Reply to ‘Playing volleyball here was a nightmare’: Inside the Dartmouth women’s volleyball team’s culture

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I should start by saying that I don't agree with this coaching style. At the same time, I have no sympathy for players who miss (part of) the practice because of church. [b]Every time I hear how important religion is to people, my mind goes directly to the book Fantasyland.[/b] I get the same feeling when people complain on this forum about the conflict between some tournaments and Easter. [/quote]

[quote]
Grace said team culture meetings with team culture consultant Theresa “Tree” Beeckman — who was hired independently by Campbell — were “not 100% focused on problems that we would actually have on the team.” The team and coaching staff met regularly with Beeckman on Zoom.

[b]Over summer 2024, Mattox texted Campbell to ask if their meetings with Beeckman could be moved by half an hour so that she could attend church services with her family, adding that “a lot of other girls” also had church schedule conflicts with the 11 a.m. meetings. [/b]Mattox told The Dartmouth she had texted her teammates asking if they also had conflicting church services. They asked her to reach out to Campbell because “on our team, there’s such a fear of communication and a fear of backlash,” she said.

Campbell originally told Mattox that the meetings could be moved to avoid the conflict, but rescinded the change three days later, writing in a text message that “Tree … can only join us at 11.”
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Players did not miss practice because of church. The coach scheduled stupid, useless “team culture meetings” on Sundays at 11 a.m.

Religion and God are not important to some people. But for those who take risks in their lives—such as soldiers going to the battlefield, astronauts going to space, and pilgrims sailing to the New World—religion and God can be very important. Some of the most courageous people are also among the most religious.
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During the season, college volleyball teams will play matches almost every Sunday, and they will also be traveling. That is not specific to Dartmouth, but you would not find yourself on a Division 1 college volleyball team with the belief that you will be able to go to religious services on Sundays. It is just not possible.

There is something a little bit off about the players’ claims as a whole. I think it’s easy to see how they are trying to paint this, but I suspect there is a lot more to the story that we do not know.

If the team culture was an issue, it makes sense to me that by year two or three, a coach would be focused on fixing that, and bringing an outside consultant to help seems like a reasonable option. There must be enough business in that kind of work because the person the coach brought in does that professionally. The players described themselves as vocal. If a resistance to change in part was part of the issue on the team, and if it was impacting the rest of the team in unhealthy ways, it is not hard to see why a coach would make the decision to dismiss the players. [/quote]

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