The elimination of the entire volleyball team is the latest sign that Grambling State is going insane

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I don’t know what’s going on at Grambling State University’s athletics department, but someone needs to request a health check for them.

Did you fall and hit your head? Is something in the water? Did you catch bad edibles?

Whatever the case, these people are tripping straight up.

First, they hired Art Briles as their assistant football coach in February. None of the NCAA’s other top 260 colleges have touched the former Baylor coach in six years Blistering, 51-page report said his “uninteresting attitude towards potentially criminal behavior by his student athletes is deeply disturbing”. The ensuing howl of protest surprised no one but the government, and Briles resigned four days after his announcement.

Grambling State shouldn't have hired former Baylor coach Art Briles in the first place

Evidence ahead of time suggests new sporting director Trayvean Scott may have brought a clown show to town. (The day before Briles’ hiring was announced, a Head Boy claimed it was one such conversation just a rumor.) But recent events have convinced an undecided jury, and the verdict is in:

Grambling’s athletics department is one crazy AF.

The new women’s volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas cut the whole team. All 19 players, just like that. No more practice, no more competition and no more scholarships. We can’t pinpoint the worst part of this situation because everything about it is bad.

The Clowns have morphed into the Three Stooges – Scott, Lucas and GSU Athletics Communications Director Brian Howard. “I hate saying with the old, but a little with the new.” Howard said KSLA. “… At the end of the day, Coach Lucas has a goal, has a vision. We have a goal as an institution and also a vision to win, and that’s first and foremost,” he said.

Either he can’t hear himself or he’s unmusical. Sure, he can read and write, but he can’t read the time.

Neither does Scott, who sounds damn petty about college athletes’ recently acquired right to switch schools. “Just as the transfer portal empowers student athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs,” Scott said in a statement, according to KSLA.

Yes, and coach Hue Jackson decided he needed Briles to move the football program forward. How did that work?

Scott and his whack-ass judgment have to take up a whole row of seats.

luke, discontinued in February, is a Grambling graduate and former Southwestern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. But she is proof that skinfolk is not kinfolk. She is as cold and calculating as the most callous Caucasian. Imagine a white coach walking in and scrapping the entire roster. She would be dragged through the Twitterverse.

Lucas deserves the same energy we would have for Becky.

Contrary to Howard’s assertion, winning games shouldn’t come first when Grambling describes his goal and vision as an institution. HBCUs are in the business of shaping and developing young Black adults. The mission is not to emulate the money-making sports factories that play on ESPN and Network TV. Grambling isn’t meant to resemble SEC powerhouses who don’t give a damn about players off the soccer field or basketball court.

“I have to say, I’m really sick,” said Destiny Johnson, a second-year defensive tackle wrote on Twitter. “All the time, energy and dedication I put into the volleyball program here at Grambling State was thrown right in my face.”

Not that it matters, but the team wasn’t bad.

The Tigers ended 8-8 in conference play (11-17 overall), good for fifth place out of 12 teams. Sophomore Jada Taylor was named SWAC Preseason Libero/Defensive Player of the Year. Junior Gillian Jones was on the preseason All-SWAC Second Team. Four of the team’s top five scorers should return, including A’Lexus Everett, a freshman last year.

If Lucas is such a great coach, she should have taken what she inherited and built on it. Get to know the players and give them the chance to learn and grow under their guidance. Instead, Howard said Lucas had “14 or 15 high-quality players on board.” Some are believed to be from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where Lucas coached for three years and won 13-3 in SWAC last season.

Welcome to March Madness, where players are still exploited

We know the vast majority of sports scholarships are not guaranteed and must be renewed annually. And we know that a few underperforming players in any sport can be quietly sent home every year. But barring gross misconduct or academic failings, there’s no excuse for kicking an entire team to the curb.

From Friday morning the volleyball list found on Grambling’s website has no players listed. Only an error message appears.

Judging by Lucas’ actions – and Insight from one of their former playersSimone Joiner – the mistake applies to Scott.

Not only to hire Lucas, but to let her run wild.


Deron Snyder thegrio.com

Deron Snyder, an award-winning columnist and director of BlackDoor Ventures, Inc., is a veteran journalist, Stratcomm expert, author, and associate professor. He hails from Brooklyn and is an Alpha of HU-You Know. He lives in metropolitan DC with his wife Vanessa, mother of their daughters Sierra and Sequoia. To learn more, please visit blackdoorventures.com/deron.

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