By MATT SUGAM Rutgers had to get a new athletic director because their old one didn’t fire Mike Rice after he was shown video of Rice physically abusing players, cursing them out, and spewing gay slurs. As it turns out, that new athletic director, Julie Hermann, may have been a similar coach to Rice. When she was the head volleyball coach at Tennessee in the mid-90s, the 15 players on her team wrote a letter saying Hermann coached through humiliation, fear and emotional abuse. “The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable,” the players wrote in the letter, which wasobtained by The Star-Ledger. They wrote that Hermann called them “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled.” The players wrote, “it has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue.” After taking those words in, Hermann said, “I choose not to coach you guys.” Just like that, Hermann’s coaching days were over in 1996. Hermann says she does not remember the letter, and when it was given to her by The Star-Ledger, her response was, “wow.” The women on the team recall Hermann ridiculing and laughing at them over their weight and performances. She would force players to do 100 sideline pushups during games, and after losses, they’d have to wear their workout gear inside out in public or not let them shower or eat. She’d cut players down in front of the whole team. The coaching drove some players into depression and counseling. When hearing this, Hermann seemed shocked. “I never heard any of this, never name-calling them or anything like that whatsoever.” She said the word “whore,” is “not part of my vernacular. Not then, not now, not ever…None of this is familiar to me.” But her players do. And feel Rutgers has someone like Rice running their whole athletic department. “How ironic,” said Kelly Hanlon Dow, a sophomore on the 1996 team, “that Rutgers had an abusive coach and they’re bringing in someone who was an abusive coach.” Follow Matt Sugam on Twitter
