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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 31, 2004 Dissension mars Raiders’ season Four players, citing Wilson’s coaching methods, left team By JENNIFER SQUIRES for the Mail Tribune ASHLAND — This wasn’t supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Raider women’s basketball team. The squad returned seven players from the young 2003-04 team and boasted three talented junior college recruits. Then, just one weekend into the season, four returning players left the team. Three of the four had started in the season opener against Holy Names College; two were team captains. All four — senior posts Lindsey Aitchison and Robyn Ward, sophomore point guard Jenna Ayers and sophomore forward Emily Brough — were on scholarship. "We didn’t get kicked off the team," Aitchison said. "We quit because of conflicts with the coach. He would not meet us halfway with any of the things we brought to him." An athletic department press release later said four players "retired" from the program and fourth-year head coach Kevin Wilson went on with the season, refusing to discuss it until consenting to a phone interview Tuesday. "Players quit all the time and for various reasons," Wilson said. "Two players quit the men’s basketball team this year, the football team loses people, volleyball and most sports. It happens every year. These players made an adult decision to quit." Advertisement The women decided to leave the program on Nov. 8, two days after the team returned from dropping the first two games of the season at the Holy Names Tournament in the Bay Area. Collectively, they wrote a five-page letter outlining their issues with Wilson and, on Nov. 15, distributed it to then-Athletic Director Phil Pifer, Health/PE Department Chair Donna Mills, Vice President of Student Affairs Diane Brimmer and President Elisabeth Zinser. The ex-Raiders had problems with the way Wilson talked to team members and the way he treated the women. The players were reluctant to speak publicly about their situation, and during the interview, they declined to give specific examples of their complaints against Wilson. "It’s important for the public to know we walked away from something because we didn’t feel it was appropriate," Brough said. The women say the problems they have with Wilson began when they joined the team a year ago. Despite conversations with him in hopes the situation would improve, the four felt their problems remained unresolved. "Things like this came up last year," Ward said. "He just flat-out told us he wouldn’t change. He wouldn’t acknowledge that anything was wrong at all." Wilson, who has a 50-51 career record, including 1-12 this season, said some of the complaints the women brought to him were unreasonable. "There are some things that were going to change and some things that coaches cannot change or give up, such as control of the team and how the program is run," Wilson said. "These players wanted to have a say in the entire running of the team and, as coach, I could not allow that." Although Wilson did not list playing time as one of the complaints of the four ex-Raiders, he said, "Ninety-nine percent of your problems that lead to people quitting are based in some sort of playing time issue. Most of the time it is in accepting their role on the team." In the first two games of the season, Ayers averaged 17.5 minutes a game, down from 22.3 last season. Aitchison went from 32 minutes per game to 25.5, Ward dropped from 21.5 to 18.5 and, due to an injury, Brough fell from 22.8 minutes a game to none. "These players felt threatened by the new players coming in with higher skill levels," Wilson said. "If you check the facts, each player had already seen a diminished role in playing time after the first weekend." The players denied playing time was a concern. The women claimed their problems with Wilson are not the first time SOU women’s basketball players have reached an impasse with the coach. When the quartet quit, other players who had left the team contacted the four, they said, to share their complaints. The ex-Raiders estimate 10 others approached them with grievances to include in the letter; the four estimate that the program has lost upwards of 20 players during Wilson’s tenure. A comparison of end-of-season box scores, which list every woman who saw playing time during the season, indicate at least 18 players have failed to use their four years of eligibility with the basketball program, although it is unclear why the majority of the women left the team. "There is no one reason why people leave a team," Wilson said. "Sometimes people don’t want to play anymore or want to move on. It’s not always a negative to leave a team. Although you may think the turnover rate is high, it is due to the fact that I give more women chances to make the team, rather than just keeping 12." According to Wilson, four players have been cut from the team. He says seven others have left for various reasons: Two were engaged to be married, one player had attitude problems, one was homesick, one chose to concentrate on another sport, one did not feel she had the energy to be a part of the program, and one was not content with the amount of her scholarship. "A lot of people can’t hack it, can’t