Rutgers Softball coach under fire for player abuse allegations
Another case of player abuse at Rutgers. This time for their softball program under their first year head coach Kristen Butler who they brought in from Toledo.
Rutgers had a turnaround season in 2019 having a winnin record. But at what cost?
The transgression? The Rutgers softball team had gone $6 over its food travel budget during a stop at a Cracker Barrel in early March 2019.
The punishment? According to multiple players, at their next practice, a group of team members were told to run six, 100-yard wind sprints — one for every dollar over — and each in less than 17 seconds, until some of them were left crying, collapsed or doubled over in exhaustion.
First-year head coach Kristen Butler directed the March 12 sprints from the field, players said. If they didn’t make the time, they would have to start over. By the fifth sprint, Erin Collins, a 20-year-old sophomore outfielder, began to feel dizzy. She feared if she spoke up, though, Butler would make the team run more.
*****
The allegations against Butler and Smith, based on interviews with former Rutgers players, parents of former players and legal documents obtained by NJ Advance Media, include:
- Seven players said the team was regularly punished for menial transgressions with conditioning drills that veered into abuse. Two players said Butler would even physically push players in the back to make them run faster in drills.
- Six players said they were physically abused at practice, including one drill in which they were intentionally hit by pitches thrown by assistant coach Brandon Duncan. During another drill, Butler hit rapid-fire ground balls at a player, striking her with the ball and leaving her scratched from diving, multiple players said.
- Five players said Smith invaded their privacy by confiscating their phones and viewing their screens without permission, and made numerous inappropriate comments. In one alleged incident, he boarded the team’s bus and told the women it smelled like “period blood.”
- Seven players said Butler attempted to run out players she didn’t think were good enough from the previous coaching regime. She also possibly violated an NCAA rule when she attempted to revoke the scholarship of sophomore infielder Myah Moy and another player who ended up transferring, the two players said.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:25 AM ^
I normally say "wow" to these types of stories, but this one doesn't feel like it's in the same ballpark, pun intended.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:26 AM ^
The most interesting part of that story to me is their AD Pat Hobbs' comments to the NJ.com reporter on Tuesday. His comments are a bit ......... unhinged. To say the least.
And then the fact that Hobbs apologized for that via a text message - which can be preserved! That is a pretty good sign that he actually DID (!!!) initially make those unhinged comments.
Now, if you believe certain folk on the Rutgers boards, their most important boosters want Schiano back in town. Problem is Hobbs and Schiano supposedly don't get along.
So, I guess you see where this could be going. The softball coach - yeah, some of that stuff is a bit excessive. Her husband is the one who really sounds like a piece of work. But this may really be a play against their AD.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^
Unlike Hobbs and Shaw, who DO get along...in explosive fashion...
October 31st, 2019 at 1:57 AM ^
It seems odd to me that a college athlete felt dizzy after sprinting 100 yards five times, unless I'm missing some details. The "period blood" comment struck me as far worse.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:13 AM ^
Have you ever seen softball players? They're not all svelte; power hitters, in particular, don't tend to have a sprinter's physique.
17 seconds for one 100 yard sprint isn't excessive, but 6 of them, if the coach isn't giving them enough recovery time, could be pretty intense. That'd be about a third of a mile at a 5-minute mile pace.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:27 AM ^
You are kidding, right?
If this is the standard for coach misconduct, there are old coaches of mine who should be serving time for attempted murder.
Let's be honest here, we have all seen womens softball teams. A few extra wind sprints isn't going to hurt anyone.
October 31st, 2019 at 4:57 AM ^
Times have changed brother. I bet the thing that really got the ball rolling is when they took their phones. That probably was worse than any wind sprints or verbal abuse.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:10 AM ^
"A few extra wind sprints isn't going to hurt anyone." There have literally been players dying from excessive workouts. And this girl literally blacked out.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
If you 'black out' from running six one hundred yard sprints, YOU NEEDED TO BE RUNNING WIND SPRINTS.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:59 AM ^
From a fitness standpoint, what practical benefit does sprinting 600 yards give you?
100, 200 yards, OK. Beyond that it's just punishment.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:13 PM ^
Agreed. It reminds me of the military's disgusting fitness requirements. From a fitness standpoint, what practical benefit does doing 40 push-ups give you?
10 push-ups, 20 push-ups, OK. Beyond that it's just punishment. Who is to say my son can't be an effective soldier just because it takes him 12 minutes to run a mile?
It's thinly veiled fat shaming is what it is. Exercise is just another tool of the bourgeoisie to oppress the working man.
October 31st, 2019 at 5:11 PM ^
Haha.... I'm not sure if this is sarcasm or serious. Either way, I find it hilarious.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
It may mean you're out of shape. But you don't get into shape by blacking out.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
No, you get in shape by committing to a program of sprints repeatedly. For the love of God, what these women are complaining about is literally the warm-up we did BEFORE starting conditioning in football. It wouldn't even begin to serve as a warm-up for the track portion of basketball conditioning. We have become so soft and victimized in this country.
