Chatman mystery continues as LSU rolls into Cleveland

[swok34]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/ncaatourney07/news/story?id=2818123

[wwi_flying_ace_17]

What was Berry's motivation in turning in her boss? Was it job security in an uber-competitive profession?

It apparently wasn't done without some angst. In an e-mail to interim coach Bob Starkey on March 7, records show, Berry indicated she had trouble sleeping over her decision. The night of March 8, Starkey sent LSU senior women's administrator Judy Southard an e-mail saying, "Carla has settled quite a bit … We need to find a way to deal with it tomorrow …"

Though the LSU administration commended Berry for her decision, and the staff has received kudos for pulling an emotionally drained team from sure demise to the Final Four, their futures are in serious flux.

I've wondered how long Berry has known about this. I would think that if it were to surface awhile down the road and it came out that she knew about it, she might be in some trouble in that regard.

I have a feeling the public will never know the whole story about what happened.

[Gator]

I've wondered how long Berry has known about this. I would think that if it were to surface awhile down the road and it came out that she knew about it, she might be in some trouble in that regard. .One LA local story said she found out in Feb. Who knows.

[Scamp]

LSU assistant women's basketball coach Carla Berry was the person who first contacted university officials about allegedly improper conduct on the part of head coach Pokey Chatman, sources inside and outside the athletic department have confirmed. Berry's complaint came in mid-February, and since that time Chatman's role with the team has been closely supervised, according to a university source who stressed LSU reacted promptly and properly.

-- New Orleans Times-Picayune

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/scorecard/03/13/truth.rumors.college/Will an assistant coach ever again dare to be a whistle-blower? It seems like Carla Berry has drawn more on-line hostility than Pokey Chatman.

[Scamp]

I've read this article twice and I'm troubled by her needing to quote unnamed coaches. McCarthyism-style guilt by association is back.

"We've got a very significant gay element in our game," says a Division I coach who, like most others interviewed, doesn't want to be named in the Chatman story. "The reason people don't want to talk about it on the record is because it's not just about the player-coach relationship thing.

"It's about the gay thing, and that's too much for any of us who value our jobs and value our standing in the women's business. That's too much to have our names attached to.""It doesn't matter if it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, or two weeks ago," said an unnamed coach. "If you violate that trust of being a role model to the student-athletes, you're guilty there. You're guilty as soon as you cross that line, and there is no coming back."Neither comment seems controversial to me. That coaches are afraid to talk about "the gay thing" in 2007 is sad. By staying in the closet (for understandable reasons), lesbian coaches allow Pokey Chatman to be their representative to the world. Will this never end?

[Scamp]

The lawyers show up. :p

Attorney questions whether Chatman gave consent
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=2840260

[LadyBuff]

And now a threat to sue, along with the letter sent to LSU by Pokey's attorney. I do not think this happened because Pokey was black or a woman. It happened because of what she allegedly did.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6383843

[swok34]

I thought I had read that LSU was already going to pay Pokey the remainder of her contract and didn't seem to "squak" about having to do so.

Chatman's lawyer says the coach was rushed into the university one morning, was told she had violated university policy, and was given just two hours to decide if she would resign on her own, or be placed on leave without pay. Chatman and her lawyer say they only later learned no such policy exists at LSU.

It will be interesting to see what comes out.

It's been said that this relationship "with a former player" happened when she was an assistant coach. What if it happened 10 years ago?

LSU bungled this whole matter from the get-go and it will probably cost them for doing so.

[brolewis]

LSU bungled this whole matter from the get-go and it will probably cost them for doing so.I honestly would be SHOCKED if this isn't settled out-of-court for an undisclosed amount within the next two weeks. LSU knows they bungled this situation and I imagine they will gladly play to save themselves any more embarrassment over the ordeal.

