When first-year Syracuse women’s basketball coach Keith Cieplicki signed up for the job last spring, he didn’t sign up for the problems that ensued.

Details of Cieplicki’s tumultuous first season have begun to emerge. Former players Marchele Campbell, Tierra Jackson and April Jean have all decided to speak out about their experiences under Cieplicki. Campbell sat out the 2002-03 season for failing to meet initial NCAA eligibility requirement. Jean missed the first semester of this season for NCAA academic suspension.

All three players had a dismal experience playing for Cieplicki. Jackson, Jean, Campbell and a current SU player who asked to remain anonymous accused Cieplicki of threatening scholarships, being racially insensitive and acting disrespectfully to players and administrative staff.

Cieplicki, though, denied these accusations. Cieplicki and Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel attributed much of the criticism to a different coaching style from former head coach Marianna Freeman

‘This year was abnormal,’ Campbell said. ‘Never in my life have I had problems with a coach. I feel like I’m a bad person. It’s making me feel like I’m causing problems. The coach is driving people off the team.’

Besides the one current SU player who has agreed to speak anonymously, the rest of the Orangewomen declined comment to The Daily Orange. Some said these players refused comment out of fear of the repercussions of their comments. Campbell, who is still close with her former teammates, said that if players weren’t afraid of losing their scholarships, all but one player would have left the team.

While the players interviewed all gave general accounts of their problems with Cieplicki, they struggled to give many specific examples.

Campbell, Jackson and Jean all said that during the course of the season Cieplicki made what they felt to be racially insensitive remarks. They said that when Cieplicki approached black players, he would say, ‘What up dog?’

During one practice, Jean told Cieplicki that her name was not ‘dog’ and to please call her April. Accounts differ as to what happened next. Cieplicki refused to comment on the situation. Two of his assistant coaches, Mandy Ronay and Morgan Hall – who also played under Cieplicki for four years at Vermont – said Cieplicki immediately apologized. Jean, though, said that, after practice, Cieplicki took her aside and told her to not embarrass him again in front of his players and coaches.

Former Orangewoman Shannon Perry, who decided not to play this season, said she only met Cieplicki a couple of times, but he also greeted her with the phrase ‘What up, dog?’ Perry said that attitude contributed to her decision not to play this season.

Campbell, Jackson and Jean also said that white recruits who came to visit the school would stay with white players and black recruits would stay with black players. Ronay, who helps pair up recruits with players, said that was not the case. She said players and recruits were paired according to personalities and interests, not skin color.

‘I feel that I’ve coached all players, both black and white, appropriately,’ Cieplicki said. ‘It’s something I’m very sensitive to, especially in a position like mine.’

Cieplicki also said that at the end of the season he gave out a new survey, which asked the players to rate the coaching staff. One of the areas touched on was race, and none of the players had anything negative to say in that area, Cieplicki said. Cieplicki said that, in general, the feedback was quite positive. Crouthamel said that he was aware of the incident with Jean and has discussed it with Cieplicki. He added that it had been blown out of proportion.

Hall, who earned All-American East conference honors in all four of her seasons under Cieplicki, also defended the coach. She said that at Vermont, Cieplicki called players, both black and white, ‘dog’ on several occasions.

‘You can use the race card if you want, but you’ve got to look a little deeper than that,’ Hall said. ‘He did it at Vermont, and there were no black people there. No one had a problem with it.’

Hall was the only black player on Vermont last season.

The players also felt that Cieplicki didn’t care about them because a different coach recruited them. An anonymous player still on the Orangewomen said that, after the season, Cieplicki held a team meeting in which he said that he didn’t really coach SU this year.

‘He told us he just wanted to observe us this season,’ she said. ‘I don’t think he really cared. We’re not his players. To all of us, it was just like he didn’t care.’

Cieplicki has also been accused of threatening players’ scholarships. While Cieplicki denied this, Crouthamel said it may have been used as a motivation technique. Ultimately, though, Crouthamel is the only person who can revoke a scholarship. He said that if any of the current Orangewomen decided to leave the team, but remain at SU, they would be allowed to keep their scholarships. This is currently the case with Jean and Perry.

Crouthamel said none of the current players have approached him about the possibility of leaving the team but keeping their scholarships. He said a scholarship can only be revoked for breaking team rules, breaking an NCAA rule or substance violations.

From all accounts, Cieplicki is much more intense and shows more passion than Freeman, who resigned last year after 10 seasons with the Orangewomen. Crouthamel said that while Freeman didn’t necessarily do things the wrong way, the Orangewomen weren’t winning. This made it necessary for a change – a change which understandably has been difficult for some players to adapt to.

‘Situations like this are inevitable when change is made,’ Crouthamel said. ‘Players are caught in a transition. I don’t feel like things happened to them which they should not have anticipated. The first person you blame is the coach. It’s always the coach’s fault. You may not like the coach’s style. That’s going to happen in transition. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.’

Before Crouthamel hired Cieplicki, he checked into Cieplicki’s past and talked with people in Vermont’s athletic administration. Cieplicki is extremely well regarded in Vermont and considered one of the top basketball players ever to come out of the state. He has also had a remarkable success record as a coach. In six seasons at Vermont, he never had a losing season, and in 2000 he took the Catamounts to the NCAA Tournament.

Vermont assistant athletic director Joe Fischer has known Cieplicki since he first arrived at Vermont. At the time, Fischer was the school’s swimming coach. He said that Cieplicki always pushes his players and could see why players who don’t want to be pushed could have a problem with him. But he said that Cieplicki is both a great person and great coach.

‘There’s not a coach alive who doesn’t have any problems with his players,’ Fischer said. ‘I don’t care if it’s women’s basketball or swimming.’

The problems for Cieplicki first began in late December when he suspended four players – Campbell, Tracy Harbut, Jackson and Jean – for violating team academic policy. Soon after, Jackson and Jean left the team.

Now, following a season in which the Orangewomen won only six games – SU’s lowest total since the 1996-97 season – both Campbell and sophomore center Jill Norton have also decided to transfer. This leaves Syracuse with just six scholarship players for next year, not including three recruits who have committed to the Orangewomen.

Campbell said when the players first met Cieplicki, they liked him and found him to be funny. But as the season began, they experienced problems with Cieplicki. She said that he started to disrespect the players and ‘look at them like they were nothing.’

Cieplicki and his assistants all said they feel the players remaining on the team are all committed to success next season. They have all been taking part in workouts, and the coaches said they have shown no signs of not wanting to be there.

For the most part, Cieplicki declined to comment on past allegations but chose to comment mostly on the future. From the beginning, he expected this to be a difficult season and said he has no regrets.

Crouthamel said he’s satisfied with the direction the program has taken after one season under Cieplicki. He added that he has no regrets about hiring Cieplicki and has no problems with the way Cieplicki has conducted himself this season.

Published on April 21, 2004 at 12:00 pm