It's been about two months since Rutgers fired their former athletic director, Tim Pernetti, after a video emerged of men's basketball coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing the student players. Pernetti failed to straight-up fire Rice immediately—instead, simply fining and suspending him. Ironically, Pernetti's replacement to lead the Scarlet Knights into the Big 10, Julie Hermann, also has a history of abusing her power during her coaching days.
Sixteen years ago, Hermann left her women's volleyball coaching post in Tennessee after the entire team came forward with an incriminating letter about Hermann's abusive coaching techniques: For instance, calling them "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled."
The abuse was also physical. Amy Buchanan, a former player on the 1994 team, recalled: "She looked at me and said, 'What about you, Buchanan? Are you going to lose the whole match for us?' And she followed that up with a backhand to my gut."
Naturally, Hermann denies it all: "It's absolutely not true that I referred to them with any name calling like that. Am I an intense coach? Absolutely, as many coaches are. There's a big canyon between being super intense and abuse. This was not an abusive environment. Was it challenging? Yes. It was incredibly challenging. Was I aware players were unhappy? I was unaware by the end of the season. We had so many challenges with this group of women."
While the truth seems to reside on the side of the former students, Hermann told ESPN that she's been assured that she still has the job. However, New Jersey governor Chris Christie will be discussing the abuse allegations with Rutgers administrators later this week.
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