Boston U. women's coach accused of bullying by players

By Andre Vergara
Published

Boston University'€™s women's basketball coach is being investigated by the school after four players quit the team and accused her of bullying them.

Coach Kelly Greenberg allegedly emotionally abused her players to the point that two relinquished their $60,000-a-year scholarships and one player left school and went into therapy. One said she even considered suicide.

"Her treatment was very inconsistent," senior guard Melissa Gallo told ABC News. "€œSome days she wouldn'€™t even acknowledge your existence. She would make you feel so unbelievably invisible, like you weren'€™t even in the room, like you weren'€™t a part of the team."€

Gallo said she endured four years of abuse from Greenberg, who called her "selfish" and "€œhigh-maintenance,"€ and that the coach'€™s behavior made her cry all the time and led her to quit.

"I had a terrible experience and it made me hate the game that I came into BU loving, and I don't wish that upon anyone," she said.

It'€™s not the first time Greenberg has been accused of mistreating players. She was investigated by the school in 2008 when two scholarship players quit the team amid similar allegations.

Greenberg has refused to comment. However, current and former players are rallying around the coach, who has been at BU since 2004 and won America East Coach of the Year honors in 2009. A group of about 30 protestors demonstrated on campus Saturday to support the embattled coach.

"€œWe were shocked," Danielle Callahan, a senior guard who co-captained this year'€™s team, told the Boston Globe. "It's kind of a nightmare to hear such things said about someone you care very much about and who cares a lot about you."

Several former players felt Gallo and the other players who quit, sophomores Dionna Joynes, Katie Poppe, and Dana Theobald, were too soft to handle the challenge of being Division I student-athletes.

"I think they didn't realize how hard it was going to be and couldn'€™t handle it,"€™ Mo Moran, a captain of the 2012-13 team, told the Globe. "The fact that four girls are trying to bring down something the coach has worked so hard for is disgusting to me."

BU struggled to a 13-20 finish this season, Greenberg's worst at the school. Overall she has a record of 186-127 with the Terriers.