If anyone of my coaches would have said, we are going to punish you with six, 100-yard gassers, I would have laughed. That isn't punishment, it's getting off easy.
The Rutgers women's softball team clearly lacked discipline and trust. The new coach was trying to turn a group of out of shape and entitled girls into team competitors.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Can't POSBANG you enough brother, because you're absolutely correct on all accounts...but:
You're literally arguing with a guy who's forum name is "BACON"
October 31st, 2019 at 6:03 PM ^
Mistreating players isn't coaching. These types of mind games just tell me she doesn't legitimately know how to coach her sport or get the most out of her players. It's lazy and self-serving. My kids both play ball and we've gone through many, many coaches. In fact, my daughter's current softball coach has a daughter who plays at Rutgers. He hasn't said anything about this -- why would he? -- but I'm sure he's plenty pissed about it.
October 31st, 2019 at 2:54 AM ^
Isn't just being at Rutgers abusive
October 31st, 2019 at 6:15 AM ^
I wonder if going over budget on their food allowance has anything to do with getting dizzy after 5 wind sprints.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Exactly... teaching fiscal responsibility and proper eating habits. They went over, now burn it off...
October 31st, 2019 at 6:44 AM ^
give the coach a raise. Society gone sawft
October 31st, 2019 at 7:43 AM ^
Running sprints as a punishment? My high school football coach must have really been abusive then.
October 31st, 2019 at 8:30 AM ^
Sorry, WD. As sometimes happens, you ran into a bunch of internet tough guys after posting this. I feel sorry for their daughters, should they have or ever have them.
As the father of a fifteen year-old girl, I can confidently say that any coach lame enough to step on a bus with my kid and talk about period blood is going to meet the fury of dozens of parents, and not be coaching them shortly.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:46 AM ^
As a coach with 2 daughters, I can confidently say they would run circles around yours
October 31st, 2019 at 9:50 AM ^
I would say there is a world of difference between a 15 year old girl and a college aged woman so that is not a great parallel. If someone mentioned period blood to your college aged daughter would you still have a great deal of "fury" for them?
October 31st, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
A whole difference of 3 years. Wow. Such a generational gap.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
Regardless of the age, that is still a completely inappropriate comment. Hard to get the context for some of the so-called physical abuse, but that statement - even in jest - is unprofessional, inappropriate, and borderline misogynistic AT BEST. Is it okay because b/c it's college athletes? What if a male in a position of authority said that in a corporate meeting of mostly women? Break at a plant to a group of women? Would it still be okay?
The wind sprints and hitting sharp grounders resulting in players having to dive for them seem completely innocuous, absent any more detail. The pushing players to run faster seems borderline at best, given the highly sensitive culture around physical contact these days. Intentionally hitting players with fast pitches, if true, sounds abusive.
Of course, add up all the innocuous and rough treatment and a pattern could develop.
EDIT: Also, the AD seems like a real peach /s
October 31st, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
You are CORRECT... those things shouldn't be said in a corporate atmosphere!
However, if in this corporate atmosphere to which you speak, many workers were not cutting it... guess what.
PACK YOUR SHIT AND GET OUT, YOU'RE OFF THE TEAM, or as some would say "YOU'RE FIRED!"
Secondly, most (95%) adults can't fuckin' tell the truth, or they embellish stories beyond belief; this forum is a great case study. So don't tell me that some of these ladies didn't embellish their stories. I could see a coach throwing fast pitch grounders at the girls as an exercise in fielding a ball on a rope. Just look at lil girls playing softball (or boys) when they wince and turn their head, turning your head away from it is a great way to get injured, and screw things up royally.
Keep being a victims advocate, it's a great practice to be in... we have a country full of them (victims) lol.
FYI... in my corporate career, I had a long term assistant sub who just happened to be a man. My boss was a female and told me to not rely on my "boy toy" as much. I didn't play the victim, I probably could have brought litigation against a large gaming company... but, mature and grown men don't do such things. You just laugh it off.
I've also been in corporate team building events where women start talking about their periods, and then start talking about anatomical size of men/women etc. It's unfortunate that as a male I cannot retaliate, but yeah... does it really bother me? Nope... but it would be nice if I could get a payday off of Female Privilege.
People say some pretty horrible shit all the time, better to start learning how to deal with it early on in life.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:07 AM ^
I always joke about that if our varsity football team mess up just one minor detail, that I’ll make them run all night (or at least ‘til I feel tired.)
I’m a manager on my old HS football team.
Only thing I got going for me in regards to Sparty.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:19 AM ^
Some of the stuff sounds like standard accountability practices coaches have been doing for years. However, some of the allegations tell me that the coach and her husband are bad people. The coach's husband told a girl that didn't want to participate in a trust fall to "get up there or I'll push you." I don't think he understands the point of the trust fall exercise. And sounds like he said a bunch of terrible things. And because Buter is the HC, she's partially responsible for his behavior.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
Your forum name tells me that you're a fat lard ass!
October 31st, 2019 at 5:14 PM ^
You're such an angry boomer.
