“To think the university is treating women unfairly is totally untrue”, women’s basketball coach Holly Warlick said.”To say women are not getting opportunities here is totally false“.
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“These stories aren’t being told”, Weekly said.
University of Tennessee head coaches gathered for a press conference on Tuesday, February 23, 2016.
Jones was asked how anyone making a sexual assault complaint in the future might react to seeing all the head coaches at a major university praising the culture at a school being sued over its handling of reported incidents.
“Is it being mentioned in recruiting?” But she said, “We’re in an environment that’s a safe environment”. “As coaches, we recruit kids as if they are one of our own. We have prideful individuals that love being at the University of Tennessee and representing the University of Tennessee”.
Coaches at the University of Tennessee are ready to speak against a federal lawsuit, which says the school ignored alleged sexual assaults by student-athletes.
Six unnamed plaintiffs brought the case, which alleges that “hostile sexual environment” has been created at Tennessee. It includes allegations about former football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams, who were indicted on aggravated rape charges a year ago and have separate trial dates this summer.
This week, after the lawsuit was filed, former offensive lineman Mack Crowder, who played his last game for UT in the January 1 Outback Bowl victory, was arrested in Florida as part of a child sex sting operation.
Patrick Murphy-Racey/AP The coaches of Tennessee’s varsity sports programs discuss the culture at the SEC school.
“The things being alleged haven’t changed our world”, Pensky said. “We’ll continue to be very proud of what we have here”. “Are we talking to them a little bit more (about campus safety) with our kids? It starts there first and foremost”.
Jones added, “If we didn’t have confidence in the mission of this athletic department, of each other in every individual sport, we wouldn’t be sitting here”. We have a very good culture in place. “That’s why I say we’re going to defend our culture”.
“The people that know us, they know our football program, they understand what’s going on here with all the positivity”.
The football program generates the most press and the most money for the athletic department, and Jones again defended his program while also saying twice he felt for the women involved in the alleged incidents. Absolutely”, Jones said. “But I think anyone who’s a father and a mother, if you look back and you’re real with yourself and and your parenthood, they’ve also made choices that maybe were inappropriate.
“I get that, but I don’t want to diminish the great people that we have here in the administrator, the coaching staff, the student body and our student-athletes”. When everything happens, I take it personally, because it does mean something to me. They all painted the portrait of what every athletic department wants: happy, well-behaved student-athletes fostering a strong, positive sports culture with the help of their coaches. “To sit here and stereotype that, there’s a lot more on this campus than just a quote-unquote football party”.
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Women coaches also said they provided once-monthly sessions to talk to their athletes about how to make good decisions, avoid alcohol and remain together when they are out at night.