[Gator]

LSU knows they bungled this situation and I imagine they will gladly play to save themselves any more embarrassment over the ordeal.Somehow I'm having trouble coming to the conclusion that "LSU bungled the situation". Pokey's lawer says blah blah blah is not very convincing in my mind. The fact that the lawer was hired the day BEFORE the resignation agareement was signed gives me more pause.

It sure is a mess of worms but I wouldn't be so quick to judge how many worms were in which pail.

[brolewis]

Somehow I'm having trouble coming to the conclusion that "LSU bungled the situation". Pokey's lawer says blah blah blah is not very convincing in my mind. The fact that the lawer was hired the day BEFORE the resignation agareement was signed gives me more pause.

It sure is a mess of worms but I wouldn't be so quick to judge how many worms were in which pail.I probably should have been more clear. I don't mean that the resignation was illegally coerced. I was more thinking that that LSU received a black eye from the incident because of the presentation of information as well as statements from the Athletics Director. Looking over the old threads when the resignation was announced there was quite a bit of dislike for how the AD handled the situation and this is the blungling to which I was referring.

[swok34]

http://files.wafb.com/Lamonica_letter.pdf

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=2840260

Frankly, it was my clear impression that the university had taken about two weeks to a) get one version of the story from Ms. Berry; b) make no effort to contact Coach Chatman to seek her input into the situation; c) make no effort to validate the unsubstantiated stories being told by Ms. Berry; d) rush to judgment; and e) terminate Coach Chatman and try to make it look like a voluntary resignation," she wrote. "For a timely analogy, I suggest that the decision making process applied in this case was created by someone who must have graduated from the Nifong school of decision making." :D

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/story?columnist=voepel_mechelle&id=2792714

It's not possible to earn a more resounding "F" than LSU has on dealing with this situation. Particularly the mind-boggling quote from athletic director Skip Bertman to the New Orleans Times Picayune about Chatman: "The girl did what she did, and LSU had no control over that."

He called his head coach "the girl" and seems to suggest the school that employs her bears no responsibility for anything she does. Bertman has since denied the quote when asked about it by Baton Rouge television station WAFB.


I think LSU bungled it big time. LSU seemed to quit letting Bertman speak to the press about the matter because he stuck his foot in his mouth everytime he did.

[Gator]

I think LSU bungled it big time. LSU seemed to quit letting Bertman speak to the press about the matter because he stuck his foot in his mouth everytime he did.I can't disagree with you or Brolewis about their handling of the public stuff at the time of the "resignation". I just am not at all convinced they bungled the "resignation" itself. We'll see.

5 Points to Pokey and/or her advisors for keeping this stuff private until AFTER the final four!

[swok34]

I can't disagree with you or Brolewis about their handling of the public stuff at the time of the "resignation". I just am not at all convinced they bungled the "resignation" itself. We'll see.

5 Points to Pokey and/or her advisors for keeping this stuff private until AFTER the final four!

I agree about the way Pokey allowed her team to "play out" before meeting with any members of the Board of Regents.

I found this part of the letter and it's in a footnote.....

"you agreed that the age of the stories, even if true, put them well beyond any prescription or statute of limitations period."....

What if this all happened 10 years ago? When she was a grad assistant?

I think either LSU settles or it gets dirty.

[Scamp]

:confused: I don't understand why Pokey and her legal representation (weren't there two lawyers?) didn't sit at that table and demand of LSU:

"Show us the non-fraternization policy!" "Show us the accusers!" "Show us the allegations!"

[brolewis]

:confused: I don't understand why Pokey and her legal representation (weren't there two lawyers?) didn't sit at that table and demand of LSU:

"Show us the non-fraternization policy!" "Show us the accusers!" "Show us the allegations!" Well, one of the lawyers, the high-profile lawyer, wasn't hired until after the resignation. You're demands imply that Pokey should have fought for her job. However, I don't know that she would want to work for an organization that operates the way we have seen in operate throughout this entire ordeal.

