By: Jerry Wang
Chelsey Lucas, Grambling State’s women’s volleyball coach, was fired shortly after being appointed. The Louisiana centralized college took this drastic measure as a result of the backlash over Lucas dropping all current members of the team.
Before even joining the staff, Lucas and the women’s volleyball team were off to a rocky start. A senior on the team, Sheila Borders reported that “[w]hen 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.” After one home victory against Arkansas Pine Bluff, they performed this chant when Lucas was coincidentally the coach of the other team.
She went on to say that “[i]t’s nothing personal” and that it is a schoolwide tradition. However, Lucas didn’t find it amusing. When she first met with the team, she allegedly 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—-.” For the weeks to come, Borders characterized her practice sessions as “very few volleyball-related drills and a lot of punishment-related running.”
Still, Grambling’s athlete’s biggest shock was yet to come. Lucas’s past players from Arkansas Pine Bluff were scheduled to transfer to Grambling State, and concurrently, Lucas informed all scholarship players they would not have their scholarships renewed; likewise, walk-ons would also not have their position renewed. Lucas then offered four of the scholarship players to play as walk-ons, but they rejected it.
A junior on the team later said, “[w]hen I was in there and she told me, my heart completely broke. … it just hurts really bad, the fact that it was snatched away so fast.” Unfortunately, this had happened well into the offseason, leaving some former players with insufficient credits for graduation.
Lucas, in an interview, told the story in a different manner. She said when she first suggested laying off athletes, the sports director said, “get rid of ’em all.” She goes on to argue that she gave reasons to each athlete on why she was dropping them. She claimed that she was ostracized by the admission team and she “wanted [her] administration to give [her] a fair chance to make sure [she goes] in and [is] able to be the coach for them and evaluate and assess [those] young ladies on and off the court.”
The world isn’t black and white. Throughout all of the accusations and actions, the school has demonstrated this in their inconsistent stance. Despite firing Lucas, they said “[j]ust as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs.” This and Lucas’ claim demonstrate the school’s trust in her which contradicts their final decision. However, even after firing her, the school still refuses “any additional comments… until the conclusion of the investigation.”
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