BOWLING GREEN — Several former Bowling Green State University gymnasts and their families have made accusations of mistreatment by coach Kerrie Turner and her top assistant, Jason Bauer — but the school paid for an investigation into the claims and said it found no evidence of physical or mental abuse, or any violations of NCAA rules.
The program is embroiled in a dispute over the coaching of Mrs. Turner and Mr. Bauer, who some families say should be fired for their alleged behavior, while other families believe the pair has done nothing wrong.
The Blade obtained internal documents through a public records request and contacted more than 20 people in and out of the BG gymnastics program. The accounts of the program’s culture varied greatly.
The attorney of one family described Mrs. Turner and Mr. Bauer as using “Mike Rice tactics,” referring to the former Rutgers men’s basketball coach who was fired in 2013 for shoving and verbally abusing his players.
Several gymnasts said Mrs. Turner pushed them or their teammates to physical or mental breaking points, skirted practice time requirements, intentionally isolated the gymnasts she disliked, and retaliated against any whistleblowing — claims that Mrs. Turner denies.
Mr. Bauer told the father of a BGSU gymnast struggling with injuries that if all else failed, they could “take her out back and shoot her like a lame horse,” a comment he later admitted to making. BGSU said it suspended Mr. Bauer for two weeks without pay.
BGSU hired Toledo-based law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick to perform an investigation into the allegations in September, 2018. The investigation “found no evidence of mistreatment that would rise to the level of physical and mental abuse,” and 16 of 22 gymnasts told investigators that their experience at BGSU was generally positive.
“I feel comfortable that they completed a thorough, independent investigation,” BGSU director of athletics Bob Moosbrugger said.
The school ultimately retained the staff, said it made necessary “corrective actions,” and implemented a plan to build a better team atmosphere. Additionally, five families of current BG gymnasts contacted The Blade in support of the coaches.
However, some of the initial complainants dispute the nature of the investigation, which they said was performed out of BGSU’s self-interest by a friendly law firm, as Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick has represented the school in the past.
“If this were a true investigation, where the investigators were genuinely looking for truth and patterns of abuse, the investigators would have to dig deeper than just the events of the previous month,” said Martin J. Greenberg, an attorney for the family of suspended BGSU gymnast Grace Logan. “A culture of abuse develops and presents itself over time, there is a pattern that is created and reinforced, but this pattern is only visible when you review the whole picture.”
Points of contention
In the fall of 2017, Rob Marion went to Bowling Green to visit his daughter, Samantha, who was a freshman on the team. He said Samantha arrived at the university with nagging ankle and wrist injuries, but still wanted to be present for team activities.
Despite the injuries, Mr. Marion said the coaches pushed Samantha to complete their cardio program, which he believes directly led to her back injury. He said BGSU tried to blame the problem on a back injury that occurred years earlier, but when he took his daughter to a specialist in New York, an MRI confirmed the injury took place while she was at Bowling Green.
During the injury troubles, Mr. Bauer made the “lame horse” comment to Mr. Marion, which left him stunned.
“My reaction was that I was completely in shock,” Mr. Marion said.
Mr. Bauer had to sign a “Last Chance Agreement” by the end of the day Oct. 11 if he wanted to continue working at BGSU. One of the stipulations was that he apologize directly to the Marions. On Feb. 19, Mr. Marion said that still had not happened.
“Here we are, over four months later, and I’m still waiting for an apology,” he said.
BGSU sent a record of Mr. Bauer’s personnel file to The Blade on the morning of Feb. 21. Two hours later, Mr. Bauer emailed the Marions and apologized for a misguided attempt to bring “levity” to Ms. Marion’s injury issues.
Mr. Moosbrugger said he believed the two-week suspension was just punishment, but he was unaware that Mr. Bauer had not apologized until last week.
“That is news to me,” Mr. Moosbrugger said. “I asked Kerrie if he had apologized, and she indicated that he had.”
