WSU, Adams-Birch work on finalizing departure

Linda Hargrove and Jody Adams-Birch talked on the phone Saturday and Hargrove said Adams-Birch offered her help with the playbook.

So began the transition of power in Wichita State women’s basketball, one designed to calm the turmoil that’s affected the program for years and give the athletes a steady experience for the remainder of the season under Hargrove. It is a transition and it is also replay — Hargrove coached the Shockers from 1989-98 before leaving for professional basketball.

“Trying to give them a voice and trying to bring a group of people together,” Hargrove said. “I’ve coached for 36 years and I think one of my strengths was pulling people together and having them work hard for a common goal.”

On Sunday, Wichita State announced Hargrove would replace Adams-Birch and finish the season. Adams-Birch did not coach WSU’s two weekend games after the decision of sophomore Ellie Lehne to transfer started events, sources said, that led to Adams-Birch’s departure. Hargrove watched WSU’s win over Illinois State from the stands, wearing a Shocker sweatshirt, with her husband, Ed. Athletic director Darron Boatright informed the team of the change after Sunday’s game.

On Monday, Hargrove, 66, started to meet with players and develop a plan for the season.

“In meeting with the players — some of them are sad, some of them are confused,” Hargrove said. “They’re all stressed. It’s been a very stressful situation for them. I heard the word ‘fun’ two or three times. They said they had fun (Sunday). They played free and they had fun. We kind of want to get that feeling back.”

WSU will pay Hargrove $5,000 a week for the remainder of the season. She said she is not a candidate for the permanent job and will help Boatright with the coaching search.

The financial implications of Adams-Birch’s departure are not final, Boatright said. She is in the third season of a five-year contract that pays her around $260,000. Boatright said that WSU had exercised a provision in the contract that ended its automatic one-year extensions.

“We’re finalizing an agreement currently, and until that’s finalized, I don’t think it serves anyone well to comment,” Boatright said.

Adams-Birch’s contract includes a buyout clause that calls for payment of her salary through the completion of her contract or $500,000, whichever is less, if her employment is ended for any reason other than “good cause.”

“Good cause,” the contract states, would include gross professional or personal misconduct, refusal to perform duties, knowing and deliberate failure to properly supervise the coaching staff and provide oversight of the program.

Boatright wouldn’t discuss specifics of Adams-Birch’s contract or settlement negotiations.

Assistant coach Kirk Crawford coached the Shockers in wins over Bradley and Illinois State. Boatright said he targeted Hargrove for the temporary job and would have turned to Crawford if she was not interested. Crawford, Bridgette Gordon and Kaci Bailey will continue as assistants under Hargrove.

“On Friday, it became apparent we would be working on a separation agreement,” he said. “I wanted her (Hargrove) to have the opportunity to turn me down. The times I’ve been around her, I’ve just been impressed with, not only her background, but the way she carries herself and how she can blend into a room, but still garners respect. I think that’s exactly what we need at this time.”

Boatright has received resumes from coaches and he said his search could include Crawford as a candidate.

“The circle grows as big as it needs to be,” Boatright said.

Hargrove went 113-136 in her nine seasons at WSU with a top record of 17-14 in 1993-94. She coached in the American Basketball League after leaving WSU in 1998. She coached the WNBA’s Portland Fire from 2000-02. She worked as general manager of the Washington Mystics from 2005-08.

Adams-Birch coached into her ninth season. She 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.

She finished with a record of 161-115 at WSU and is the program’s career wins leader.

But Adams-Birch’s tenure was also known for complaints of mistreatment from players by Adams-Birch and her coaching staff. Lehne’s decision to transfer triggered another look into the program, one that Adams-Birch could not weather.

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

Lehne, from Bryon, Ill., 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 transferred to NCAA Division II Arkansas-Fort Smith. Jodie Lehne, her mother, declined to comment on the circumstances.

“Ellie has moved on and is beginning a new, happier chapter in her life,” Jodie Lehne said in an e-mail.

On Thursday night, WSU announced Adams-Birch was suspended for last weekend’s games while Boatright reviewed “information recently received about the women’s basketball program,” he said in a statement. He would not expand Monday on what information he received.

These are not the first complaints of a serious nature leveled by outgoing athletes and parents. Athletes and coaches described incidents of belittling and control that drove them from the program.

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 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.

On Monday, Boatright said those changes had been implemented after the 2015 inquiry.

The departures began during Adams-Birch’s first season and a group of four voiced their objections to Adams-Birch’s coaching style publicly and others did so privately. Nine players left the team before or after Adams-Birch’s first season in 2008-09. WSU’s athletic administration and Adams-Birch attributed those problems to different philosophies after the coaching change.

In 2011, director of operations Dana Eikenberg, later promoted to assistant coach, used her forearm to pin a former player against the wall in a hotel during a road trip to California, according to the player, her mother and teammates. After the 2011-12 season, the entire team met with then-athletic director Eric Sexton to voice their complaints with Adams-Birch. In 2012, Sexton reprimanded Adams-Birch and the coaching staff after they made the players do pushups on the court during halftime of a game.

In 2015, four players met with faculty athletics representative Julie Scherz as part of the investigation into the program ordered by university president John Bardo. Transcripts reveal that the players described an atmosphere of negativity, isolation and control. Michaela Dapprich, Moriah Dapprich, Alie Decker and Kayla White met with Scherz for almost 90 minutes. Among their specific complaints are long practices that make it difficult to attend class on time, practice time that exceeds NCAA limits and a policy of keeping the circle tight that limits time and conversations with parents.

Adams-Birch has had numerous supporters who characterize her coaching style as tough, but with the best interest of the athletes at its core.

“I had a great experience,” said Chynna Turner, who played four seasons at WSU, in 2015. “At times, it was very tough. She told us during recruiting that we’re coming here to change the culture. She may not be the most sensitive person at times, but she does things to make us win, not anything that’s going to make you feel like you’re being mentally abused.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 5:18 PM with the headline "WSU, Adams-Birch work on finalizing departure."