New Rutgers controversy, The woman hired to clean up Rutgers’ scandal-scarred athletic program quit as Tennessee’s women’s volleyball coach 16 years ago after her players submitted a letter complaining she ruled through humiliation, fear and emotional abuse, the Star-Ledger reported on its website.
“The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable,” the players wrote about Julie Hermann, hired May 15 as Rutgers’ athletic director after serving as the No. 2 athletic administrator at Louisville.
In the letter submitted by all 15 team members, the players said Hermann called them “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled” and they wrote: “It has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue.” The players told The Star-Ledger that Hermann absorbed the words and said: “I choose not to coach you guys.”
Governor Chris Christie plans to speak with Rutgers officials about the story. Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak says the governor is aware of the report but wants to get more details before commenting. “He’s not going to make any judgments at this time,” Drewniak said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday.
The 49-year-old Hermann, set to take over the Rutgers’ program June 17, told the Star-Ledger she didn’t remember the letter. The newspaper said when it was read to her by phone Wednesday, she replied, “Wow.”
Most of the former players told the paper they did not want the allegations of the past to harm her future. One player, however, pointed out that “We have yet to be acknowledged or apologized to by Julie.”
Among the allegations about her by players: she yanked players by their jerseys when making changes, forcing them to wear their workout clothes inside-out to a restarant meal after a lopsided loss and asking a player if she was going to lose the game for the team and then lightly hitting her in the stomach with the back of her hand.
Herman the told the paper after hearing the allegations that “These are people I cared about and still care about. I just don’t feel it’s my job to guess their motivations. Like I said, it’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. I’m going to try to focus on leading Rutgers into the Big Ten, and that’s all I know to do.” Read more
