And then there is this from a Facebook post from Brianna Burton on Facebook, a former player.
“Coming on here to say the allegations brought to the softball team are with 100% accuracy. I played there from 2016-2020 number 22 the prime of the program, two regionals back to back. (I didn’t play much but I was there the whole time and traveled every single game and to Mexico included.) Also, playing in BOTH REGIONAL GAMES. DO NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY. I endured MUCH worse than this (besides the gun allegation- WHICH IS FACT.) The toxicity, the pitting girls against each other, the mental abuse cause from weight or nutrition. Not to mention forcing players to play through injury “becasue she did” or implying there will be consequences. This is FINALLY coming to light but I was there in 2016 with her FIRST season and you guys would have been APPALLED at what had occurred then. Please bring light to this situation and get the help that program needs. The constant over turn of coaches and players SHOULD TELL YOU EVERYTHING!!! Thank you for reading and I hope you all don’t take this lightly or believe UH. I was there first hand for 4 years. I know girls STILL on the team that I played with because of Covid. Please!!! For the PLAYERS!!! PLEASE!”
I have a lot of gripes with UH but if they asked for a positive article of course id give one. They’ve given me so much opportunity and my departments have taken care of me, especially when I really, really, needed it.
This seems more generic than in detail. She isn’t going to potentially burn a bridge as an alum for funsies.
As for Chizer, her daughter played for Hughey before she passed away. She also worked for the school along with her.
There’s a lot more under the hood than this. It hasn’t been spoken about much.
[/quote]
Seems the years hardened her. She tells a very different tale below.
Reading this…that FB post is harder to take seriously.
[/quote]
Why is the FB post harder to take seriously? The article you referenced on the UH AD website and the FB post can both be true. They are not in conflict with each other. The FB post explicitly calls out the culture and treatment of players by the head coach from the former player’s personal experiences. In the UH AD article, the former player reflects on the things she misses the most, which are her teammates, the team rituals, structure and fitness the sport brings and her family at the games. It’s telling to note that the player makes no mention of her coach(es) AT ALL when speaking of her positive experiences. Don’t you find that a bit strange?
As a poster noted above, is this coach really the best UH can do for the softball program? There are serious allegations about this coach and the culture created and it’s been a losing program for a while now and is nowhere near BIG 12 competitive. So what’s the reasons for keeping her? Hire somebody, anybody else, even for less money to save money, even if they do not win any more games, just to get rid of the toxicity, bad press and hemorrhaging of players from the program. This coach is just not worth the headache. The president and AD need take the wheel now and do the right thing for the university and the program.
Of course, a national championship would be awesome, but once you get to the tournament there is so much more that can and does happen regardless of how many resources we (or any university) throw at our program. Last year, how many blue-bloods did not win the national championship?
Probably worth pointing out that the article doesn’t say say anything positive about her coach, given that “senior sendoff” articles tend to include something like “I’ll forever be grateful to the staff for giving me this opportunity,” or something of that ilk.
As much as Pez has made “mistakes”, we have to be ignorant to think that any final decisions are made by him and not by Tilman/Dr. Khator
The thing that’s important about Pez is that not only did he play football in college, it’s also that he is a UH alumni.
He has active interest in bettering this university’s athletic programs regardless of what you guys think, and I honestly believe that people here give him way too much credit as far as decisions that are made.
By the way, we just made a fantastic hire with the new Women’s Tennis head coach.
It was in the contract to renegotiate after a move to the P5. So they just extended him. They hired Dana for the purpose of getting into a P5 or saying “we are a P5 ready school, let us in” since they, regardless of what was going on at WVU, poached him from a P5.
Not to dismiss the potentially serious nature of these claims, but only getting one side of the story is 50% of what may or may not have occurred. I’m dubious of whistleblowers who will often have personal agendas tied to their allegations. We are a nation of pearl clutchers who are more afraid someone might say something negative about we are frozen into non-action. Henny Penny had nothing on 21st century Americans.
Coach’s interaction with fans on social media has been essentially non-existent since she got here. Can’t see her responding at all in any manner. Probably been told to keep her mouth shut as well.
The story behind the buyout came with Dana’s poaching to UH. This was weeks before Applewhite got canned. He knew he was going to get canned. The buyout was to stop any attempt to poach Dana when he was here. That was a part of it. Both to fire him and to not try poached.
I agree… but, I’m sure that buyout was implemented for 2 reasons:
UH went 12-1
Entered the Big 12
If Dana would’ve had a successful season in 2022 (not sure how that would’ve ever been possible), then it’s likely that he would’ve started getting HC offers from SEC/B1G schools regardless of how vocal he was about staying in Houston
That being said, the buyout should’ve been delayed until after year 1 of the Big 12 just to test the waters
Exactly that. 2022 went awry, and 2023 got worse. Doesn’t mean the talent wasn’t there, and had he had a better record means that he was building a program and doing something right and people were coming for him.
As underwhelming as our final season in the AAC went back in 2022, we were favorites to win it going in to that season.
We had NFL talent on that roster, and strong leadership.
Hell, we were momentarily lining up to play Tulane in the AAC final (by way of weird mathematics/statitics & tie-breakers) when USF was beating UCF in their respective game…ultimately, we lost to Tulsa…at home.