By: Sunnie Gao

Chelsey Lucas, the new volleyball coach at Grambling States, was fired after cutting off all 19 players on the team.

Chelsey Lucas, a 2007 Grambling graduate, had also played for the Tigers. However, as she cut more and more players and complaints from teachers, parents, and alumni came flooding in, Grambling State, whose administration initially supported Lucas’s actions, announced on Tuesday that it had fired the first-year coach and was conducting an ongoing investigation.

“The decision was made due to the determination of an internal investigation within the volleyball program,” the school said in a statement.

Grambling’s state volleyball team had an 11-17 record last season under the teaching of Coach Demetria Keys-Johnson, who stepped down in December. They then hired Lucas in February to take over Johnson’s spot. Lucas had compiled a 37-44 record, in three seasons, at Arkansas Pine Bluff, including an 18-15 mark last year.

Lucas’s relationship with her new team was rocky because of an incident that occurred last season between the two teams.

“When we played them at home, and we beat them, our school has like 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.”

During her first meeting with 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—-.”

According to the Monroe News-Star, in the weeks that followed, Lucas held three practice sessions, “most of which consisted of very few volleyball-related drills and a lot of punishment-related running.”

Then, on April 4, Lucas reportedly called the players one by one, in which she informed the 12 scholarship players that she would not be renewing their scholarships for the upcoming season. Seven walk-ons were also told their spots would not be renewed. Lucas reportedly offered four of the former scholarship players the opportunity to remain on the team as walk-ons, but all four declined the offer.

At that time, the Grambling State administration reportedly supported Lucas’s decision. Athletic Director Trayvean Scott issued a statement at the time that said, “Just as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs.”

However, as the decision was made late into the season, it left players desperately trying to find programs, some coming short of graduation by a few credits. This encouraged some to start a Change.org petition. They managed to get over 3,700 signatures. In early May, Grambling State said that it had hired an outside firm to open its investigation into the allegations involving Lucas and the program, and she was eventually fired.

Lucas claimed that she had only met up with 14 players that day and offered some the chance to stay. “The narrative of this team, even when I came in, from the administration, [was] that this was a bad character team. That’s what I was getting, but at the same time, I wanted my administration to give me a fair chance to make sure I go in and be able to be the coach for them and evaluate and assess these young ladies on and off the court,” Lucas said.

The volleyball students who have received a scholarship for the 2022-2023 season will be allowed to keep their scholarships, and the walk-ons will also be able to continue holding their roster spots.