October 31st, 2019 at 9:43 AM ^
The winds-sprint type stuff is about control and discipline. Based on the player comments probably went too far (safety concerns make it not OK), but I think that’s forgivable if the coach learns from it.
Making demeaning sexist comments to a group of female students and intentionally pelting players with balls is the kind of stuff that really bothers me and makes me think they’re not fit to coach and can’t learn from their missteps.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Intentionally throwing at players with a real baseball or softball is incredibly stupid. Even at batting practice speeds that shit hurts. When I played in college they used to do that but my coach mixed in "softee" balls with our regular batting practice balls. These had a soft foam inside, were lighter weight and didn't hurt.
The other comments and taking phones is demeaning, petty and I would not want to play for a coach like that.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:25 AM ^
Making demeaning sexist comments to a group of female students and intentionally pelting players with balls is the kind of stuff that really bothers me and makes me think they’re not fit to coach and can’t learn from their missteps.
Spot on. No one would care if it was wind sprints and garden variety coachyelling and if that's all it was it wouldn't be a story. The fact that it was precipitated by going $6 over your food budget speaks to fucking insane adults who shouldn't be in charge of any other people, or really anything at all. Are we really not going to talk about throwing baseballs at your players to motivate them? If that was your practice regimen, then your coach wasn't tough he was an abusive asshole.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
I very much doubt that the batting practice pitches were meant as a punishment and was likely to get the players to react a specific way to an inside pitch. The only way to get rid of that jumpy feeling on a ball inside is to drill it when you don't expect it. It was highly effective for my team in college but we did it with softee training balls mixed into the real balls so it didn't hurt. If these coaches did it with real balls, they are dumb.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
So you're taking these young person(s) word for what they're saying, then being relayed through media.
Smart...
October 31st, 2019 at 9:47 AM ^
Boy oh boy. This is really something.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Coach Hutch has been abusing (other) teams for years.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:20 AM ^
What a bunch of horseshit. My daughter played high school softball for a top program and it was way tougher than his crap.
October 31st, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Were the coaches also sexist? Did they pitch directly at your daughter and tell her to get hit by the pitch? Those are the allegations which stick out to me. The other stuff is borderline, at worst.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
Were you there at Rutgers? Do you always spend a lot of time spying on young women playing with bats and balls? Are you a perp? We'd like to know if you were ACTUALLY there to verify these stories, and if you were... why?
*Edit: after the negbang you gave me... your profile pic of a cartoon makes sense, grow up.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
The amount of people who make shit up out of whole cloth on this board is unbelievable.
October 31st, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
The amount of people that actually believe that shit that's made up is even worse. Look at all the people who immediately assume that because it's an allegation that it's true.
Holy fuck, I wish that were the case... OJ wouldn't have passed "GO", gone directly to jail.
November 1st, 2019 at 8:49 PM ^
Name the program.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
That's CRAZY news. I hope everything works out and justice is served if found guilty of the allegations.
October 31st, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
Some of it is kinda meh, but I am going to go with the people saying pelting players with balls intentionally and the coaches husband making sexist remarks about periods, etc should not be condoned.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Holy shit, these players are so soft. Rutgers is a joke through and through.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
Here is a semi-pro point of view. (And I mean that literally; I'm a USA Swimming trained and certified part time coach of an age group club.)
None of this rises to the level of Durkin/Kelly get-a-kid-killed malfeasance, but it's unnecessary and unprofessional.
My big problem is the use of physical conditioning as punishment (charitably looking at it. If I was being uncharitable, I'd call it taking out anger on your athletes for no good reason.) You are a coach; you are supposed to use physical conditioning to reach the goal of getting better. Ideally, you make it fun so the players look forward to doing it. Intentionally unpleasant exercise because someone did something wrong is counterproductive; it sends the message that hard work is bad and to be avoided.
I have two issues with the sprints. First, the team going over $6 (which would be what, a quarter a player?), seriously? What are they supposed to do? Add up everyone's bill before ordering an extra side? It's totally unrelated to the object of running wind sprints. Second, I read the situation to be they had to run six 100s on 17 seconds (i.e. start the second 100 precisely 17 seconds after starting the first, times 6). That's borderline risking an injury.
Intentionally creating conditions to cause a player to get hit with a ball? Bad and unnecessary.
"Smells like menstrual blood"? Unnecessary and unprofessional! Also, who the hell is the coach's husband that he has authority over the athletes?! Is he a university employee? If not, is he trained? Does he know the Emergency Action Plan? Did anyone with an awareness of liability issues review his role with the team?
I'd call what the article describes risky and unprofessional...for a small time athletic club. It boggles my mind that a D1 program would tolerate this, especially in an AD that has had its fingers burned ON THIS VERY ISSUE in the recent past.
October 31st, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Yep agreed, some of these allegations are not things that are going to make anybody a better softball player they are just unprofessional. So yeah not the worst we have heard for sure, but I am baffled why anybody thinks hitting players with balls intentionally or the coaches husband making sexist remarks adds anything of value. Like you said the coaches husband shouldn't be involved with the team in the manner that he is to begin with.