Press release, Warde Manuel statement on W Gymnastics assistant coach hire
Not the best look to drop the press release after the news blows up but here it is.
https://mgoblue.com/news/2019/1/12/womens-gymnastics-u-m-announces-faehn-to-coaching-staff.aspx
"The well-being and safety of our student-athletes is always our highest priority. Our current student-athletes had a prominent voice throughout this search process to provide their perspective. This included a meeting between me and the captains before a final decision was made.
"After our exhaustive due diligence, we felt comfortable that coach Faehn reported all information available to her regarding Larry Nassar and that she cooperated fully, including voluntarily participating in all investigations and offering testimony before Congress. Neither an internal investigation by USA Gymnastics or a criminal investigation by the FBI have assigned culpability or resulted in any charges against her."
January 12th, 2019 at 4:10 PM ^
So deflect the decision onto the student athletes, hide behind someone else's investigation, and put out the press release a day too late.
Great job, Warde. This remains not a great look.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
Yeah, the press release after the Michigan Daily story is at the very least "behind the narrative." The unwillingness to own the decision is telling.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:27 PM ^
Warde is invoking one of Don Canham's lesser-known directives: If you're going to turn a 1-day story into a 3-day story, do it on a weekend in January.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:28 PM ^
I agree. This university quite literally has the ability to perform a global search for athletic and academic roles. I believe that most people deserve a second chance, and I admit I don't know what this coaches role was in the nassar situation, but it just seems like the gymnastics program could have easily found someone as qualified to fill this role minus the baggage and negative attention it brings to the community.
Not great Warde, not great.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:11 PM ^
Anything less than a “we fucked up, and have decided to rescind this offer” isn’t good enough. Not at all good enough.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:52 PM ^
I'm a bit troubled here. Assuming, repeat assuming, that the coach in question acted properly why should she be disqualified forevermore? I understand the need to burn down USA gymnastics but does that mean everyone inside the building should be incinerated?
January 12th, 2019 at 4:56 PM ^
She wasn't an innocent bystander. She was the VP and first official notified by the gymnasts.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:00 PM ^
And what did she do with the information?
January 12th, 2019 at 5:21 PM ^
She told her boss who said he was going to take care of it.
Is that enough? No, but dealing with disclosures at work on a daily basis, I can say unfortunately that's the way corporate America is structured, and if you are going above/beyond the people above you, best of luck.
That said I'm uncomfortable with the hire, but I am also not involved in the athletic department in any way.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:21 PM ^
Sat on it for a week with her superior. Then also failed to inform Nassar’s other employer.
She failed the victims of a sexual abuser. She is not fit to be employed in a position in which she has any authority or interaction with young adults.
January 12th, 2019 at 8:19 PM ^
January 13th, 2019 at 8:13 PM ^
Like the poster above stated, it's a bad look no matter what. We can find someone just as qualified, that does come with the (perceived?) baggage. No reason to due on this hill.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:12 PM ^
No FBI charges is not a great threshold. I am completely uncomfortable with her being in charge of young student athletes.
January 12th, 2019 at 7:51 PM ^
Yeah no shit, that’s the exact excuse Ohio State used about Meyer and Smith, and we torched them for months for defending them.
January 12th, 2019 at 8:39 PM ^
Did you interview or talk to her?
January 12th, 2019 at 10:51 PM ^
No, but I can read and know from personal experience that there are plenty of people in the world that care about the well being of young people (or anybody) more than the optics of a large organization
January 13th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
I believe a most people feel that way.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:14 PM ^
I’m officially not impressed with Warde and the BoT’s should consider replacing him.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^
Um....that was my extremely unpopular opinion (around here anyways) almost from the start of his tenure.
The dude has shown me nothing. Can we please get Hackett back....please????
January 12th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
He has made some good hires.
Canned both lacrosse coaches and replaced them with young coaches with a great background who both delivered big wins in their first year. Stopped M Tennis coach Adam Steinberg from going to Arizona State which would've been bad since he's resurrected the program basically.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:36 PM ^
Fine, made some good coaching hires, but this fucking stupidity negates all of that completely.
We criticize THEEEEE ohio for hiring larry johnson who was associated with ped state and here, we of The Michigan Difference / Leaders and Best, hire a coach directly associated with the worst sexual assault scandal on record???
FIRE warde NOW!!!
January 12th, 2019 at 4:36 PM ^
He also hasnt fixed the schedule anomaly which put OSU & MSU on the same home-away cycle, got completely bent over in the negotiations for resumption of the ND series, left Harbaugh out to dry when he went public with his displeasure over the officiating in the 16 OSU game, raised PSL fees the same year the tax deduction for the donation was eliminated and now this.
In all due respect to the non-revenue sports, Brandon was also pretty good to that group. But im way more concerned with football first, basketball second and everything else a very distant third.
