So, let’s imagine I’m an all-conference athlete. For the past couple years, I’ve been instrumental in my team’s multiple championships and have reaped plenty of awards.
Then, out of nowhere, I decide that I don’t want to play at the U anymore. I don’t need to give a reason for my decision — we’ll just call it personal issues. It’s not like the fans that have followed me through thick and thin deserve to know why I’m leaving the team or anything.
I’m just going to put in my two weeks’ notice and take off for greener pastures. I’m not the only one, either. Coincidentally, one or two of my teammates have also decided to leave the school at the exact same time.
I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no, we’re not conspiring against Chris Hill or our athletics program. This isn’t some big sabotage mission against Elaine Elliott or Beth Launiere, and no, there are no rules being broken by other schools or teams.
Nope, we just decided to leave the university on the exact same week for no particular reason. That’s not weird or anything, is it?
During the course of a week, six athletes from the volleyball and women’s basketball teams asked their coaches if they could be released from their scholarships and leave the U.
First came an announcement April 10 from the women’s basketball program that four of its better players would be leaving. Junior Joh-Teena Filipe said in an article in The Salt Lake Tribune that her reason for leaving was she “didn’t feel like she fit into the program.”
She said that she loved the coaches and her teammates, but that “it was just a personal thing she was going through.”
Also leaving the team was Brette Ulsaker, a freshman from McPherson, Kan., who reasoned that she “didn’t enjoy being 1,000 miles away from home.”
She, too, thanked the coaching staff at the U and said there were no hard feelings.
Whatever their reasons, is it a coincidence that all four women decided to leave the team at the exact same time? Maybe, but the whole thing seems pretty shady to me.
Similarly, in volleyball, two all-conference players — Airial Salvo and Sydney Anderson — asked Utah coach Beth Launiere if they could be released from their scholarships. They didn’t give reasons for their leaving, but it was basically uncovered thanks to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Salvo’s mother went on record in the paper saying an Olympic staff member told the girls that competition wasn’t stiff enough in the Mountain West Conference. She went on to say that the two girls wanted to play for a national championship.
Now, I’m not sure about the propriety of this issue, but this is, at the very least, extremely frowned upon. To have an Olympic official basically say that you don’t have a chance to make the Olympics if you don’t transfer to another school is unfair to the team — not to mention potentially detrimental to recruiting efforts.
For those of you who don’t know, allow me to elaborate on Utah volleyball for a moment (I feel that I’m qualified to do so because I covered the team this year).
These women were incredible. They finished their season with a 28-4 record, went undefeated in conference play, advanced to the NCAA tournament and finished the season ranked No. 15 in the nation.
All of that without a single senior on their roster. The team that would have been coming back would have realistically had a chance to make a run for the Final Four or maybe even a national championship. Although I’ve been told that the team looks as good as ever at this point, losing two key players like Salvo and Anderson has to hurt.
I felt as though I got familiar with Salvo and Anderson throughout the course of last season. My impression was that they were two great role models for the local youth who came to their games. I always saw them talking to fans or signing autographs after games.
But after their abrupt departure from the program, I’m not so sure about them being someone for kids to look up to. Whether it is on the collegiate or the professional level, abandoning your teammates to go after “greener pastures” is something that should never happen.
The fact that these girls were spoon-fed the same garbage from an Olympic coach concerns me even more.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to use the word “scandal,” but it’s definitely shady when two members of the same team decide to quit a school based on one coach’s opinion.
The fact that Salvo and Anderson left the team merely one day after Filipe, Ulsaker, Lydia Whitehead and Marie Warner may be a freak coincidence, but when has anything like this ever happened before?
Call me a cynic, but the whole thing seems pretty sketchy to me.
