More on Oregon State

I'm not sure why this is still being brought up, unless Oregonlive has a secret wish to get Oregon State Coach LaVonda Wagner fired, but here's another piece on the embattled head of the program. This is the part that bothers me:

Concerns long ignored

Although De Carolis is evaluating the program, as recently as the end of this regular season he said publicly of Wagner, "She's our coach, and we back her."

That statement -- despite what players and families say were repeated warnings that something was amiss -- has left many seething.

"We would go and tell different people and they would say, 'Oh, it's not gonna get back to her (Wagner),'" Mitchell says of conversations with administrators below De Carolis. "Then the next day we're having a meeting and (she's) yelling at us, saying people are going back and saying untruthful and hurtful things about her.

"Every time we went to someone, nothing got done."

Three parents say they tried repeatedly to contact De Carolis about what was going on in the program but got no response.

In an e-mail dated Feb. 22, 2010, Mayfield says she wrote De Carolis to say she was "very concerned about the mental state of all the girls on the team." Mayfield says De Carolis never responded.

Erica Sadler, Eboni's mother, says she also tried to contact De Carolis with e-mails and phone calls over a number of months, only to be ignored.

Debra Champlin wrote three letters -- one to Wagner, one to De Carolis and one to Oregon State President Ed Ray -- expressing her concern about the state of the program and the way players were being treated. In the letter to Ray on May 13, 2008, she wrote, "Since summer of 2006 Whitney has watched 4 of her teammates, 3 of her coaches and a much loved athletic trainer leave the OSU Women's Basketball Program. What is truly going on in this program?" Champlin never got a response.

De Carolis says complaints about the athletic program are delegated to associate athletic directors Marianne Vydra or Todd Stansbury, depending on the sport involved. De Carolis says he "feels good about the communication" that went on within the administration, and stressed that he, Vydra and Stansbury have an open-door policy for athletes. As far as correspondence to the president's office, De Carolis says Ray passes it on to him. While De Carolis does not recall responding to Mayfield's e-mail in particular, he says he eventually spoke with McAlister and that conversation prompted him to act.

This is Wagner's contract. I guess I'm wondering why anyone would sign a new coach for eight years.