BGSU issued a statement Friday that said it was “disappointed” to learn Mr. Bauer waited and said it is reviewing his compliance with the disciplinary agreements.
Ms. Marion is still on the team. During the past nine months, though, nine gymnasts with eligibility remaining were kicked off, suspended from, or quit the team, though the roster of 24 last season was unusually large.
Nacaida Kearns was among the departures. Ms. Kearns said fitness testing pushed her to the point of vomiting, after which the coaches screamed at her to finish. She said Mrs. Turner made “hurtful” comments about her weight during the summer, saying it looked as if she would not pass cardio testing.
Ms. Kearns said she stopped eating for a time and eventually explored going to another school — Mrs. Turner found out — but opted to remain at BGSU, although she is no longer on the team. Ms. Kearns said she loves the school, but felt compelled to speak out about her experience on the team.
“I don’t ever want to see anyone else go through what I did,” Ms. Kearns said. “We do this for 14 years, and we think that college is going to be the best four years academically and athletically, and it ruined me. I don’t ever want to see future gymnasts go through that.”
Shannon Goniwiecha, who graduated from BGSU last year, said Mrs. Turner attempted to pull her scholarship after an Achilles injury as a junior — Mrs. Turner denies ever threatening to pull a scholarship because of an injury — and said the constant emotional wear on the BGSU gymnasts by the coaches is overwhelming.
“People get frustrated and people have bad days, but to have two to three girls having a mental breakdown almost every day, or some person doing it consistently every day, that’s not supposed to happen,” Ms. Goniwiecha said.
Several current and former gymnasts declined comment when reached. Two current gymnasts, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, both used the word “broken” to describe the team’s current culture.
However, the feeling is far from unanimous; many families say they are more than satisfied with the program. Several parents who spoke to The Blade said that Mrs. Turner and Mr. Bauer are competent coaches who treat their daughters with respect.
In a challenging sport, they said the Bowling Green coaches are demanding, but not at all abusive.
Tracey Rose, whose daughter, Kayla, is a senior on the team, said being part of the program has been “an invaluable experience” to her daughter.
“The coaches have taught these girls not only how to be a good gymnast, but how to be a good teammate, friend, and overall to be a good person,” she wrote in an email.
In Mrs. Turner’s 12 seasons as head coach, BGSU gymnasts have combined for nine Mid-American Conference individual titles. The team qualified for the NCAA regionals in 2016 for the first time since 1991. Last season, Jovannah East, now a junior, became the second gymnast in the program’s history to qualify for the NCAA championship meet.
The Falcons’ record in team competitions during that time is 53-116; they are 1-12 (0-5 MAC) this season.
Mary Lawson, whose daughter, Elena, is a sophomore on the team, said the gymnastics community becomes fairly small over time. She said a gymnast’s discipline plays a major factor in her college career, and that the BG coaches always have been reasonable with their team requirements.
“I don’t think anything more has been asked of Elena than any of her friends that are at other schools,” Mrs. Lawson said.
Randy De Meno’s daughter, Lauren, is a current BG senior. He said the complaints are coming from “a couple squeaky wheels making a lot of noise” who “in no way, shape, or form are representing the majority of the team.”
Mrs. Turner, who was an assistant at BG before becoming the head coach, said her gymnasts’ care is her foremost concern.
The investigation and its fallout, she said, have been hard.
“It was very difficult on myself personally,” she said. “I put my life into this program for 15 years, always with the best interest of my student-athletes and their welfare in mind.”
Suspension spurs investigation
Ms. Logan, a walk-on as a freshman in 2017, was at the center of the investigation. She, along with three teammates, went to Mr. Moosbrugger in August, 2018, to raise concerns about a culture they viewed as “toxic” and a fitness test they said was impossible to complete without modifications.
Once she went to the administration, Ms. Logan said, the coaches’ attitude toward her completely changed, and they refused to give her any coaching.
