Three months after the Grumbling State Tiger’s new volleyball coach Chesley Lucas made the controversial decision to cut all the scholarship players on the volleyball team, she was fired.
Lucas was hired on February 14th after the previous coach Demetria Keys-Johnson stepped down to take another position at the University. She held three practices per week, but “most of which consisted of very few volleyball related drills and a lot of punishment-related running,” according to the Monroe News Star.
On April 4th, less than two months into her new job, she told the 12 returning scholarship players on the team that she would not be renewing their scholarships for the Fall 2022 season. The decision came as a shock to the players, leaving many looking for new programs, with some just a few credits from graduation.
“I met with my team, each student-athlete, individually to discuss my plans moving forward with the Grambling State University volleyball program,” Lucas said, “My decision was to not bring back some of the current student-athletes on the team. While student-athletes are granted athletic scholarships, a scholarship is not guaranteed and not binding, per NCAA rules and regulations.”
Dr. Trayvean Scott, Grambling State’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics, originally agreed with the decision, saying that “Just as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs.”
“[Lucas] said that we weren’t able to practice much, which we weren’t, and she said based off of that she was not able to renew my scholarship, so I didn’t really get any time to show what I could do,” junior Maurisa Harris told KSLA news 12. “When I was in there and she told me, my heart completely broke. … I didn’t cry in there, but I did when I left, and it just hurts really bad, the fact that it was snatched away so fast.”
Lucas was hired on February 14th after the previous coach Demetria Keys-Johnson stepped down to take another position at the University. She held three practices per week, but “most of which consisted of very few volleyball related drills and a lot of punishment-related running,” according to the Monroe News Star.
On April 4th, less than two months into her new job, she told the 12 returning scholarship players on the team that she would not be renewing their scholarships for the Fall 2022 season. The decision came as a shock to the players, leaving many looking for new programs, with some just a few credits from graduation.
“I met with my team, each student-athlete, individually to discuss my plans moving forward with the Grambling State University volleyball program,” Lucas said, “My decision was to not bring back some of the current student-athletes on the team. While student-athletes are granted athletic scholarships, a scholarship is not guaranteed and not binding, per NCAA rules and regulations.”
Dr. Trayvean Scott, Grambling State’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics, originally agreed with the decision, saying that “Just as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs.”
“[Lucas] said that we weren’t able to practice much, which we weren’t, and she said based off of that she was not able to renew my scholarship, so I didn’t really get any time to show what I could do,” junior Maurisa Harris told KSLA news 12. “When I was in there and she told me, my heart completely broke. … I didn’t cry in there, but I did when I left, and it just hurts really bad, the fact that it was snatched away so fast.”
