Ellie Lehne transfers from Wichita State to Division II school

Former Wichita State women’s basketball player Ellie Lehne is transferring to Arkansas-Fort Smith, according to the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star.

“I’m really looking forward to this great opportunity,” Lehne told the Register Star Friday. “I love their style of play and everything that the UAFS women’s basketball program is currently building.”

Lehne, from Byron, Ill., left the Shockers early last week and set off events that led to coach Jody Adams-Birch sitting out this weekend’s games and made her future uncertain. Assistant coach Kirk Crawford is the acting coach and directed the Shockers in Friday’s win over Bradley.

Lehne met with athletic director Darron Boatright to discuss her transfer and her teammates joined her on Tuesday to discuss the overall atmosphere of the team, according to sources close to the athletic department. The players boycotted practice that day, the sources said.

On Friday, Boatright declined to comment on the timetable for determining Adams-Birch’s future, and Crawford and WSU’s players were instructed to decline questions regarding the state of the program.

Lehne is the second player to leave the team since early December. Sophomore Jyar Francis left the team to transfer closer to her home of Hammond, La., WSU said in a news release on Dec. 8.

Lehne declined to discuss the situation at WSU with the Register Star.

“From the outside looking in, people will make tons of speculation,” AAU coach Bobby Mellon told the Register Star. “But this is all about Ellie wanting to go somewhere she can find happiness and be the impact player we all know she can be.”

Arkansas-Fort Smith is an NCAA Division II school. Lehne, a sophomore forward, will be eligible next season. She played in 10 games this season and averaged 0.3 points.

Adams-Birch is in her ninth season and took three straight Shocker teams to the NCAA Tournament, winning three Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championships and three postseason tournament championships in those seasons.

But Adams-Birch’s tenure has also been known for complaints of mistreatment from players by Adams-Birch and her coaching staff. Four players quit after the 2014-15 season, WSU’s third straight season in the NCAA Tournament.

In that spring, WSU interviewed 38 people associated with the program. After the investigation, the university and Adams-Birch had agreed on changes within the program. Among those changes, players and coaches were to work with a consultant in sports psychology, and players were to have a more open line of communication with department administrators.

Adams-Birch is in the third year of a five-year contract and is making around $260,000.

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Ellie Lehne transfers from Wichita State to Division II school."