By: Andrew Zheng
Lucas, a 2007 Grambling graduate who played for the Tigers, was chosen to lead a program for volleyball. But by April, all 19 players were dropped off the roster. The administration at Grambling State, who initially supported Lucas’s actions, announced after their investigation they would fire Lucas.
Grambling State’s women’s volleyball team had an 11-17 score last season under the guidance of the previous coach Demetria Keys-Johnson. She stepped down in December to work at another position at the university. On Feb. 14, the college hired to coach the volleyball team after having a 37-44 record at Arkansas Pine Bluff, including an 18-15-mark last year.
Lucas’s relationship with Grambling State players was strained from the beginning due to multiple reports in which players speculated that Lucas was still bitter over an incident when Arkansas Pine Bluff played Grambling State last season.
“When we played them at home, and we beat them, our school has this chant, but at the end of the chant you say, like, the B-word,” senior Sheila Borders told Andscape. “I guess she thought I was calling them B-words, but, like, the whole school says it. They say it at basketball games and football games. It’s nothing personal.”
When Lucas first met up with the Grambling State players, Lucas reportedly said: “I bet you didn’t expect to see me again. I bet y’all will think twice about who y’all call a b—-.” After that, Lucas held three practice sessions, “most of which consisted of very few volleyball-related drills and a lot of punishment-related running,” according to the Monroe News-Star.
Lucas did not publicly comment about anything until she was fired. She told KSLA that administrators told her not to say anything about the state of her situation. When 247 Sports interviewed her, she argued the allegations against her.
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