get the concept," Wilson said in a November interview. Wilson thinks the physical demands of the Raiders’ up-tempo style of basketball also affects the number of women who stick with the program. "We run at every opportunity," he said. "It’s hard to get people who understand that we run more and need to be in better shape." Aitchison was an all-star middle blocker on the Raider volleyball team who joined the basketball program when her four-year stint on the volleyball squad ended. Other women who spent a season or two as part of the basketball program have been all-star members of the soccer and volleyball teams. This year was not the first time Wilson has lost key starters. Toward the end of the 2000-01 season, the first year Wilson coached at SOU, junior team captain Jamie Stanford left the team as the Raiders closed in on a conference tournament championship, a 19-11 record and a trip to the NAIA national tournament. "Shirley Huyett (former SOU head coach) left him the most athletic team he could have ever hoped for," Stanford said earlier this month. "We had an amazing team. What we lacked was any type of direction in the right direction." The complaints from the four players who left the team this fall mirror those Stanford had three years ago. The problems center on Wilson’s methods, not the style of basketball the team is expected to play. "I was very supportive of (hiring Wilson)," said Stanford, who had been on the committee that hired him. "He was a very nice man in the interview room. I loved everything he said." Stanford had appreciated Wilson’s observation that competition in the Cascade Conference was moving into a different form of basketball and that the Raiders would have to change their style to remain successful in the league. He proposed SOU change its style to a fast-break running game. However, as a coach, the players say they saw a different person. Wilson came across to Stanford as a domineering male who was disrespectful to women and singled players out in the locker room during halftime. "He’s a real in-your-face, rude guy," Stanford said. In late January of 2001, Stanford says she and Wilson had a disagreement. According to Stanford, she needed to be 10 minutes late because of a medical appointment and called ahead to let Wilson know. Stanford suffers from heart disease and needed to have a blood draw, a twice-yearly procedure. Stanford remembers Wilson telling her if she was late to practice, she might as well not come at all and if she wasn’t going to come to practice, she shouldn’t be on the team. Stanford kept her appointment and claims Wilson never asked why she had left the team. Wilson denies Stanford’s story. According to Wilson, Stanford’s reasons for leaving the team had nothing to do with an appointment and that her concerns were well-documented. "Jamie Stanford has a problem with the way we played team ball and our system," Wilson said, adding that the team won 10 straight games after Stanford’s departure. The next year he was named Cascade Conference coach of the year and the team won the conference title. "Her leaving the team in the first year had absolutely nothing to do with any appointment causing her to miss practice," he said. "That is totally incorrect." After receiving the letter written by the ex-Raiders in the middle of November, the Student Affairs Office contacted the four players. Brimmer interviewed each woman individually and as a group. She also spoke with Wilson, then offered the women an opportunity to return to the team. "An invitation was extended to them to come back," said Christina Dunlap, the marketing and public relations director at the university. The university would not comment further on the situation, stating "it is a confidential personnel issue that is under review." All four players declined the offer to return. The women say they won’t play for Wilson again, even if it means a premature end to their collegiate basketball careers. "You don’t see what happens behind closed doors or on the phone," Ayers said. "There’s so much history there, I don’t think it’d be healthy for (him or me)." Wilson feels the players had their complaints addressed and that the women could have compromised with him and remained a part of the team. "Their concerns were dealt with, and they would not accept the answers or outcomes," Wilson said. "I am sorry these players made the choice to quit and let their teammates down." Ayers is the only one of the quartet who has considered finding a way to continue playing collegiate basketball. She may leave SOU to join a program elsewhere and plans to start looking at other schools in January. "It’s hard because I love everything here," she said. "This is still definitely my first choice." Although the women say don’t want to return to the Raider squad or turn the team against Wilson, they would like to see the issues they had resolved so more players don’t abandon the program. "We miss our team and we miss basketball, but I’m happier now," Aitchison said. "We’re not mad. We’re not angry. We don’t want revenge. It’s about treating people right." Jennifer Squires is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach her at 482-3456. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? 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