Three baptisms took place within Texas Tech’s softball facilities under its former head coach, an internal investigation revealed Wednesday, just over a week after the coach abruptly resigned amid allegations of other wrongdoings.
Adrian Gregory stepped down as coach of the program on Sept. 22, but the school’s investigation found that under her watch there were allegations of abuse, racially insensitive incidents and performance contracts related to weight loss, in addition to questions of religious freedom.
“A concerning finding from the interviews of current and former student-athletes was that of those asked whether they would recommend the softball program to a family member or close friend, seven said they would not,” the review said. “By contrast, seven said they would recommend the program. A worry for the review team was the head coach had lost a significant number of players from a coaching and trust perspective.”
Gregory said in a statement included in the review that she was aware of issues being raised within the past year, but believed the program was “making progress.” She denied ever having grabbed a player or coach “in any way that would cause harm or injury to them,” after the report had described three alleged incidents in which Gregory physically grabbed two players and an assistant coach.
The findings came a month after Texas Tech fired women’s basketball coach Marlene Stollings following reported allegations of an abusive culture within the program.
The school’s report on the softball program said baptisms were performed by the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) volunteer chaplain and that most of the players interviewed — all of whom identified as Christian — indicated prayer was common within the program.
“Although not communicated definitively as being voluntary, most agreed that participation in any faith-based activity was indeed voluntary,” the review said. “Attendance at any community church was not a requirement nor was participation in a Bible study, led by the FCA volunteer Chaplain, which commonly took place 15 minutes prior to practices.”
One of the players baptized, Trenity Edwards, provided video of the ceremony to USA Today in which she spoke of Gregory’s impact.
“What brought me to Christ, honestly, was this team and Coach G,’’ Edwards said in the video, according to USA Today.
Edwards told Running Poles she felt pressured to be baptized and that she had been planning to do it alongside her family.
“I felt like they really wanted me to do it,” she said. “They knew about me setting up my baptism back home and not being able to do it. After the baptism, I called my parents and told them that I wanted to do my baptism again when I got home because I wasn’t surrounded by the people I wanted to be.”
In another section of the internal investigation, the review confirmed two “racially insensitive incidents” during the 2018-2019 season. During a practice, a Black player was told by a coach to move ahead in the line for batting practice so she could work on another drill after hitting.
“The White student-athlete then made a comment to the Black student-athlete telling her, ‘Get to the back of the line Rosa [Parks],'” the review said.
The white player later apologized to the black player in a players-only meeting, according to the report, and Gregory also met with some of the team’s black players to discuss the incident. The review said that players “commonly believed that the actions taken by the head coach did not appropriately address the incident.”
“Some of our team’s recent progress in building a better culture included engaging in important conversations about social injustice and race, sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement and the national dialogue on race,” Gregory said in a statement. “Racism and discrimination in any form have no place on any team that I coach.”
