Seven former Rutgers softball players say first-year head coach Kristen Butler and her husband Marcus Smith, a volunteer assistant coach, emotionally and physically abused them and their teammates during the season, according to a report from NJ.com.
Legal documents obtained by NJ.com show that Smith had previously been investigated and cleared of inappropriate conduct from 2014 to 2016, when he was the head coach of the softball team at Owens Community College in Ohio. Both Smith and Butler underwent background checks before joining the team, Rutgers officials told NJ.com.
Players claim that they spoke out against their coaches' actions to senior athletic officials at Rutgers, including athletic director Patrick Hobbs, and deputy athletic director Sarah Baumgartner, but that the school officials failed to address to claims of abuse.
The allegations against Butler and Smith, based on interviews with former players, parents of former players and legal documents all obtained by NJ.com, are wide ranging.
Erin Collins, who has since transferred to Tennessee, claimed that the coaching duo worked the team, and her specifically, too much after they exceeded their meal budget by $6 at a Cracker Barrel in March. Collins told NJ.com that as a result, the coaches demanded players run six 100-yard sprints, each in less than 17 seconds. Collins said she eventually blacked out from the workout. Even as other players on the team began to collapse around her, she claims the sprints did not stop and the coaches did not relent.
"People just didn't feel safe on the team," Collins told NJ.com.
According to the players NJ.com spoke to, the team environment was so bad that it forced ten players to leave in just one year.
Six players claim they were physically abused at practice, including in one drill in which they were intentionally hit by pitches thrown by an assistant coach. Players also claim Smith invaded their privacy by taking their cell phones and going through them without permission.
When NJ.com asked Hobbs for a comment on the story, he allegedly said "You guys are f---ing scum. Why should I help you people?"
Hobbs, who along with Smith and Butler denied all of the allegations in the NJ.com report, later released a full statement on that matter.
"I do not tolerate abusive behavior and Rutgers University does not tolerate abusive behavior," he said. "Rutgers University is a national leader in how such claims are addressed."
Butler, in denying the allegations, told NJ.com that the team finishing sixth in the 14-team Big Ten is proof that her methods of conditioning worked.
"The results speak for themselves," she said.