“From that moment on, I was doomed,” she said. “They didn’t like me anymore, and that’s what it is. As soon as they decide they don’t want you, they make it so miserable for you that you either have to be done or they’ll find some way to kick you off.”
The fitness test, which was not approved by a BGSU strength coach beforehand, contained four rounds of 100 repetitions of various exercises to be completed in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. That was followed by additional mat exercises, backflips, and then six sprints — one for each MAC opponent.
Ms. Logan said she failed the test without modifications, and that she believes coaches were using the test to “weed out” gymnasts they did not want.
Mr. Moosbrugger put a stop to the test to review it after the complaint. The investigation found eight gymnasts had passed the test before its shutdown, and all eight had injury modifications.
Investigators said Mrs. Turner should have cleared the implementation of the test first, but determined it was safe for use. While the test is rigorous, Mrs. Turner said, there is a reason the coaches give their gymnasts challenging assignments.
“You have to have high standards for your student-athletes, because it keeps them safe and keeps them performing at a high level,” Mrs. Turner said. “You do have to be demanding in terms of completing the assignment safely and with good quality. That’s how you improve your program.”
On Aug. 24, assistant gymnastics coach Marissa Beucler and athletic training graduate assistant Tori Bouchard saw Ms. Logan, who is 19, exiting a campus bar. Ms. Logan said she initially denied it when her coaches asked about the night, but she eventually admitted to consuming alcohol and apologized in the same meeting. She said that other teammates were at the bar, and two even confessed to underage drinking, yet she was punished most severely.
“I understand that I was under 21 and consequences needed to happen,” Ms. Logan said. “But when you compare it to the treatment of everybody else and everything that happened, it didn’t add up.”
The Logan family then hired Mr. Greenberg as counsel. Mr. Greenberg said in a Sept. 26 letter that the alleged misbehavior has been going on for years at BGSU.
Upon the conclusion of the investigation on Sept. 28, the Logans believed the investigators acted in BGSU’s interest.
“These lawyers were protecting Bowling Green,” said Jeff Logan, Ms. Logan’s father. “When we started reading it, it was hurtful, and then it became laughable, because it was so obvious.”
The investigation absolved Mrs. Turner and Mr. Bauer of serious wrongdoing, but it was not a glowing review, either.
"It is evident that the current team culture and environment is not positive," the investigators said, and criticized certain practices. Among them was an exercise in which everyone on the team had to anonymously rate every one of their teammates and leave comments. The girls were then lined up from least respected to most respected and asked to read a note card featuring their teammates’ comments about them.
“We found this exercise to be ill-advised, hurtful to some [gymnasts], and detrimental to the overall team culture,” the report said.
The report also made mention of a March, 2018, meeting, during which many women said Mrs. Turner discouraged them from going to the administration with complaints. “This created fear and intimidation” among a few women on the team, investigators said. Prior to meeting, investigators determined that Mr. Bauer texted one gymnast “ostensibly to identify who was planning to go to the administration.”
Mr. Moosbrugger issued formal letters of reprimand to both Mrs. Turner and Mr. Bauer that called for changes in the team culture, including communication that does not intimidate the gymnasts, more involvement with the strength coaches, and not embarrassing students by having them stay in rank order.
Mrs. Turner said she respects the school’s handling of the complaints.
“I appreciate BGSU taking our student-athletes’ concerns very seriously in this case,” she said. “They were listened to. They were taken seriously.”
BGSU has rejected calls to fire the staff. Mrs. Turner said the team is in a “positive place” right now.
But until there is a coaching change, critics of the program say, it will never change.
“Some of my friends who have quit, they’re so broken,” said a former gymnast who left the school altogether. “It hurts me to see, because I’m so happy now, and I feel like everyone deserves that. I want them to have that. It’s hard for me to know they won’t be able to experience that as long as they’re on the team.”
First Published March 1, 2019, 4:45 p.m.
