NESCAC

[DeepPocket]

Ah. I see. Thank you for the clarification.

[Gorilla Fan]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/13/ ... tion-suit/

[JustPassingThrough]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/13/ ... tion-suit/

Some data re: coach compensation:

Devoe says his contract called for him to receive an annual salary of $90,000, $375 per month for a housing subsidy, and eligibility for $1,500 in annual travel and professional development support through 2023, with the possibility of being promoted to senior coach status in 2032.

[MA Lax Fan]

Amherst will make this go away with a big fat payout.
They like to call others racists and do investigations but when the spotlight turns on them “just pay and make the accusations go away”

[pcowlax]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/13/ ... tion-suit/

Wow. What a nightmare that place sounds like right now.
I am confused by how this part fits into him suing for being fired, in part, due to racial discrimination. “Devoe alleges he also was wrongfully terminated for refusing to participate in a school investigation of discrimination and racial profiling against three Black student-athletes at Amherst, a men’s lacrosse player and two men’s basketball players.” School has brought all of them on themselves. The “substantial” settlement with Thompson speaks to what really went on there, the ridiculously transparent reasons for hiring Devoe put an impossible spotlight on him and when he seems to have been an ass to the team, his inevitable firing would of course produce a furor focusing only on his race. Hire people based on ability. Fire them based on conduct and results. When you try to use your staff choices to make larger statements it ends like this.

[Switzerland]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/13/ ... tion-suit/

Can we get another copy and paste from a subscriber to the Boston Globe… please and thank you.

[Laxwizard]

Amherst will make this go away with a big fat payout.
They like to call others racists and do investigations but when the spotlight turns on them “just pay and make the accusations go away”

They declined to settle. That is why this story is now in the Globe. If they had settled (like they did with JT) then we would not be hearing about it now. Amherst will fight this law suit, and probably win.

[jerseyman]

What a sh*t show.

Two observations:

1. I guess the former guy (RD) has decided that he will never have a high level lacrosse coaching job ever again.

2. By suing Amherst, a school with an endowment of over $3 billion, and one that is terrified of being labeled as a racist institution given its recent history of fleeing its white male past (apologizing for Lord Jeffrey Amherst’s misdeeds from 250 years ago, for example), the former guy has assured himself of a payout well in excess of whatever he could have made as a lacrosse coach.

What a country.

I feel sorry for the recent players and recruits. This was not what they signed up for. Good luck to Coach Woods. He will need it.

[MA Lax Fan]

I’m no lawyer but they can settle at any point and if this story gets traction - I suspect a few mill is worth it to not to be called the “R” word.

[Laxwizard]

Of course they can settle at any time, but they decided to fight it initially. They are obviously prepared for the spotlight here.

[WhiteCarrera]

I wonder if Woods sold his house yet? Colorado Springs would still be looking pretty good to me!

[boredatwork]

Boston Globe:

A former Amherst College men’s lacrosse coach who was fired before he coached a game for the school alleged Friday in a federal lawsuit that he became a victim of Amherst’s “cozy relationship with elitism, discrimination, and racism.”
Rashad Devoe, who is Black, had two years remaining on a three-year contract when Amherst fired him in June after an investigation into allegations that he verbally mistreated team members who had purportedly violated Amherst’s COVID-19 restrictions by informally practicing on a school green.
Devoe alleges he also was wrongfully terminated for refusing to participate in a school investigation of discrimination and racial profiling against three Black student-athletes at Amherst, a men’s lacrosse player and two men’s basketball players. He says he reported the alleged discrimination but school officials declined to assure him they would protect him and the students from “retaliation and continued discrimination.”


Devoe declined to comment publicly.
Amherst’s chief communications officer Sandy Genelius said, “We have not yet had the opportunity to carefully review the lawsuit and have no comment.”

The lawsuit is the latest blow to Amherst’s embattled men’s lacrosse team, which only two years earlier had advanced to the NCAA championship game for the first time in school history. The lacrosse program is in crisis as players have transferred, parents have expressed outrage, and recruits are wary of enrolling in the elite small private liberal arts college.
On Wednesday, the school announced Colorado College’s Sean Woods as its new men’s lacrosse coach. Woods, a Newport, R.I., native and former assistant at Brown, led the school to eight NCAA Division 3 tournament appearances in 10 years, reaching the quarterfinals for the first time this past season.
Last year, Amherst fired Jon Thompson, the longtime coach who guided the lacrosse team to the Division 3 title game, over a racial incident that Amherst president Biddy Martin characterized as emblematic of a lacrosse culture that “repeatedly violates standards of human decency,” in part by engaging in racism, anti-Semitism, and misogynism.

