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We continue our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2019, which will run through December 31st when we’ll present our No. 1 story of the year.
Here are the previous stories (clink on link to read):
- #15… Team USA Dominates Summer Competition… with One Exception
- #14… USA Softball’s 2020 Stand Beside Her Tour… Taking the Brand Nationwide
- #13… Sam Show’s Bat Flips – & Clutch Performances – Light Up the 2019 Season
- #12… National High School Player of the Year Sydney Supple Spearheads Hometown Field of Dreams
- #11… Busy Year for the NPF Including USSSA Pride Out & CA Commotion In
- #10… PGF Nationals Celebrates 10 Years with Barnburner Finishes
We’ve surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories of the year pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.
Where applicable, we are providing links to the original articles and/or references when the story first happened.
Today’s story… #9: College Softball Programs… Guilt of Abuse? There was a lot to celebrate in 2019 around college softball, but there were some concerns too. One alarming trend was the accusations against head coaches and their staffs at Power 5 schools like Nebraska, Ole Miss and Rutgers where players went on record claiming they were abused or mistreated.
To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].
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College softball is getting bigger and better every year and with the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, the spotlight will be brighter than ever on the sport.
However, along with big-time exposure and coverage, comes the downside of the sport—any sport, actually—and that’s the concern that the pressure to win will lead coaches and programs to cross ethical and legal lines to get a competitive advantage.
That’s the fear… but was that really the case in three high-profile situations this year impacting programs in the SEC and Big Ten.
Allegations of player abuse were leveled against college coaches by their own players (some out of the programs, some still playing) at Nebraska, Ole Miss and Rutgers and the results couldn’t have been more different.
In the first two (Nebraska and Ole Miss), the head coaches were suspended but long-time Cornhusker coach Rhonda Revelle was eventually reinstated. Mike Smith at Ole Miss chose to resign before the Rebels’ administration could make a decision.
At Rutgers, the coaches were neither suspended or sanctioned initially by the school administrators despite critical stories being printed in the New Jersey media (like this one: Rutgers softball players say they were physically, emotionally abused by wife-husband coaching team and school did nothing) although the university president Robert Barachi has called for an independent probe, so this may not be over just yet.
The good news: players who feel they are wronged are increasingly being willing to go public with their accusations and bring more scrutiny to their claims. The bad news? When these types of issues go public, it’s hard to tell how accurate they are or if there’s more to the story.
And, if true, if this is a growing trend in the sport or if they are simply isolated incidents.
In other words, there’s more scrutiny than ever, which is a good thing, but are we too quick to judge guilty before the facts come out?
We shall see… but one thing is for sure: this isn’t a good way for the sport to present itself to the rest of the world, especially when the future at the pro and international levels is questionable.
*** Scroll down to read the Extra Inning Softball articles on the two college abuse accusations in 2019 that were resolved by the end of the year with two totally different outcomes…