded to continue standing and arguing, and I went over to him and warned him that he had to sit down or I’d eject him.  At this point, his team was down 12 points with under a minute left and was clearly going to lose, yet he refused to give in to our instructions.  His team wanted to get the game over with and his team captain yelled at him to sit down because he was embarrassing the team and they wanted to finish the game.  I did not eject the coach, which the NCAA official evaluating me told me was the biggest mistake I made all game because it compromised my authority as an official.

What I learned from the whole situation is that a coach’s conduct not only influences his reputation among officials and fans but also reflects the whole team, and in youth sports coaches must be role models for their players.  After the game, the team’s captain came up to our officiating crew and apologized on behalf of his coach and said the whole team was embarrassed by his behavior.  As a coach, especially at an amateur level, one must be respectful of officials and set a good example for his or her team.  In the future when I coach youth sports, I will always remember this lesson I learned from a coach’s extremely poor sportsmanship.

As a basketball official, I have dealt with many coaches who do not hesitate to spew criticisms, even at the youth level and have learned that coaches not only must be professional in conduct and demeanor but also must set a standard for communicating with officials that their players can follow.  In pre-game captains meetings, I always make it clear that as officials we are glad to answer any questions about specific calls but will not respond to obnoxious statements about our officiating.  Coaches, as role models for their players, must demonstrate the proper way to deal with officials so their players do not feel they have the option to act disrespectfully towards referees.

Youth Sports Tragedy

On May 5, Ricardo Portilla died in a coma ten days after being punched for giving a yellow card in a recreational league soccer game.  This was not the first time that he had been attacked, and his family had had begged him to give up officiating for fear that he would sustain a serious injury.  The incident occurred not in a tournament or state championship but in a recreational league game! The league’s “no tolerance policy” for player violence didn’t deter the angry outburst.

           

The abuse of referees is rampant throughout sports at all ages and competitive levels.   It starts with the coaches and fans.  Eventually the children follow.  Insults, intimidation, and occasional threats are the rule.  We generally look the other way until the abuse becomes physical.  Six weeks earlier, CNN broke a story about soccer referees in Europe being “under siege,” (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/sport/football/referee-violence-spain-football).   That story featured an incident in the Netherlands in which a group of adolescent players beat a volunteer linesman to death.  

           

Let’s hope that the youth sports community in the United States will respond to Ricardo Portilla’s death with the moral outrage expressed throughout Europe.  The problem of referee abuse lies with an adult-constructed youth sports environment in which respect for rules, referees, and fairness seems quaint.  Getting away with as much as possible and manipulating referees is the now the norm.  Ricardo Portilla refereed recreational soccer because he loved the game and those who played it.  We owe it to him and to our children to change the toxic culture that foments violence and disrespect.