The more I read about this story, the more questions I have. Before I thought it seemed pretty cut-and-dried: a coach abused her position. However, all that I have seen thus far is accusations and while LSU claims to have done an internal review there seems to be evidence to support that claim there has been a dirth of information about said event(s). If this was an event that happened many years ago, should she continue to be punished for her actions?

To that end, are her lawyers trying to position her to be a coach again, by demonstrating that she was wrongfully dismissed and that she regrets her actions and wants a second chance.

[swok34]

are her lawyers trying to position her to be a coach again

I think that's exactly what they are trying to do. I think Pierson makes the comment that Pokey will be coaching again next season.

I'm not sure the lawyers knew that LSU had no such policy. In the letter, Pierson states that she did not find out that LSU did not have a policy in effect until she read it in the Advocate - the local BR newspaper.

[MsProudSooner]

Someone posted this on OUInsider:

From the LSU campus daily newspaper…



University: Chatman admits inappropriate conduct
Zewe: Berry 'was not the sole source'
by Amy Brittain
Issue date: 4/19/07

Former LSU women's basketball coach Pokey Chatman admitted to inappropriate conduct with one or more former players, LSU System General Counsel Ray Lamonica said Wednesday.

System spokesman Charles Zewe said assistant coach Carla Berry "was not the sole source" of allegations that Chatman engaged in inappropriate conduct with one or more former players.

"[Berry] was the first one but not the only one," Zewe said. "Chatman admitted [her actions] to several colleagues in the Athletic Department."

The University will only agree to the resignation terms Chatman signed March 7 and not voluntarily submit to Chatman's attempts to obtain approximately $800,000 of contractual pay through 2009 and additional damages, Lamonica said.

Lamonica and Zewe said there are several false claims in a letter Chatman's lawyer Mary Olive Pierson released Tuesday.

In the letter Pierson said Lamonica told Chatman an "absolute" University policy forbids relationships between coaches and players. Pierson said this statement "caused coach Chatman to make her decision to sign the resignation letter."

Lamonica said he never told Chatman there was such an absolute policy. He said according to Chatman's contract, she had to follow NCAA guidelines such as the general principle 19.01.2. According to the "exemplary conduct" clause, coaches' "own moral values must be so certain and positive that those younger and more pliable will be influenced by a fine example."

Lamonica said the University did not give Chatman false information or threaten termination.

"The choice given was that she would resign or be placed on administrative leave, and a formal investigation would go forward," Lamonica said.

Zewe said Chatman knew of the investigation and discussed her resignation plans with Athletic Department colleagues and her mother Carolyn Fiffie more than a week before her resignation.

"This is hardly something that happened at the last minute as Ms. Pierson represents," Zewe said.

Fiffie answered a phone call to Chatman's home Wednesday afternoon.

"We just want Zewe and everyone else to keep talking," Fiffie said. "I prefer not to make any statements."

Lamonica said Pierson and attorney Nathan Fisher represented Chatman at the March 7 meeting and helped draft her resignation letter. Fisher declined to comment because the issue may be a "subject of litigation."

Lamonica said the presence of Pierson and Fisher proves Chatman "was afforded more than due process."

In Pierson's letter she said Zewe "aggravated" the situation by telling Chatman on March 7 she was "on the shot clock."

Zewe told The Daily Reveille the comment was taken out of context and was said while discussing public relations strategies.

"Ms. Pierson has chosen to weave some creative fiction," Zewe said.

[swok34]

Poor Fiffie, right smack dab in the middle of it all :D

[Scamp]

In Recruiting Season, Mistrust Is Raised at L.S.U.

Now that the women’s college basketball season has ended, many coaches are on the road recruiting through mid-May. And, some said in recent interviews, they could face fallout from last month’s resignation of Pokey Chatman from Louisiana State, following charges of what the university described yesterday for the first time as inappropriate sexual relationships between her and former players.

