University of Rhode Island
ACHA M1 • ESCHL
Date: October 1, 2024
Would Recommend
Tags
I hope that Lilli has matured as a person and coach since my time swimming a few years ago, however, my experience with her was terrible and I cannot recommend that anyone goes here to swim in good conscience. Even if it is free. Lilli played extreme favorites and created a culture where bullying was acceptable. She treated people like me who were struggling with disabilities, mental illnesses, severe medical issues, or injuries as lesser. During my time swimming at URI, multiple people quit the team and I considered it many times. My own medical issues were never understood or accommodated and the bullying that I experienced from teammates was never addressed even after it was brought to the attention of the coaches. I experienced bullying along with both verbal and psychological abuse, which took years to recover from. As a swim coach, Lilli was not successful and never took feedback. She did not know how to taper or cater to different athletes. There was no plan for the season's training and it showed. To her credit, she is very knowledgeable about breaststroke and very capable at coaching breaststrokers. But, being able to coach one stroke is not enough to build a team. Our team was not competitive in the A-10 conference and many athletes got worse while only a few improved. While we had a decent record winning meets, we did not go against the same caliber of teams as those in the A-10 so it should not be used as a marker for success. We were last or second to last 3 out of 4 years at conferences, and this trend continues. I hope that Lilli no longer treats her athletes like this, has learned to successfully coach all athletes to help them improve, and has learned to create a better team culture. However, I wish I could go back in time and choose to swim anywhere else. I hope no one ever has to experience what I went through. She was a great swimmer, but that does not make her a great coach or person.