Texas Tech acted quickly in firing former women’s basketball head coach Marlene Stollings after allegations of abuse surfaced.
Texas Tech took one day to fire Marlene Stollings after abuse allegations within the women’s basketball program came to light. By making this move as swiftly as it did, the school proved that abuse and other fear-based tactics used by a coaching staff will not be tolerated. In two seasons with the program, Stollings’ record was 32-28 (11-25 Big 12).
According to ESPN and the Associated Press, a toxic environment was created within the basketball program. The abuse claims came in season-ending exit interviews that were obtained by The Intercollegiate via an open records request and later published by USA Today. The findings were unsettling. Players alleged that they had to endure the misuse of a heart monitoring system, demeaning and threatening comments, and sexually suggestive behavior from a strength coach who resigned. The players were required to maintain a heart rate of 90 percent during games at the risk of losing playing time if they didn’t.
Firing Marlene Stollings was the right thing to do. Basketball coaches need to uplift their players, not instill fear, and create an abusive environment
Twelve out of 21 players left the Texas Tech women’s basketball program and rightfully so. She was the head coach at Minnesota for four seasons and Virginia Commonwealth University before that. According to the Star Tribune and Associated Press, she worked under an athletic director at VCU in Norwood Teague who sexually harassed two female university employees at a university-sponsored event and he sent graphic texts to one of them. There was a pattern of problematic behavior that Stollings probably thought was normal. She carried that into her tenure with Texas Tech. Knowing she came from such an environment, why did Texas Tech hire her in the first place?
Marlene Stollings and people like her don’t belong in college basketball. Hopefully, Texas Tech learns from this and screens candidates for their coaching staff much better. Student-athletes don’t deserve this kind of treatment from their coach or other staff that they see every day.