“This is everyone’s worst nightmare,” Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, said during widespread discussion of the Chatman case during the N.C.A.A. tournament.

At its heart, L.S.U. officials said, the Chatman case is about abuse of trust or power. Yet some coaches, administrators and academics say they fear that the accusations against Chatman will inflame homophobia; reinforce stereotypes of lesbians as sexual predators; lead to more so-called negative recruiting, or attempts to steer players away from coaches suspected of being gay; increase skepticism toward the hiring of single women as head coaches; and scare the parents of potential recruits.

... [Mary Jo] Kane, the sports sociologist at Minnesota, said she once heard a female coach say that the best coaching qualifications for a woman are to be divorced with no children. This ostensibly establishes her heterosexuality while leaving her free to hit the road on recruiting trips.

... The issue of sexual orientation sometimes is raised by parents during recruiting visits, coaches say. Goestenkors said that the mother of Kelley Cain, a 6-foot-5 center from Atlanta who has since committed to Tennessee, asked her, “If there are homosexuals on your team, what is your policy?”

Goestenkors said she replied, “I treat everyone the same.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/sports/ncaabasketball/19lsu.html?_r=1&oref=sloginAn excellent story. I'm so impressed by what Coach Goestenkors said! :cool:

[swok34]

Another quote from the NY times article:

Yet, negative recruiting carries the risk of backfiring, said Geno Auriemma, who has won five national titles coaching at Connecticut.

“What if the kid you’re recruiting is gay and you don’t know it?” Auriemma said. “You bring the topic up and the kid says, ‘I’m not playing for this guy; this guy’s got problems.’ ”

He added, “Coaches who do care about that stuff lose."

[Gator]

Well, one of the lawyers, the high-profile lawyer, wasn't hired until after the resignation. But the latest newspaper story says that the "high-profile" lawyer and another lawyer helped her write her resignation letter and represente her at the March 7th meeting. Sorry, I just don't think enough facts are available to make a judgement about LSU's handling of the resignation.

[brolewis]

But the latest newspaper story says that the "high-profile" lawyer and another lawyer helped her write her resignation letter and represente her at the March 7th meeting. Sorry, I just don't think enough facts are available to make a judgement about LSU's handling of the resignation.My commentary has not been targeted against the handling of the resignation itself, but rather the information that flowed out afterwards.

[walkaway]

What hasn't been said -- and probably won't be -- is very important in this story too.

I do think LSU could've been a lot less clumsy in the way they handled both the confrontation with the coach and the aftermath.

[Bball Girl]

Nora Lynn Finch, the senior associate athletic director at North Carolina State, said, “My experience is that there have been more issues with male coaches and male staff than female coaches and staff.”

Yet, Finch said, improper behavior involving female coaches and athletes is “more controversial by its nature” and more titillating to talk about.

Chatman’s lawyer, Mary Olive Pierson, called the sexual charges “unsubstantiated hearsay” in a telephone interview yesterday. She also said that L.S.U. had no written policy governing relationships between teachers and students, and between coaches and athletes.

“I don’t know that you can say something is inappropriate when no rule makes it so,” Pierson said.

1) If Pokey didn't do anything...then it would not make sense that she did not fight for her job.

2) I find it hard to believe that LSU has no written policy governing relationships. When I'm bored some day I will have to check.

[jcarter]

I think Pokey will coach again somewhere she is a good coach
she made a mistake and got caught, it's too bad this happened at the
place where she was a star player and later thier coach

[swok34]

1) If Pokey didn't do anything...then it would not make sense that she did not fight for her job.

I think the WHEN is the question. Would the basketball community have felt differently if it happened 10 years ago when she was a new assistant and hasn't occurred since?

[TTU79]

My main question still remains the timing of Berry's sharing of info. If this was in the past, why bring it up now even if Berry supposedly just learned about it? Did Berry do some investigation first, we know she didn't talk to Pokey first? Something is just a tad askew on this whole thing and I don't have a good handle on what it is.