And this is pretty bad.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:38 PM ^
I feel as if he told Harbaugh to settle down or something because we haven't seen Jim Harbaugh since 11/26/2016.
I don't know who the hell this robot is that replaced him.
January 12th, 2019 at 11:01 PM ^
Anytime someone defends Dave Brandon and then states,”Nothing that Warde has done has impressed me!” Color me surprised!!! And I do mean,”Color me surprised!” I’m sure I could pick you out of a crowd at a particular gathering! Just amazing!
January 12th, 2019 at 11:21 PM ^
I do not understand this infatuation with the football schedule. I know everyone still has a stick up their ass over playing at MSU twice in a row. That was on Brandon’s watch and in the distant past at this point.
NEWS FLASH...Michigan will play two away games out of OSU, MSU, and PSU every other year no matter what. End of story. History, both long past and modern, says between MSU and PSU, PSU will be the better team most years. I would much rather have MSU and OSU synched together than PSU and OSU synched together.
Why is this so hard to understand for some people? Hate on Warde all you want, but do it for something that is actually detrimental to the school or one of the teams.
January 12th, 2019 at 7:38 PM ^
Wins and losses as your only criteria ends up with you being MSU or OSU.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:41 PM ^
He did a good job at Buffalo and their BB and FB teams are both doing well now because of his hires.
January 12th, 2019 at 8:27 PM ^
I didnt like the hire from the beginning, I wish we had hired the guy from Miami Ohio Brad Bates.
January 12th, 2019 at 10:45 PM ^
Your not being impressed says nothing but one huge thing,”user name checks out!” Try not to let your biases control your comments, for the rest of your entire life! Lol! You’re not impressed! Smh
January 13th, 2019 at 8:47 AM ^
No. This is stupid. Hackett has other things to do. He's moved on. You should too.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
He's not that busy, he's only the CEO of Ford. He should quit and hire our next rowing and swimming coaches.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
What has Warde done that not impress you? Not including this action.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:32 PM ^
not swung his hog around enough to get alternate home dates with MSU and OSU the most recent time the B1G announced the football schedule
January 12th, 2019 at 8:51 PM ^
Love swingin my hog around, dude.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^
I think most people have been pretty underwhelmed with the decision to cancel the Arkansas games in favor of resurrecting the ND series and doing so on their terms (i.e. going there two games in a row, putting the 2019 game in the middle of the conference slate).
Others have probably been frustrated that nothing has been done to change the home/away imbalance with OSU and MSU, although I'm not sure that Warde really has that much he can do about that.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:36 PM ^
At this point if we have to play two years at their place in a row to get it fixed, let's do it. We've done well there recently anyways.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:36 PM ^
Double Post.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:38 PM ^
The above and ND reunification “deal”. And even if all his other downfalls didn’t occur, isn’t this enough to raise some eyebrows and the question his thought process? This is some serious stuff we’re talking about… And I refuse to ever root for school that will go down the same path as Penn State and Michigan State.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:16 PM ^
I have contributed frequently to the athletic department. I can’t in good conscience continue to do so after this hiring decision. The student body rallied after the Shane Morris incident, this is far more significant of a decision and a statement from the university, and not a good statement.
I have had some big doubts about Warde, I no longer have doubts. I now know he is the wrong person for this job at this university.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:18 PM ^
Fuck you Warde
January 12th, 2019 at 4:19 PM ^
Legal culpability and moral culpability are different things, and the corporate mindset infecting our entire culture never gets that.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:21 PM ^
Probably should have passed.
Were there no other options?
January 12th, 2019 at 4:22 PM ^
Warde, you made a mistake. Own it, apologize, and take swift action to correct the error in judgment.
January 13th, 2019 at 7:54 AM ^
You "report" fake news all the time. When do we see you own that?
January 13th, 2019 at 8:15 AM ^
LOLOLOLOLOLOL. He thinks he’s Tha Don!!!
January 12th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^
I hope all you folks commenting from your high horses realize you are besmirching the reputation of Bev Plocki, the coach who hired this person. In her 29 years as head coach, I’ve never heard a negative comment about her. But I guess I’ll take Joe Internet’s opinion over Bev’s.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
Fine. Fuck you too Bev Plocki.
January 12th, 2019 at 4:34 PM ^
She also hired the guy who was having sex with the athletes, so not really a banner year for her.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
Did she cover up for the guy, pressure the victims not to come forward, try to influence the police to bury the story (a la Urban and ZS?) I’m not as familiar with that story, but I take it the guy was fired.
For your sake, I hope you don’t have to bear the sins of all the employees you hire.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:32 PM ^
When one of my employees is fired for sleeping with a student in public, I’d be damn sure that the rest of my hires would be as flawless as possible when it comes to character. She did not. So screw her.