Rutgers’ new athletic director, Julie Hermann, faces allegations of abusing players

GlobalPost

The woman hired to clean up Rutgers' scandal-plagued athletics department is now facing questions over her own past behavior.

Julie Hermann was hired as the new athletic director to replace Tim Pernetti, who was let go after a video circulated showing basketball coach Mike Rice physically abusing players and shouting gay slurs.

Rice was eventually fired by the Newark, New Jersey university.

Hermann now faces her own accusations of abuse after she quit coaching women's volleyball at the University of Tennessee 16 years ago.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper published a report that all 15 of Hermann's former volleyball players wrote her a scathing letter just before Hermann quit.

"The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable," the players wrote. Specifically, they said the coach had called them "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled."

"It has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue," the letter said.

More from GlobalPost: Rutgers fires coach Mike Rice after he abused players on video (VIDEO)

Eleven members of the team agreed to go on the record and told the newspaper their account of the alleged abuse.

"Their accounts depict a coach who thought nothing of demeaning them, who would ridicule and laugh at them over their weight and their performances, sometimes forcing players to do 100 sideline pushups during games, who punished them after losses by making them wear their workout clothes inside out in public or not allowing them to shower or eat, and who pitted them against one another, cutting down particular players with the whole team watching, and through gossip."

The players told the newspaper that Hermann listened to them read the letter aloud and simply said, "I choose not to coach you guys."

Hermann, 49, told The Star-Ledger that she didn't remember the letter.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the Associated Press that he plans to speak with Rutgers officials about the abuse allegations.

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said that Christie is aware of the report about Julie Hermann in the Star-Ledger of Newark, but wants to get more details before commenting.

Hermann, who is supposed to take over Rutgers' program on June 17, told an introductory news conference that the university's problems were over.

"No one on the coaching staff doesn't believe that we need to be an open book, that we will no longer have any practice, anywhere at any time, that anybody couldn't walk into and be pleased about what's going on in that environment. It is a new day. It is already fixed," Hermann said.

Tell us about your experience accessing The World

We want to hear your feedback so we can keep improving our website, theworld.org. Please fill out this quick survey and let us know your thoughts (your answers will be anonymous). Thanks for your time!