University of Cincinnati
ACHA M2 • TSCHL
Date: March 28, 2023
Would Recommend
Tags
In the 2 years I was at UC, 11 players quit or transferred (and several I played with during that time left later). The way she treated players led to significant long-lasting injuries. For instance, she made one player with stress fractures still complete run tests and participate in training. Within a semester, she developed compartment syndrome and needed surgery on both legs, resulting in her being in a wheelchair for weeks and on crutches for weeks after that. She consistently had pain for over a year and was forced to quit. This wasn’t uncommon — when I was injured, she gaslit me, told me that I was just sore and being dramatic, and accused me of faking it. After 6 months of practicing with extreme pain (collapsing during workouts, shooting pain down my legs, constant discomfort even when lying down), she told me not to seek an opinion from another doctor because it would upset the team doc and it wouldn’t be covered by the school’s health insurance (it was). Once I was diagnosed, I was told that it would have only taken a few weeks for me to recover if I had rested when I originally injured it. Instead, I had about 4 more months of no exercise after my diagnosis, then about a year of PT until I fully recovered. It was also common for girls with bronchitis or the stomach flu to still practice and condition. When an AT said a player was too sick to practice, Gina yelled at her and threatened to get her fired. The AT never again suggested a player couldn’t practice . Gina also created an environment based entirely around fear. She gave punishment workouts known as “EIs” for things as trivial as leaving a pencil out in the weight room. She regularly threatened to cut girls or the entire team, which seemed very truthful because something similar happened with M. Soccer and baseball the year before. She said that we couldn’t make any complaints with the athletic department because they liked her and the AD would support her decision to cut us (which apparently is true because nothing happened when players finally did go to the AD). She was also very unprofessional when dealing with internal conflict. For instance, rather than dealing with issues between players in private, we once had a 3 hour team meeting to discuss drama. A lot of these topics were really delicate and they weren’t handled well, resulting in several players crying. They deserved more support.