Anonymous letter revisits coaching intimidation of student athletes

(Photo: Sun Devil Hockey)

Fear.

It can decide who plays, who keeps a scholarship and how loudly an athlete is allowed to speak. In locker rooms across the country, it is often the reason problems stay within the team.

At Arizona State, it’s why seven hockey players wrote 26 pages about a teammate on life support and left their names off every one.

Matthew Mayich, a second-year defenseman, collapsed Aug. 20 during a military-style workout at Sun Angel Stadium. A month later, with Mayich still hospitalized, his teammates sent a letter through attorney Timothy J. Casey disputing the university’s account, saying he never reached the only water break, was forced into extra exercises as punishment and showed signs of distress well before collapsing.

Two days after the letter reached ASU President Michael Crow, and within weeks, head coach Greg Powers agreed on a settlement to leave the program.

Even with the truth finally in the light, the players stayed hidden. They dreaded the consequences, with their futures still controlled by the rest of the staff.

While assistant coaches Mike Corbett and Alex Hicks have since joined Powers and left the program, the question raised extends well beyond Tempe: how many athletes across the country stay quiet for the same reason?

This narrative dates back decades and has played out before national audiences.

In 2013, NPR host Robert Siegel announced the firing of Rutgers men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, one day after a video released by ESPN showed him physically and verbally abusing his players during practice.

The compilation video showed Rice screaming at and grabbing players. In one occurrence, he threw a basketball at a player’s head, kicked a player and screamed homophobic slurs.

Social media exploded, with NBA stars such as two-time NBA champion Ray Allen and four-time MVP LeBron James making their disgust known.

In a 2013 interview with Student Life, Washington University in St. Louis’ student newspaper, then-men’s basketball coach Mark Edwards attributed the silence around Rice’s behavior to the environment.

“The (freshmen) don’t know any better. They feel like, well, I guess this is the way it’s done,” Edwards said. “Then they became sophomores and the freshman coming in look at the sophomores.”

Rice’s actions were certainly out of line, but how does this begin in the first place?

Former Washington University football coach Larry Kindbom said he thinks Rice likely developed his abusive style because of the results he saw.

“Maybe somewhere along the way, Rice’s intensity worked, and so it became a part of his demeanor as a coach,” Kindbom said.

Success and winning were high priorities for the Bears, but Kindbom viewed his relationships with athletes as equally important and wanted them to know it.

“What I encourage my players to do is that if there’s an issue in our relationship, let’s talk about that because we’re all in it for the same reason,” Kindbom said.

There is no telling whether Rice would ever have been terminated if no evidence had been released, and in some cases, it never is.

At the University of Iowa, an independent review found that the football program’s rules perpetuated racial or cultural biases. However, the issues were first described by players who no longer had a scholarship to lose.

In 2020, former Iowa lineman James Daniels tweeted about racial disparities in the program, and nearly 40 former players followed on social media, according to KCRG.

Toren Young, a running back who graduated from the school that same year, explained how Black players felt pressure to conform to white culture within the facility.

The most notable was Emmanuel Rugamba, who transferred to Miami (Ohio), who alleged two instances in which former strength coach Chris Doyle mocked Black athletes, which he said made players walk on eggshells, according to ESPN.

Doyle was placed on paid administrative leave and eventually reached a separation agreement with the university that paid him more than $1.1 million and required him to agree not to take legal action.

Be that as it may, he was the only person to be punished, despite several players saying the situation was “not just a Chris Doyle problem” and that he shouldn’t be the scapegoat, according to a 28-page report by the law firm Husch Blackwell.

A 2020 ACLU podcast featured Frank LoMonte, director of the University of Florida’s Brechner Center, who said the movement started with alumni who were safe from punishment. The host mentioned how punishment can include losing scholarships, and LoMonte agreed on the difficulty of speaking up, saying it takes an especially brave person to defy that power structure.

Young said players speaking up may have moved the chains, and LoMonte hoped athletes at other schools see it’s possible to speak out and survive it.

Regardless, even the highest-contact sports with the most long-term implications still face these issues.

Boston University’s CTE Center conducted research evaluating the donated brains of deceased football players. The study found that 91% (48 of 53) of former college football players had the disease, indicating that risk and severity increase with duration and level of play.

A poll released by The Athletic unveiled that 26% of football players admitted to hiding a concussion in the past, fearing they would be deemed unavailable or injury-prone and lose their spot on the field.

Staggering numbers of players cited a dangerous unwritten rule that football is more about availability than ability, and that they would not report symptoms such as minor dizziness or ringing in the ears to medical staff for fear of being declared ineligible by coaches.

In a similar anonymous survey, ESPN found that 33% of college football players lied to trainers for the same reasons.

An analysis conducted by the Sports Equity Lab found that roughly one in five college athletes report experiencing direct abuse from coaches. Despite such a high number, fewer than 10% of athletes ever seek institutional help because they expect the whistleblower to be punished by the system.

The Conversation’s 2022 academic study on coaching abuse in NCAA collegiate athletics anonymously interviewed athletes across sports and captured truths from those who lived it.

“The coaches tell us when to eat, when to sleep, when to s—, what to wear, what classes to take,” an NCAA football player said. “It’s like being in the Army.”

From the perspective of availability, a collegiate athlete said, “I don’t tell coach sometimes because I know I got a job to do. If you’re hurt, you’re not helpful.”

Internal institutional silencing is also prominent.

“You learn very quickly that the athletic department protects the brand, not the player,” a track athlete said. “If you speak out, you’re the problem, not the coach.”

As expressed in the letter by the Sun Devils who spoke anonymously, it’s clear that players are feeling the weight of that choice:

“We should not have to choose between telling the truth on Aug. 20 and keeping what we have worked our whole lives for.”

There is evidently no simple fix for a theme that’s been lingering for years on end, but efforts to raise awareness of what goes on behind the scenes have already begun.

Websites and apps such as RealResponse, a mobile-first platform that is used by hundreds of collegiate athletic departments to safely text or submit anonymous reports regarding abuse, compliance, or mistreatment.

The product has gained traction and is also used by Major League Baseball and USA Swimming.

Founder David Chadwick recognizes the shift in user behavior once athletic departments launch the program, noting that while administrations expect superficial feedback, student-athletes focus on the harsh realities behind closed doors.

The push for athletes to be courageous and speak out about what may be labeled “confidential” is daring enough and could mean the difference between life and death.

Very few understand this as much as Mayich’s parents, John and Christina, do.

“The players shouldn’t have to worry about retaliation from the people they report to every day. We want the truth, and we want it done in a way that lets the boys focus on hockey instead of wondering whether their coaches think they talked.”