When Oregon and Washington met two weeks ago on the field at Husky Softball Stadium in Seattle something was different from last year’s meeting in Eugene.
It wasn’t just the confidence of Oregon. It wasn’t just the Washington head coaches.
It was the entire Husky bench. They were happy — they smiled during the game and they were laughing in the dugout
The Huskies were a dramatically different team than the one that came to Eugene for a Friday game one year ago. Now the team that has fun during games comes to town for two more at Howe Field this weekend.
Collegiate sports scandals have gotten more press in recent years. From Colorado to Georgia, Baylor to St. John’s, these scandals have taken on every shape and size.
Washington, however, takes the cake.
As if the school didn’t already have enough problems from former head football coach Rick Neuheisel, former head softball coach Teresa Wilson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle that alleges sex discrimination, violation of due process, breach of contract and wrongful discharge.
The suit was made public the day before the findings of an internal investigation regarding the misuse of medicine within the softball team were made public.
All of this, right in the midst of a softball season, could very well be what threw Washington off course over last we Pacific-10 Conference loss was a 2-1 loss to Oregon until this weekend, lost three games — one to No. 5 California and two to No. 8 Stanford.
This season’s success, while on-par with last season, is healthier. Stories came out in the investigation ranging from players “swimming” on the dugout floor, to one player who did not remember falling off the bus and into Wilson’s arms.
In the investigation’s report, Wilson, the Oregon coach from 1986-1989, is portrayed as a hard-nosed coach who wanted to know where her players were at all times, make sure they were physically “able” to play and, it seems, win at almost any cost.
Wilson’s apparent demand of her players to return to top shape soon after an injury can be traced back to her days at Oregon. In 1989, Oregon’s starting right fielder, Sandy Scott, did not play in the Ducks’ regional appearance due to an ankle injury. After Oregon won its regional, Wilson was quoted in the Emerald on May 23, 1989, as saying that Scott had been receiving “as much as 18 hours of treatment a day.”
Seems a little excessive to allow a player just six hours of sleep and no in-class time just so that she can play in the World Series.
As co-interim head coaches, Scott Centala and Steve Dailey are apparently freeing the team from the alleged daily dosage of unprescribed medications. However, Centala was named in the investigation as one of the people who “knew or should have known.”
While Centala’s involvement, if any, is unclear, it is possible that he and Wilson really did know nothing. People can choose to ignore things that they don’t want to see, or perhaps Wilson was so focused on her team’s success that she neglected to notice problems — even when they fell into her lap.