New coach pulls women's basketball player's scholarship

http://www.eagletribune.com/pusports/local_story_315115801?keyword=topstory+page=0

As best I can tell from the story, it happened for performance issues or because the kid couldn't recover from medical problems quickly enough, not any disciplinary or off-court problems.
At Division I schools, how common is this?
Obviously, this is not any huge scandal and is not news beyond the kid's hometown and maybe the community where the school is.

 

I covered that girl in high school; it was a pretty big deal when she got the scholarship. Hopefully she'll get a D2 scholarship (maybe the Merrimack and UMass Lowell folks who talked about how they'd NEVER do such a thing will come to the rescue).

The sad thing is she'd still be there if the previous coach hadn't gotten in a car with her drunk sister -- the assistant coach -- at the wheel. They got pulled over, were subsequently canned, and the rest is history.

 

Jaysus. Scholarships are pulled all the time. Not saying its right, but it isn't uncommon.

 

The scandal is giving scholarships for women's basketball in the first place. Worst. Sport. Ever.

 

Happens all the time. A player maybe isn't pulling their weight for whatever reason, and loses their spot.

That said, most of the time a coach will honor the rest of the scholarship, help the youngster finish their education if the student wants to do so. Since not everyone goes pro (and for women's hoops, the lucrative careers are few), word gets around as to which coaches give a crap and help a kid finish school, and which do not.

As for this story, nothing to see here. Now, if she were cut due to pregnancy . . . . . .

 

I don't know. Is he a Rush fan?

 

Visiting the youngest Edtitude this weekend at her university, and when I said that the women's basketball team was a preseason top 20, Mrs. Editude mentioned, again, what an uninspiring and unnatural sport that is for women. I can't say I disagree.

 

I always wondered what would happen if some athlete decided to challenge the "scholarships are a one-year contract" thing. As true as that is, most coaches enter into what are essentially verbal contracts with kids to make a four-year commitment to them. Plus, if this girl hurt her knee while playing for the University of Maine (it was unclear from my quick reading of the story), and then Maine basically made the decision to cut ties with her because she wasn't the same player after the knee injury, I think that's pretty bullshit.

As Bubbler pointed out, this kind of thing happens often, so it's unlikely anyone will really give a shit. But I always wondered if you found a sympathetic judge somewhere, if you couldn't call an athletic department on some of this b.s. You don't want her on the team? Ok. Fine. But you'll be paying for her tuition, fees and R&B for all four years unless you can prove she didn't live up to her end of the scholarship.

 

1). Wasn't there a time a few decades ago when scholarships were for four years and that practice was stopped for some reason?
2). The UMass-Lowell AD said "As long as the athlete meets the requirements of the grant-in-aid contract (scholarship), and they are written right on there, it's simple."
I've never read a grant-in-aid contract. Are the terms pretty standard from school to school or do the terms vary from school to school? Could the terms include a statement that says something like this "Renewal of this scholarship is contingent upon satisfactory performance in games, practices, off-season training and other team activities" or perhaps "This scholarship may be revoked at any time for any reason deemed appropriate by the head coach."?

 

Obviously the University of Maine does not believe in the student part of student-athlete. If the athlete is hurt while working for the University of Maine's basketball team and has her compensation taken away for because of that, the athlete should sue for worker's compensation.

 

Here's how the Faculty Senate of the University of Alabama believes scholarships should be granted:

http://facultysenate.ua.edu/04-05/mn011105steering.html

 

Who are you?