Texas Tech women’s basketball coach accused of creating toxic team culture

Texas Tech players exposed their coach for her emotionally abusive behavior.

Marlene Stollings took over the helm of the Texas Tech women’s basketball program two years ago, and 12 players have left the team in that time. A USA Today investigation uncovered dozens of complaints by players about Stollings’s mistreatment in postseason exit surveys, as well as allegations of sexual assault against the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

According to the USA Today report, players made a wide variety of allegations against Stollings and other members of the women’s basketball program. They include reports that Stollings shamed players for showing symptoms of mental illness, encouraged one to take anxiety medication that was deemed unnecessary by a doctor, publicly humiliated players if their heart rate was not high enough during games and bullied international athletes about their weight, among other things.

Even more disturbing than Stollings’ behavior are the allegations of sexual assault leveled by five players against strength and conditioning coach Ralph Petrella. Players reported that Petrella made suggestive comments and performed inappropriate exercises on the women. When the women reported the behavior to Texas Tech, Petrella resigned and there was no investigation.

This kind of behavior is alarmingly common in American sports. There is an uncomfortable resemblance between this story and the horrifying case of Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics team doctor. In both cases, young women and girls were being both emotionally abused by their coaches and sexually abused by someone who was supposed to be making them stronger. A toxic team environment created by a head coach makes athletes far more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Stollings and the Texas Tech athletic department both left a lot to be desired with their statements to USA Today. Stollings essentially denied any wrongdoing and placed the onus on the players for struggling with the transition of having a new head coach. Texas Tech’s athletic director told USA Today that he had “spoken with” Stollings about the program’s reported issues after the university conducted an in-depth review of the program. However, they conveniently did not have any hard copies of that review, claiming that it was presented verbally.

This is not just a Texas Tech problem. This is a problem with the intense culture of college sports that treats athletes less like people and more like performance tools. These women will probably be dealing with the impacts of their time at Texas Tech for the rest of their lives, and it’s heartbreaking to think that such a horrible experience could have ruined the sport they loved.