{"id":20799,"date":"2024-03-12T18:30:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T02:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=20799"},"modified":"2024-06-18T11:31:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T19:31:47","slug":"womens-basketball-faces-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/womens-basketball-faces-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s basketball faces turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Liberty Miller | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

The Western women\u2019s basketball team had their season cut short amidst allegations of abuse and fraudulent activity from the coaching staff. Head coach Jessica Peatross entered her first season at Western in 2023, after coaching at Division 2 school, Salem University, where she held a 14-17 record. Assistant coach Demetrius Marlow also previously coached at Salem University alongside Peatross.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The team will not be competing in the last six games of the conference season and holds a record of three to ten in the regular season with a .231 winning percentage. In a press release statement from University President and Athletic Director Randi Lydum, it was announced that \u201cThe decision to cancel the season aligns with the highest standards of integrity and accountability within our program.\u201d No additional information has been provided from the athletic department about the cancellation of the season, and it is uncertain whether players will retain their year of NCAA eligibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A total of six sources have agreed to release statements to \u201cThe Western Howl.\u201d All but one have chosen to remain anonymous for safety reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica Peatross was the Associate Head Coach at Delta College, where she eventually became Interim Head Coach before transferring to Salem University. Peatross claimed to have received a scholarship to play golf, basketball and participate in track and field. However, there are some discrepancies in the information provided in press releases concerning Peatross\u2019 experience prior to joining the coaching staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

An anonymous source stated that \u201cThe head coach lied on her resume that she played division one basketball when she didn\u2019t.\u201d Further investigation shows that the introductions for Coach Peatross into both Salem University and ÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ included that \u201cPeatross received a Division-1 scholarship to play golf, basketball and track at Chicago State University\u201d \u2014 however, there are no digital records of Peatross ever competing or being on the roster of the Chicago State women’s basketball roster between 2010-2014, when she attended the university; there are records of Peatross competing at Chicago State in track and field and golf.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jack Watford, communications director for the Women\u2019s Basketball Coaches Association, released an official statement to the Howl, stating that \u201cThe WBCA is aware of the announcement made on Friday by Western regarding its women\u2019s basketball program. Other than confirming that Western Oregon head coach Jessica Peatross is a member of the association, the WBCA has no comment at this time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An anonymous source who played on Salem University\u2019s women\u2019s team, under Peatross, stated, \u201cI don\u2019t think she deserves to be coaching at all \u2014 especially because she didn\u2019t even play college basketball.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More allegations against Peatross include, but are not limited to, verbal abuse, threats, yelling and a lack of regard for mental health. One player claimed to have a complex relationship with Peatross, stating, \u201cHonestly, it was very bipolar. I think her bad outweighs the good sometimes. She wasn\u2019t a bad person at all, and we found times where we could laugh and joke around with her. But then again she was rude and I sometimes feared talking to her. I never knew what to say sometimes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Salem University source alleges that \u201cCoach P told one of our girls she would ruin her life if she did anything.\u201d Another source claims that Peatross and Marlow \u201cThreatened to cancel our season if we kept mentioning the things they were doing to their bosses.\u201d The exact cause of the cancellation of the Western women’s basketball season, and whether or not the cancellation was a team, coach or administrative decision has not been released.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Demetrius Marlow, also known as DJ, was previously an assistant coach with Warner University women’s varsity basketball team as well as the head coach for their junior varsity team. Marlow was also the head coach at the Tenoroc High School varsity women’s basketball team for two years. Marlow began coaching with Peatross during her stint at Salem University, where he was the assistant coach during the 2023 season. Multiple sources from Salem University shared their perspectives on Coach Marlow, particularly concerning his relationship with Peatross.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the sources stated, \u201cIt was a very different vibe with only Coach Marlow. He is very capable of running a basketball team by himself, very down to earth \u2014 he is a different guy around Coach P.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorimar Morales, a Tenoroc High School basketball player who played under Marlow voiced her support, stating that \u201cCoach DJ is someone who\u2019s trustworthy and dependable. He\u2019s also someone who was hard on me and my teammates but for a good cause. He\u2019d always spread positivity, always telling the truth with his speech before and after practice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other sources conversely claim that he was unsupportive and constantly made racial remarks towards the girls within the program. Three sources stated that he regularly referred to them as \u201cblack girls\u201d instead of their names, allegedly telling a player that she was \u201cnot supposed to be around the black girls \u2014 we\u2019re segregating ourselves.\u201d One other source claims that Marlow called her a \u201c…privileged white girl \u2014 that I will never know what it’s like to be a black woman or black male, that I have it so easy.\u201d Two of the sources from Salem University claim that Marlow called them a \u201cwaste of space,\u201d as well as \u201ca waste of breath\u201d after a game; additionally, one of these sources claimed that Marlow attempted to \u201cforce a relationship between us and a boy on the (men’s basketball) team.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, there are numerous allegations of physical abuse that occurred within the Salem University and Western basketball programs under both Peatross and Marlow.<\/span><\/p>\n

An anonymous source from Western alleges that \u201c(The) coaches have physically and mentally abused (the team) from the start of the season, having practices going over 2.5 hours and over (NCAA) rules -\u2013 \u201d as well as claiming that the \u201cassistant coach even hurt (a player) so badly she had to get surgery before the season started.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An anonymous source from Salem University recounts their experience of physical abuse last year, alleging that \u201cWe actually had one big incident that took place \u2014 Coach Marlow was playing with (the players), and actually pushed one of the girls into a door, where she hit her head really hard. He tried to say another girl had pushed her, but he was the only one there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside physical abuse, there are also accounts alleging that Peatross and Marlow verbally abused their players \u2014 ranging from accusations regarding invasive questions about their sexuality to demeaning language. An anonymous source from Salem University alleges that \u201cCoach Marlow yelled at a girl during a game to the point where she hyperventilated, and after one game, Coach Peatross yelled at a girl and got in her face looking as if she wanted to fight the girl.\u201d Sexually charged comments were allegedly repeatedly made by Peatross, with one source divulging that \u201cJessica would constantly ask about our sexualities, constantly asking if we liked boys or girls.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The allegations claim that there was irreversible damage done to the players and their season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The anonymous source from Western claims that \u201cNot only were we stripped of our season but we all struggled immensely and not a single person in the athletic department helped us (except) for the (athletic) training staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Salem University source spoke about the damages inflicted on them and disclosed that \u201cThey broke down our mental health to the point where we had no repair, no uplift in any situation at all. It was kill or be killed to the point where a lot of the girl\u2019s first years in America were ruined because they didn\u2019t give them the proper treatment or experience. They traumatized us. Broke our bodies. We were disciplined because we were scared of what they may do, not because of how good of coaches they were. No one heard us when we seeked help, it was all turned back on us and it made us even more scared and worried about what they may do to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An official statement from Western President Jesse Peters to the Howl announced that \u201cWe remain committed to upholding the highest standards within all of our athletics programs. To that end, we have opened an investigation into these matters, and we remain committed to creating a positive and productive environment for everyone in the WOU community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Randi Lydum, Jessica Peatross, and Demetrius Marlow did not answer our request for comment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":9367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1512,2270,1788,2267,246,2272,2271,2268,2032,2269],"class_list":["post-20799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-basketball","tag-coaching-staff","tag-ncaa","tag-season","tag-sports","tag-title-ix","tag-winter-season","tag-wolves-athletics","tag-womens-basketball","tag-womens-sports"],"modified_by":"Jared Montgomery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22171,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20799\/revisions\/22171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}