Cutting the entire volleyball team is the latest sign Grambling State may be losing its mind

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I really don’t know what is occurring in the Grambling State College athletics division, but someone wants to ask for a wellness check on them.

Did they drop and bump their heads? Is a little something in the h2o? Have they gotten ahold of terrible edibles?

Whichever the case, those individuals are straight-up tripping.

Initially, they hired Artwork Briles as an assistant soccer mentor in February. None of the NCAA’s other prime 260 faculties has touched the former Baylor mentor for 6 decades given that a blistering, 51-site report mentioned his “incurious attitude toward possible criminal conduct by his university student-athletes was deeply troubling.” The ensuing howls of protest astonished particularly no one except the administration, and Briles resigned 4 days just after becoming declared. 

Proof beforehand advised that new athletic director Trayvean Scott might’ve brought a clown exhibit to city. (The day just before announcing Briles was hired, a faculty spokesperson claimed any such converse was just a rumor.) But the most current goings-on have convinced undecided jurors, and the verdict is in: 

Grambling’s athletics section is outrageous AF.

New women’s volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas has slice the total team. All 19 gamers, just like that. No more apply, no additional competitiveness, and no a lot more scholarships. We can’t figure out the worst element of this circumstance due to the fact everything about it is foul. 

The clowns have morphed into the Three Stooges—Scott, Lucas and GSU athletics communications director Brian Howard. “I loathe to say out with the previous, but in with the new a little little bit,” Howard instructed KSLA. “… At the conclude of the day, Mentor Lucas has a purpose, has a eyesight. We have a intention as an establishment and a vision as well to gain, and that’s 1st and foremost,” he said.

Both he can not hear himself, or he’s tone-deaf. Certainly, he’s literate, but he simply cannot read the situations. 

Neither can Scott, who appears hella petty more than faculty athletes’ lately earned appropriate to quickly switch schools. “Just as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem essential to advance their applications,” Scott stated in a statement, in accordance to KSLA.

Yeah, and coach Hue Jackson determined he required Briles to progress the football program. How’d that perform out? 

Scott and his whack-ass judgment need to have to take a whole row of seats.

Lucas, employed in February, is a Grambling alum and former Southwestern Athletic Conference Defensive Participant of the 12 months. But she’s evidence that all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. She’s as chilly and calculating as the most callous Caucasian. Envision if a white mentor arrived in and axed the complete roster. She’d be dragged as a result of the Twitterverse. 

Lucas warrants that similar power we’d have for Becky.

Opposite to Howard’s contention, profitable games should not be very first and foremost when Grambling describes its target and vision as an establishment. HBCUs are in the organization to mold and develop youthful Black older people. The mission is not to mimic the cash-producing sporting activities factories that participate in on ESPN and network Television set. Grambling isn’t intended to resemble SEC powerhouses that don’t give a damn about players over and above the soccer industry or basketball court. 

“I have to say I am essentially ill to my tummy,” sophomore defensive professional Future Johnson wrote on Twitter. “All the time, strength, and devotion I set into the volleyball method here at Grambling Point out has been thrown appropriate back again in my facial area.”

Not that it issues, but the crew did not suck. 

The Tigers concluded 8-8 in meeting play (11-17 all round), fantastic for fifth position out of 12 teams. Sophomore Jada Taylor was named SWAC preseason Libero/Defensive Player of the 12 months. Junior Gillian Jones was on the preseason All-SWAC Next Workforce. Four of the team’s top rated five scorers were set to return, like A’Lexus Everett, a freshman past calendar year.

If Lucas is such a fantastic mentor, she should’ve taken what she inherited and built upon it. Get to know the gamers and give them a prospect to study and mature under her stewardship. In its place, Howard stated Lucas has “14 or 15 excellent players coming on board.” Presumably, some hail from meeting foe College of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where Lucas coached for three decades and went 13-3 in the SWAC very last season.

We know the extensive majority of athletic scholarships are not certain and must be renewed on a yearly basis. And we know a few underachieving players in any activity may well, quietly, be despatched packing just about every yr. But shorter of gross misconduct or academic shortcomings, there is no excuse for kicking an entire staff to the control. 

As of Friday morning, the volleyball roster found on Grambling’s internet site did not listing any players. Only an error concept appears.

Judging by Lucas’ actions—and insight from one of her previous players, Simone Joiner—the mistake applies to Scott. 

Not just for hiring Lucas, but letting her run buck wild.

An award-successful columnist and a principal of BlackDoor Ventures, Inc., Deron Snyder is a veteran journalist, stratcomm skilled, creator, and adjunct professor. A native of Brooklyn and an Alpha from H.U.-You Know, he resides in metropolitan DC with his wife, Vanessa, mother of their daughters, Sierra and Sequoia. To discover much more, remember to pay a visit to blackdoorventures.com/deron.

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