Thompson was quickly hired as an assistant coach at the United States Air Force Academy. Sources familiar with his departure said Amherst paid him a sizable settlement to avoid possible litigation.
The Globe’s attempts to reach Thompson were unsuccessful.
Devoe was the head coach at Hampton University when, he alleges, Amherst invited him to apply to succeed Thompson, who is white. When the school hired Devoe in 2020, after the lacrosse team had been placed on probation because of an alleged racial incident, he was instructed to clean up the program and the school’s damaged reputation, his lawsuit asserts.
“Amherst College promised to fully support Coach Devoe and his staff in trying to change the racist and, frankly, elitist demeanor that had historically permeated the college’s lacrosse program,” his lawsuit states.
“Unfortunately, when push came to shove, the college’s true color broke through the smoke and mirrors,” Devoe alleges.
His lawsuit states, “Amherst College ignored and tried to silence Coach Devoe, undermining, retaliating against, and punishing him for following NCAA, [conference], Amherst College rules and the instructions given to him.”
Numerous parents interviewed by the Globe criticized Devoe’s coaching style. They said his approach, even if it was mandated by the school, was overly aggressive, verbally threatening at times, disruptive, and divisive.
“Things got really ugly,” said the Rev. Jay Hutchinson, an Amherst alumnus who played lacrosse and whose son, Jack, was a member of the team under Devoe.
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By all accounts, the relationship between Devoe and the team deteriorated. Devoe blames the administration for undercutting his authority. He asserts that Amherst silenced him “from expressing his opinions on recruiting players and [did] not allow him to discipline players, cut players who failed to follow team rules, communicate with players, hire his staff, raise money for the lacrosse program, or communicate with alumni.”
Devoe also was alleged to have made a sexually-charged, misogynistic comment to a member of the lacrosse team about some female Amherst students. Devoe denies the allegation in his lawsuit.
Parents said members of the lacrosse team interviewed the final four candidates to succeed Thompson and advised the administration against hiring Devoe. At least two other candidates also were Black.
Hutchinson said school officials “didn’t believe in their own students and went ahead and did exactly what they said wasn’t a good move, and here’s what happened.”
He and others criticized the school’s handling of incidents involving the lacrosse program. They included a Black player allegedly punching one of three teammates who shouted the n-word at him and his Black female student companion in the suite they shared in 2020.
Two years earlier, a lacrosse player partying with teammates was allegedly found passed out with a Swastika drawn on his head.
The lacrosse team’s supporters describe the incidents as isolated, alcohol-spurred exceptions in a program that Thompson had generally run commendably. They accused the administration of unfairly punishing the team after the alleged perpetrators of the racial and anti-Semitic incidents had graduated.

“I’m not saying there weren’t mistakes made by the students,” Hutchinson said. “But from the perspective of an alum, I felt that every maneuver that was made by the athletic department, the head of athletics, and by the president of the college were CYA maneuvers.”
Devoe, too, felt unfairly punished, to the point that he was traumatized and suffered extreme emotional distress and required mental health care, according to his suit. He chronicles a history of incidents and cases in which Amherst allegedly failed to “to effectively address racism, misogyny, sexual violence, anti-Semitism, and homophobia.”
Devoe says his contract called for him to receive an annual salary of $90,000, $375 per month for a housing subsidy, and eligibility for $1,500 in annual travel and professional development support through 2023, with the possibility of being promoted to senior coach status in 2032

[Laxwizard]

I wonder if Woods sold his house yet? Colorado Springs would still be looking pretty good to me!

He wants to compete in the best D3 conference, get paid the best D3 salary, and recruit the best D3 players. Can't do that in the Springs, bro. 6 or 7 months from now Devoe will be playing xbox and Woods will be racking up W's.

[nescac commit]

As someone who is very close to the Amherst situation, the players are excited. They have got a coach who they want to lead them. Opinions of Devoe within the team were never high from the start. Players are ready to move on and get back to competition.

[jerseyman]

As someone who is very close to the Amherst situation, the players are excited. They have got a coach who they want to lead them. Opinions of Devoe within the team were never high from the start. Players are ready to move on and get back to competition.

Good to hear. Rooting for the players. They will take this lesson to their graves: resilience and grit.

[Unknown Participant]

Amherst purposefully hired a guy, who seemed pretty unqualified, just because he was black. Now, after about a year in which it appears to have become apparent that he was a bad hire, it gets hit with a federal discrimination suit when he's fired. The irony. What idiot is running that place?

[WhiteCarrera]

I wish the players well, and understand that they’re excited. They should be, but:

“He wants to compete in the best D3 conference, get paid the best D3 salary, and recruit the best D3 players.”

This applied to Thompson, and it applied to Devoe, and now it applies to Woods. The constant in the whole thing is the administration that created and allowed this whole clusterfu….bro!

[Laxwizard]

Woods gave the best interview out of the 4 finalists and the Administration listened to the player feedback. So far so good.

[Sidelinehorn!]

I wonder if Woods sold his house yet? Colorado Springs would still be looking pretty good to me!

He wants to compete in the best D3 conference, get paid the best D3 salary, and recruit the best D3 players. Can't do that in the Springs, bro. 6 or 7 months from now Devoe will be playing xbox and Woods will be racking up W's.

What number are you on the team?

[Switzerland]

I wonder if Woods sold his house yet? Colorado Springs would still be looking pretty good to me!

He wants to compete in the best D3 conference, get paid the best D3 salary, and recruit the best D3 players. Can't do that in the Springs, bro. 6 or 7 months from now Devoe will be playing xbox and Woods will be racking up W's.

What number are you on the team?