What We've Learned About The Auburn University Softball Investigation
What We've Learned About The Auburn University Softball Investigation
Last week, news broke about the alleged sexual harassment of Auburn softball players under Head Coach Clint Myers, who is said to have allowed his son and assistant coach, Corey Myers, have and pursue sexual relations with players on the team.
Last week, news broke about the alleged sexual harassment of Auburn softball players during the tenure of head coach Clint Myers, who is said to have allowed his son and assistant coach, Corey Myers, to pursue sexual relations with players on the team. Amid all the news surrounding the ongoing investigation, here's what's surfaced so far:
1. Alexa Nemeth filed a complaint, but she wasn't the only player to speak out
Nemeth, a rising freshman and former walk-on pitcher, partnered with Milwaukee attorney Max Greenberg to file a Title IX complaint and a 14-page letter in July that described ongoing sexual harassment from the Auburn coaching staff. She expressed concern that the university may have assisted in efforts to cover it up.
Her complaint, which states that "coach Clint Myers knowingly let his son Corey Myers have relations and pursue relations with multiple members of the team," was sent to the Auburn administration and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey a month before Clint Myers retired last Thursday, August 24.
Watch Nemeth's first public interview with AL.com:
As reported by AuburnTigers.com, Clint Myers cited family reasons for his untimely departure from the highly successful program. But after the news broke about the Title IX complaint, the Auburn athletic department issued a statement on August 27 that said, "Once the facts were established, changes to the staff quickly followed."
According to Cassie Arner, Auburn's associate athletic director for strategic communications, the university began investigating the program when a number of players lodged anonymous ethics complaints against Corey Myers. Shortly after, he took a two-week hiatus from the program.
Former shortstop Haley Fagan told ESPN his time off was only temporary because the Auburn coaching staff asked players to go to the athletic department to "go fight for Corey."
He quit seven months later in March of 2017. Shortly after the season concluded, Nemeth was cut from the team.
2. The Title IX complaint also implicates Auburn officials
Nemeth's letter stated that on March 30, 2017, "several players approached head coach Myers with proof in the form of text messages from a student-athlete's cell phone that coach Corey was having an inappropriate relationship with one of the student-athletes." She also wrote that, in response, the team was "quarantined" for hours before traveling to Georgia.
After interviewing five former players, ESPN reported that "Auburn executive associate athletic director Meredith Jenkins told the players they were risking arrest for taking the text messages from their teammate's phone and ordered them to delete the messages."
3. The scandal may have fueled Haley Fagan's confrontation with Tim Walton
In interviews with ESPN, several Auburn players said one of their teammates took photos of "intimate" texts between Corey Myers and another player on their way to their showdown with the Florida Gators on March 27. The conflagration that ensued between Fagan and head coach Tim Walton afterward, thought to have been triggered by bad blood, may have started with the emotional ordeal of discovering those text messages on the bus ride to the game.
Later, a number of players, including Kasey Cooper and Fagan, reportedly refused to ride in the bus to Athens, Georgia, with the player who allegedly had the "intimate" text conversation with Corey Myers.
"We said that if she gets on, we're staying off," Fagan told ESPN. "It was a team decision."
4. Auburn hired a law firm to independently investigate its softball program
Yesterday, Auburn president Steven Leath announced that the university is performing a "comprehensive review" of its softball program and has hired a Birmingham law firm to conduct the investigation as an impartial third party.
FloSoftball will continue to report on this story as it develops -- stay tuned for updates.
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1. Alexa Nemeth filed a complaint, but she wasn't the only player to speak out
Nemeth, a rising freshman and former walk-on pitcher, partnered with Milwaukee attorney Max Greenberg to file a Title IX complaint and a 14-page letter in July that described ongoing sexual harassment from the Auburn coaching staff. She expressed concern that the university may have assisted in efforts to cover it up.
Her complaint, which states that "coach Clint Myers knowingly let his son Corey Myers have relations and pursue relations with multiple members of the team," was sent to the Auburn administration and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey a month before Clint Myers retired last Thursday, August 24.
Watch Nemeth's first public interview with AL.com:
As reported by AuburnTigers.com, Clint Myers cited family reasons for his untimely departure from the highly successful program. But after the news broke about the Title IX complaint, the Auburn athletic department issued a statement on August 27 that said, "Once the facts were established, changes to the staff quickly followed."
According to Cassie Arner, Auburn's associate athletic director for strategic communications, the university began investigating the program when a number of players lodged anonymous ethics complaints against Corey Myers. Shortly after, he took a two-week hiatus from the program.
Former shortstop Haley Fagan told ESPN his time off was only temporary because the Auburn coaching staff asked players to go to the athletic department to "go fight for Corey."
He quit seven months later in March of 2017. Shortly after the season concluded, Nemeth was cut from the team.
2. The Title IX complaint also implicates Auburn officials
Nemeth's letter stated that on March 30, 2017, "several players approached head coach Myers with proof in the form of text messages from a student-athlete's cell phone that coach Corey was having an inappropriate relationship with one of the student-athletes." She also wrote that, in response, the team was "quarantined" for hours before traveling to Georgia.
After interviewing five former players, ESPN reported that "Auburn executive associate athletic director Meredith Jenkins told the players they were risking arrest for taking the text messages from their teammate's phone and ordered them to delete the messages."
3. The scandal may have fueled Haley Fagan's confrontation with Tim Walton
In interviews with ESPN, several Auburn players said one of their teammates took photos of "intimate" texts between Corey Myers and another player on their way to their showdown with the Florida Gators on March 27. The conflagration that ensued between Fagan and head coach Tim Walton afterward, thought to have been triggered by bad blood, may have started with the emotional ordeal of discovering those text messages on the bus ride to the game.
Later, a number of players, including Kasey Cooper and Fagan, reportedly refused to ride in the bus to Athens, Georgia, with the player who allegedly had the "intimate" text conversation with Corey Myers.
"We said that if she gets on, we're staying off," Fagan told ESPN. "It was a team decision."
4. Auburn hired a law firm to independently investigate its softball program
Yesterday, Auburn president Steven Leath announced that the university is performing a "comprehensive review" of its softball program and has hired a Birmingham law firm to conduct the investigation as an impartial third party.
FloSoftball will continue to report on this story as it develops -- stay tuned for updates.
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