On Wednesday, USA Today Sports released a report with comments from 10 players alleging a toxic atmosphere around the Texas Tech women's basketball program, stemming from head coach Marlene Stollings and two assistant coaches.
Texas Tech hired Stollings in 2018 to take over a program coming off four consecutive losing seasons under Candace Whitaker. Before Whitaker took over, the Lady Raiders only had two losing seasons since 1980.
Texas Tech went 18-11 in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short.
Allegations in the report levied against Stollings, assistant coach Lowry Dawkins and strength and conditioning coach Ralph Petrella range from verbal abuse to sexual harassment.
Multiple players said the coaching staff frequently insulted them at practice in front of their teammates, referring to post players as "fat pig," "grossly out of shape," and "grossly disproportional."
Merriweather recalled being publicly yelled at about her weight in front of men's basketball players by Petrella, and a time when she said her dog was taken away from her by Stollings. Merriweather would later be diagnosed with depression, and had intended to register her dog an emotional-support pet.
"A lot of these girls had never experienced depression or extreme anxiety before they came to Tech and they experienced it with Marlene," Merriweather told USA Today Sports. "Coach Marlene was evil and manipulative and vindictive in a quiet watered-down manner, so you can't outwardly say, 'This person is evil.' ... Her values are not in protecting her team and the girls."
She also alleged Dawkins cautioned her against coming to practice when she was feeling depressed as he didn't want her to "bring everyone down." Merriweather said she was given a rubber band to wear around her wrist and told to by Dawkins snap herself with it every time she had a negative thought.
Several players made sexual harassment allegations against Petrella, which included claims of Petrella taking pictures of their bodies to show "before" and "after" photos, but players not being shown any "after" pictures to see their progress.
One player even alleged Petrella threatened her with physical violence, telling her "If I were younger, I'd punch you in the face."
Another player said he called her "sexy" and "beautiful" and made a comment about having sex in his office.
Multiple players also brought up the reflexive performance reset (RPR) recovery techniques Petrella performed on them, applying pressure near their chest and groin.
According to the report, RPR is designed to be a "self-care technique."
"We say, 'If you're touching someone, you're not doing RPR.'" said the technique's co-founder J.L. Holdsworth.
Petrella resigned after the conclusion of the 2019-20 season before any internal investigation was done by the school to follow up on players allegations against him.
Additionally, Stollings and the coaching staff reportedly used tools to measure players' heart rates, and demanded players' heart rates to reach at least 90% of their capacity in practice and games, according to eight players.
These players said they were not allowed to access this tracking data, but it would affect how many minutes they would be given in games.
Vigorous-intensity physical activity occurs at a heart rate between 77% and 93% capacity, per CDC guidelines.
All 10 players in the report brought up the multiple ways they tried to voice their concerns with the athletic department, including filing complaints with the NCAA and a Title IX investigator.
