University of Mount Olive
NCAA DII • CC
Date: May 8, 2023
Would Recommend
Tags
My freshman year of college I began playing at Mount Olive blindly, with new coaches I had never met. 2 weeks after signing my NLI under coaches that I had met & adored, I was notified that they would be stepping down and they didn’t know who the new coaches would be. This is when Mandy & Luke stepped in. In which our entire team was forced to endure a painfully awful year. I could go on for days, but I’ll highlight my experience. I was appalled at the favoritism shown to select players by both coaches. It was blatantly obvious, as said players would go up to their office after practices/ games and hang out with them and talk about other players and make fun of them/ what not. Some got weeded out of these “hang-outs” after leaking to others the things that were said- in which those players were then targeted (bullied, sat the bench, didn’t travel to away games, etc). Totally inappropriate. They were extremely lazy and would sit on the buckets of balls and let the seniors run practice. We were playing really poorly as a team (after winning a conference title the year before that) and it caused a lot of turmoil between players. After several complaints to the AD, he finally showed up to observe a practice but sat visibly on the bleachers for all to acknowledge his presence, and of course we had an intensive practice ran by both coaches. Coach Luke was FIRING infield ground balls at us at an unexplainable force and speed, his size and strength is no match of any other female player we would face and was pure angerment towards the team for challenging him. He was demeaning and not constructive at ALL. I have several videos from 1:1 batting practice where he degrading my entire form, and talked to me like I was some sort of idiot that never swung a bat before. I fell apart inside and out. I hated the sport. It was nothing I had ever imagined my college softball experience to be. We had 13 freshman to begin the season, 9 of us left, including myself. After a few years, I had learned that Luke had been fired from mount olive for supplying alcohol to underage lacrosse players. He now is back at mount olive coaching again and I know his behavior has never changed, and I feel really sorry for the many other players that were subjected to his disheartening behavior. He acts like a whiny baby and is a complete bully to those he doesn’t consider in his corner. I was punished for missing the first day of class spring semester because I was a witness in my mothers wedding, after I had notified my teachers, and both coaches ahead of time and got the “all clear.” I was punished upon my return to campus by surprise. I was to jog/sprint 40 could poles after practice by myself effective immediately. I had felt so betrayed, there were others that had missed as well- but those players were among “the favorites” and were doing well on the field and didn’t have to run after practice like myself. As I was running, I was beginning to get fatigued and began to slow down halfway, he continued to stand there and scream at me and belittle how I ran, my form, my pace, told me his grandmother was faster, just extremely humiliating & totally unacceptable. After crying (him yelling at me to stop crying and being pathetic), and pushing myself further, I pulled both of my hamstrings simultaneously and was injured/ sat the bench the entire spring season. This man child altered my brain chemistry permanently and tore my dreams and aspirations that I had worked so hard for right out from under me and several others. AVOID THIS COACH AT ALL COSTS.