That's weird because I clicked onto it from College Gym Board and it connects fine, so I literally pasted it to here so I am not sure how to fix it...if you click over to "Collegegymnasticsboard.yuku" , the link is there but I'm not tech savvy so pasting the link here was even way above my pay grade!
I wasn't entirely shocked when I read it but to read it FROM HER, was a jolt for me....she was a former National team member, trained at at good gym (WOGA) with many contacts, appeared to do well at Michigan, even team captain her senior year.....but feels the experience was awful on the whole. I know kids who were on the team with her and from talking to them, you wouldn't have thought that this was the experience of any gymnast on that Michigan team....but there you have it. She does say it is HER perspective but my God, to put this all down in writing, something definitely was amiss...
I can tell you from first hand experience that this is exactly what happens, times 100! When my daughter was on her college team, they received a "handbook" of expectations to be upheld when they were in public, when recruits or ANYONE visited campus....they were told that they were "not to do homework in front of recruits or their families, not to answer any question that couldn't be answered in a positive light and were told to refer those questions to the coaching staff." If the coaching staff ever found out that anyone did say anything other than the party line, it was hell to pay for the athlete.....and sometimes they were just answering what they thought were basic questions like "has anyone on your team ever had X major?" and when one of her teammates said "not that I know of" ( versus just plain old "no" or "ask the coaching staff") , this gymnast was hauled into the HC office and reamed for "dissing the school" ....and you wonder why it's tough to get the down low on what goes on in these places...
I assume you mean during recruiting visits by younger kids....she did a lot of it during any free time she had when the recruits weren't on campus...and if they stayed with say the freshmen, after the team finished whatever activity they were doing with the recruit, like a basketball or hockey game, and she returned to her apartment ( and the recruits went usually to the dorms with the freshmen ) , she could do her homework then.
Oh, I know! I was lucky to have a very positive experience as a D3 athlete, but have heard plenty of horror stories from friends at other schools up and down the rankings - including the Ivies and schools that, from the outside, look like they have a balanced, positive program. I really don't understand the whole not doing homework or answering basic questions from recruits thing. Obviously every school wants to paint things in a positive light, but my coach (who was incredible and supportive) always said that recruits should understand what life would be like if they came to our school because it's a terrible situation for everyone involved if they get there and it's completely different. Now, the pressure to recruit top talent is much, much greater at D1 programs like Michigan, but outright lying and/or not answering questions really doesn't seem like a smart move long-term, especially as more stories like this one come out.
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