Seton Hall’s softball coach, Paige Smith, is in the hot seat after multiple players have complained about her coaching tactics.
Smith kicked two senior players off the team mid-season, according to some investigative work from the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Brooke Rickards was cut for electing to attend Spanish classes rather than go on a road trip on April 30 and May 1.
Cashel Gaffey was kicked off the team after Smith found a notebook in her bag about the team. It is hinted in the story that the notebook contained complaints about the coach.
Some of those complaints are that Smith did not adhere to the NCAA’s practice limit (20 hours per week), punished a player by making her do the team’s laundry alone at a Jacksonville Holiday Inn at 1 a.m., split the team into two workout groups named “aborted fetuses” and “booze bags” and routinely admonished players in public for missing games.
Two players had to skip a trip to San Diego with the team to make a presentation before Johnson & Johnson. Smith threatened to suspend the girls from every other team trip if they made the presentation. Smith did not carry through on the threat.
Rickards asked to skip three games on April 13 and 14 to see her Marine husband off to Afghanistan. Smith told the pitcher she would be letting her team down if she left.
“There are procedures in place to monitor the welfare of all of our student-athletes and insure adherence to NCAA compliance regulations,” Seton Hall said in a statement. “Every issue brought to the attention of the athletic department and university is taken very seriously. We thoroughly investigate all allegations in accordance with university and athletic department policies.
“It is our policy to not comment publicly on issues related to our teams and student-athletes. This is in order to protect the privacy of our student-athletes as required by law and to maintain the integrity of the process.”
Photo via Facebook/Seton Hall Pirates
