University of San Diego
NCAA DI • WCC
Date: December 5, 2025
Would Recommend
Tags
Among all the questionable coaches I’ve had across my years as an athlete, Coach Bart Thompson stands out, for all the wrong reasons. I came into the program believing I’d be valued as more than an erg number, promised a culture where athletes could contribute their identity, voice, and growth. What I found instead was an environment built on control, fear, and image management. The team culture under Bart functions less like a collaborative athletic program and more like a rigid, top-down system where conformity is demanded and individuality is treated as a threat. Athletes are not encouraged to strengthen the culture, only to obey it. Any attempt to offer perspective, raise concerns, or even participate in shaping the environment is met with defensiveness, dismissal, or subtle punishment. One of the clearest examples of this dynamic is in how team leadership is handled. Captains aren’t voted on or nominated by athletes; they’re hand-selected. In practice, this means they don’t function as representatives of the team’s voice, they function as extensions of the coach. When athletes hope to express concerns, the feedback rarely travels upward. It dies in the chain of command because no one wants to contradict the person who holds total control of the program. It reminds me of that well-known comparison to the sinking of the Titanic: the iceberg was reported long before the collision, but because the people at the helm refused to listen to those below them, the ship kept accelerating straight into catastrophe. That’s what this environment feels like, athletes sounding alarms to a system that refuses to hear them. What became impossible to ignore were the behavioral patterns that aligned with well-documented traits of manipulative and narcissistic leadership: when control is challenged, the response shifts from addressing concerns to twisting narratives, minimizing the athlete’s perspective, and reframing oneself as the victim. Instead of open dialogue, the environment becomes one where your reality feels constantly questioned. Unfortunately, that pattern reflected my experience far more than I ever thought it would. Over time, this kind of atmosphere chips away at an athlete’s confidence, motivation, and sense of belonging. Instead of feeling like part of a team working toward something meaningful, you feel isolated, second-guessed, and constantly worried about saying or doing the “wrong” thing. You watch teammates shrink into silence. You watch morale erode. You watch the sport you once loved start to feel heavy and joyless. I’m choosing not to list specific incidents, because this review isn’t about one moment, it’s about a pattern. A pattern I believe future athletes deserve to be aware of. If you’re considering this program, know this: your work ethic won’t be the issue. Your talent won’t be the issue. The real challenge will be navigating a culture where honesty is unwelcome, leadership is unapproachable, and the truth is whatever the coach decides it is. Athletes deserve environments that elevate them, not environments that control them. And under this coach, I never saw the kind of leadership, integrity, or emotional maturity required to create a healthy, high-performing team.