Monday Olympic Sport Report

Men's Soccer

After a rough week last week the Tigers had a chance to rebound with their ACC opener on Friday. Two goals from RS-Junior Kyle Murphy (36th minute and 70th minute) led Clemson to a very important win. It's interesting to see Murphy get more and more playing time and in the games I have been able to watch he has played well at forward. I think he has played more this season than in all the others combined. Oliver Shannon, one of the holding midfielders, assisted on the first one. Shannon is coming on very well and is going to be a great option for Clemson over the next few years. He plays good long passes out of the deep midfield. TJ Castner assisted on Murphy's second goal. This gives Castner 3 assists to go with his single goal. Castner is quickly becoming a dangerous attacking option for the Tigers out of his attacking midfield position. He is deadly on free kicks and is doing a great job at setting his teammates up to score.

On Sunday, Clemson won 2-1 in OT against Providence. Phanuel Kavita got on the score sheet for the first time, converting a PK in the 25th minute. Clemson conceded a goal just a few minutes to allow Providence to tie the game. Generally, your opponent is most likely to score right after your team has scored. Oliver Shannon, who had a big impact against BC, scored the winning goal in the 93rd minute off an assist from Manolo Sanchez. Shannon is showing the qualities of a box-to-box midfielder and is already a major component of the team, offensively and defensively, as a freshman. Chris Glodack and Andrew Tarbell split time in goal against Providence, while Tarbell played all 90 minutes against BC. It appears that the staff has Tarbell as the starter for conference games but Glodack spells him in non-conference games our starts outright, as he did against South Carolina.

The team was able to rebound after a disappointing week prior, which is really what you could hope for. Clemson plays Gardner-Webb on Wednesday, Syracuse on Saturday and then Wake Forest on Friday the 26th for a much needed three game home stand. Clemson improved to 3-3 on the season and, most importantly, 1-0 in ACC play.

Volleyball

The Tigers swept their weekend tournament in Jervey Gym this weekend, sweeping both William & Mary and Wofford, before winning in 5 sets against Tennessee State. Clemson improved to 9-1 on the season, with a weekend trip to Tuscaloosa for another tournament on the schedule. This will be the last set of non-conference games before the ACC schedule kicks off.

Cross Country

The Men and Women's XC teams had the annual Furman meet this weekend. The men came in 4th, with two in the top 11 for the 8k. Aaron Ramirez finished 7th and Roland Hakes came in 11th. 3 others scored for the men. The women's team had 5 scorers as well, with Grace Barnett being the highest ranked at 20th. They finished 5th. Both teams travel up to Charlottesville this weekend for the UVA race.

Women's Soccer

The Clemson Women's Soccer team is off to one of their best starts in program history. Clemson entered the top 25 tanking (#17) for the first time since 2007. The Lady Tigers defeated Drexler 3-0 on Thursday with goals from Emily Byorth, Claire Wagner, and Paige Reckert. The final two goals (Wagner and Reckert) came in the final few minutes of the match. On Sunday, Clemson defeated Wofford 1-0. Senior Katelyn Reeve scored the lone goal in the 84th minute cleaning up a loose ball from a corner kick. Clemson dominated this game, out shooting Wofford 39-1 and 19-0 on corner kicks. The Tigers are now 7-0-1 on the season, the best start since 2002. ACC play begins with a bang on Friday as #17 Clemson travels to Blacksburg to play #3 Virginia Tech.

Lawsuit

You know how I just said the women's soccer team is off to their best start in over a decade, is ranked and undefeated? Completely ignore that. It doesn't matter. Why doesn't it matter? Because this coaching staff endangered the life of a student-athlete and attempted to have it swept under the rug. Every single coach should be forced to resign or fired. Every. Single. One. Eddie Radwanski? Fire him. Siri Mullinix? Fire her. Jeff Robbins? Fire him. Not only should they be fired, but they should also never be allowed to coach at any level ever again. Not only should the three coaches be fired, but the university officials, such as Kyle Young and Marvin Carmichael, who were involved should also be fired. What allegedly happened is absolutely inexcusable and should never happen. The coaches and school administrators have a duty to their student-athletes, a role that all coaches and administrators involved in this situation completely failed with. I'm not going to get into all of the specifics of the case which can be found here and here. However, I will say that the actions which Radwanski allegedly committed, including the late night phone call to dissuade the plaintiff from attending Clemson, are absolutely despicable and heinous. As an alumnus of Clemson I am absolutely furious and disappointed that this child would be allowed to coach one of Clemson's athletics programs.

Obviously, the University and the lawyer for the coaches are labeling the lawsuit as fact-less allegations and false. That is incredibly laughable especially when you consider that the school had the team attend a hazing seminar and complete an assignment on what they learned. The team also had extra workouts because of hazing stuff. But now they're denying it? Give me a break. There is no way that the defendants will want to take this to a jury trial, which is what the lawsuit calls for. Not only is there photo evidence of the alleged facial injuries (it looks like the aftermath of a fight), but there will also be a testimony from a neurologist that the plaintiff and her family consulted. The plaintiff has to now wear eye glasses. She can no longer drive at night. According to the neurologist she has decreased cognitive function and probably should never have played after the incident. You would imagine that the staff would have sought medical attention for the plaintiff and withheld her from practice and games because of her head injury. But they didn't. Worse, they attempted to cover it up.

So you might be thinking that this is simply a money grabbing lawsuit because it is coming 3 years after the alleged incident. That is simply not true. The plaintiff and her family attempted every single avenue with the school they could, but the school failed them. It was only in last November after a neurologist said that her playing career would have to end, and that she would have to take daily medications, that the family sought legal action. Legal cases as expansive as this one generally take time to get every thing together so 8 months is not a long time. The plaintiff is only seeking money to cover past and future medical expenses stemming from this incident. Also, traumatic brain injuries can take time to fully manifest themselves. Look at all of the former players who are suing the NFL years after their playing careers ended because their concussions are just now starting to show their full effects.

I am confident that the plaintiff will win this case, especially if it goes to trial. I hope that Clemson University has the honor to issue a formal apology and cut ties with all of the coaches and administrators who failed rather spectacularly, because what happened is not indicative of Clemson and should not be tolerated.