[Scamp]

BC hockey coach quits after sexy messages surface

The award-winning head coach of Boston College’s outstanding women’s hockey team resigned yesterday under the specter of sexual misconduct between him and his teenage goal-scoring machine.

Hockey East Coach of the Year Tom Mutch, 39, who’s married and whose wife just had a baby, abruptly stepped down hours after the Herald began making inquiries to authorities at the Heights.

Sexually graphic text messages that BC hockey star Kelli Stack, 19, allegedly wrote to Mutch were discovered on a cell phone the Hockey East’s Player and Rookie of the Year gave to a teammate, neglecting to delete them first, sources said. ...

The Canton resident and his wife, the former Laurie Baker, 31, who Mutch coached to Olympic gold in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 when she was a forward on the U.S. women’s hockey team, welcomed their first child Sept. 16. ...

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=196576Will this story of inappropriate contact between coach and player get the media attention that PokeyGate has? Nah, it's "normal." :rolleyes:

[MsProudSooner]

One of the reasons it won't get as much press is that it's hockey instead of a more visible sport. The LSU/Pokey wouldn't have gotten as much press if it had been a less prominent school and coach.

[Gator]

One of the reasons it won't get as much press is that it's hockey instead of a more visible sport. The LSU/Pokey wouldn't have gotten as much press if it had been a less prominent school and coach..... and also it was a team in the top 10 during March Madness!!!! Plus, of course, it was titillating vs the ho hum of a male coach "taking advantage".

Female teacher getting a male student into bed? NEWS. Male preacher doing the dirty with a young boy: no so much - it is old news.

Unfortunately, Pokey made NEW news at a time when WBB itself was hot news.

[LadyBuff]

Years ago now, there was an affair between a male assistant coach at CU and a player. He was immediately fired. No, it didn't make the news, but this was before WBB was visible. I don't remember if the reason he left ever made the local press.

[swok34]

I think the Pokey affair would have been hot news no matter the timing, because they are a BCS school in the TOP 10, as you mentioned, gator.....

but wouldn't it be just as big a deal as say: Pepperdine? St. Josephs? our own little Iona? (ok, maybe not Iona :D)

I know of a team that had a peeping tom male manager on their team and was immediately "let go, resigned, fired" after he was arrested for such. No media info at all, except about the arrest. I don't know that many put 2 and 2 together though, I don't recall the media doing so. Though his peeping involved female college students, I don't know that it ever involved any members of the female team he was a manager on.

[giraffespots]

Well, its happening currently at BC, only in hockey. Some pretty significant similarities.



http://www.metronews.ca/storyCP.aspx?pg=./j042407A.xml

[swok34]

Earlier Tuesday, the school had issued a statement that made no reference to any allegations, saying Mutch resigned "to pursue other career interests."

Won't they learn that statement just won't float?

[BearLady]

LSU Responds

LSU could pursue recouping pay from Chatman
Associated Press


BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State University will ask Pokey Chatman to give back at least a month's pay if the former women's basketball coach presses the school for more money, according to a letter written by the university system's attorney.

However, Ray Lamonica said, if Chatman honors her resignation, the school will pay her about $160,000 in postseason bonus money for reaching the Final Four without her. She would receive no bonus money under the other option.

Chatman resigned before the tournament after an assistant coach raised allegations of improper conduct with at least one former player. Chatman's attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, has said Chatman was given two hours to resign or be fired and that she believes Chatman is entitled to damages and compensation for the last two years of her contract. No lawsuit has been filed.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=2852434

[TTU79]

Oh boy, this whole situation is about to get very down and dirty.:eek:

[vickie1ok]

The bottom line about the money on this deal will be the details of her contract. It will come down to a legal debate and either be settled in or out of court. That's why coaches and universities sign contracts for employment. The devil will be in the details of the contract and both will have to live with it.