OT: PSU gymnastics allegations
- Thread starter Queztastic
- Start date
Seems like a lot of red flags and really not much different than the Rice situation at RU. I love the comments on the bottom of the article, typical PSU fans defending the abusers.
It's definitely not a good look for those coaches. Unfortunately it's not an unusual thing in women's gymnastics. The young ladies need to speak out on this sort of thing but they don't.
Levine is a good coach for RU and comes from a great family.
My daughter is on track to be a scholarship gymnast if she stays on pace (10,000 things that could go wrong) and I expect some tough lover, but not training through an injury, it only makes it worse and opens you up for more sever injuries. It would definitely make me think twice about sending her to PSU (although I dont think they are a major recruiting presence at her gym)
How fast would this story hit the Star-Ledger and the NY media? Whether its sour grapes, tough coaching, nasty people, etc, what is most troubling is that just a couple of years removed from Sandusky this is not treated with urgency by the school. When the entire incoming 2012 class (8 gymnasts) quit or were released before their senior year, something has to be wrong.
To be fair, on the BWI board most of the comments are not calling it BS. Most of saying that's one side of the story or the what did the Associate AD do to investigate the matter.
To be fair, on the BWI board most of the comments are not calling it BS. Most of saying that's one side of the story or the what did the Associate AD do to investigate the matter.
What these coaches are doing with that team is unacceptable. They are putting their athletes at risk having them train and compete with these types of injuries. And that's not even counting the verbal and emotional abuse. We fired Mike Rice for far less than this.
I feel badly for these small, young, nubile, very flexible gymnasts and must console them in their time of need.
But yeah, seriously... pretty awful stuff.
But yeah, seriously... pretty awful stuff.
The coach was old/didn't know/didn't see/didn't hear/was old school/followed the chain of command/had no obligation to follow up/didn't break the law
If true, I completely agree with you. There's tough love and there's abuse, sometimes coaches walk that line and most get away with it which is why it doesn't get reported nearly to the extent it should. I have no doubt that these coaches won't be around much longer--but they're not going to be fired because of an article. I'm more curious to see what steps the AAD took at the time of the allegations in 2012 because as you can see from the comment section in the article, those were gymnasts in the program during that same time.
Gymnasts train through injuries ALL of the time, particularly during competition season. The part of the article where the gymnast says she was still training on bars even though her foot was injured, that is normal for most gymnasts, even at the junior olympic levels. They live in physical therapy.
He's spot-on.
Anyway this couple should be removed, IMMEDIATELY, from their positions. This type of PHYSICAL AND MENTAL ABUSE blows away what Mike Rice (barely) did.
Not only should they be fired but PSU should have to endure weeks upon weeks of ESPN standing in front of the student center harassing everything that moves for a comment and then only airing those that are derogatory.
What Rice did was far, far milder than this. Plus, many of us who played competitive sports in high school and college had far, far worse said to us then what was reported. That doesn't make it right, especially in today's hyper-sensitive, PC world.
The truth is old, given Paterknow knew in the 90s and did nothing.
More abuse from America's abusiest college.
Yeah, but this link was on the same page...
http://www.xoxly.com/25-hottest-wiv...aign=NFL_Wives_US_Desktop&utm_content=1448922
Rice was a completely different sort of abuse, if you want to call it that. When I see the highly edited Rice video, I think of a boot camp kinda thing. And while it shouldn't be different, we are talking about young men who could have turned around and beat the crap outta Rice and Martelli. Not the same thing. Rice threw basketballs at players who screwed up.. backsides and feet mainly.. if that "at his head" thing was common the tape would have showed a lot more of it. The rest of the behavior was non-PC verbal abuse. Replace the gay-pejorative with some inanimate object.. like "vegetable" .. and he was just yelling loud insults.
Now, if any of Rice's players were actually gay.. to be negatively "motivated" by being called "gay".. yeah, I can see that as genuine abuse with real damage being done to players psyches.
All that said, I think the tough-guy coaching days are over. Those guys are generations-long by-products of the coaching set from the "greatest generation" where every male in America went through boot camp and was taught that this is what makes men. So few people have that experience now.. and even boot camp isn't "boot camp" of old. There is no understanding or tolerance of such tactics. What there is more of is lawsuits... and video.
It does not say much for Mike Rice and these PSU coaches where their go-to motivational method is to deride and insult. And for these PSU coaches to assume their gymnasts are not really injured.. that is really dangerous. Perhaps losing their jobs will cause them to rethink this and find a better way.
I don't think so. Some gave benefit of doubt until video and there may have been one tool who said who cares.
Disturbing article, but not shocked to see the psu faithful rally around an abusive coach. Former team member Kassidy is going with the "it didn't happen to me, so it must not have happened" defense. Makes sense.
Plus, gotta say, pretty good investigative reporting by these 2 students. I'm sure they will get hacked to pieces by the faithful, but it was a very well written, researched, and thorough article. Good job.
Plus, gotta say, pretty good investigative reporting by these 2 students. I'm sure they will get hacked to pieces by the faithful, but it was a very well written, researched, and thorough article. Good job.
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Sorry, but you're way off on this one. I got into plenty of arguments with people who thought what Rice did was just "old school" and that he had already been reprimanded enough and that it our "PC Culture" that did him in. Just look at GOR's post above (and his is nowhere near as dismissive of the criticisms of Rice as many others). It has nothing to do with whether these guys could have physically "taken" Rice - all of them were essentially powerless in the coach-player relationship, where he controlled practices, playing time, scholarships, everything really and I'm sure most of them were simply afraid to protest his abusive behaviors.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/features/article_6440c3fe-ef35-11e5-a8c6-2b9904aa8e15.html
Let's not forget about the hockey abuse either.
Let's not forget about the hockey abuse either.
Haha. Geno Auriemma is treated like gold for coaching his women like they're men, basically what the ice hockey coaches were doing. There's obviously a line - and I do think the gymnastics coaches crossed that line if those accusations are true - but it really sucks that we now live in a world where everyone, especially kids, have to be wrapped in bubble wrap and it's a "scandal" every time one of them feels mistreated. Maybe they should all quit sports and just go live in their safe space.
Not one of the specific allegations in that hockey article offends me. "He wouldn't talk to me", "He wouldn't tell me why I wasn't playing", "He told me that I needed to lose weight". Seriously? These girls sound like a bunch of creampuffs. One girl in the article assumes that this conduct would not be tolerated in the men's hockey program. The fact is that the men likely wouldn't complain about this.
Amen.
HOF coaches like Bobby Knight & Bear Bryant would be pariahs in this environment.
Seriously, do you guys have like a psu Batman signal that goes off every time psu is mentioned in a thread? Also do you feel like some type of superhero vigilante rushing to save the dignity of psu from the villainous clutches of Dr. Evil(psu)Basher? I mean you got here in just two posts to crush the evil doers, congratulations you saved Dysfunctional(happy valley) City.
It's hard to miss the Penn State threads here. Every once in a while there's a Rutgers one sprinkled in. This is my second favorite PSU message board.
