We knew it was coming. In the wake of the Mike Rice firing at Rutgers for abusing his players, there has been some good to come out of the horrific incident, as it has given players at other schools the confidence to speak up when they feel violated or abused.
Take the curious case of 7’1 redshirt freshman Ryan Bross, formerly of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. If you think having basketballs heaved at your head while being verbally abused is tough to swallow, Bruss’s accusation against his head coach Brian Wardle takes abuse to another level.
Bross alleges that coach Wardle repeatedly verbally abused him using vulgar language, often using a homophonic slur to imply he was soft, and even going as far as saying if he had sex with a girl he would play better.
But the kicker is that Wardle once forced Bross to workout while ill and chastised him when he defecated on himself. Wait…what?
Here’s an excerpt from the story which was posted by USA Today:
“Coach Wardle told me to stop being a (expletive) and to go into the woods,” Bross said. “So I went into the woods and took a crap. I came back and he was like, ‘Are you all done? Are you OK? Are you done being a (expletive) now, Ryan?’ because they thought I was faking it, but I wasn’t. So I kept running the hills. I finished one hill. I came back down, and I told them I was not feeling well again, and (Wardle) made me run another hill again because he told me that I was being a baby and that I was letting down the team and I was letting down myself, and that I was letting down everyone.”
Bross said it was at that point that he couldn’t control his diarrhea and soiled his pants.
“I got down to the bottom (of the hill), and Wardle told me I was a piece of (expletive) and that he had never seen such a big (expletive) in his life and that I was the biggest piece of (expletive) he had ever seen,” Bross said.
Bross’ mother outlined the history of abuse and submitted the letter to University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chancellor Thomas Harden back in April. Chancellor Harden then announced a few days later that the school would use an independent investigator to look into the claims.
Wardle, age 33, has since denied the accusations but another student Brennan Cougill has since stepped forward and also filed similar accusations against the head coach. Wardle is 47-49 in 3 seasons with the program.
Bross is one of 4 players who have chosen to leave the program since the start of this year, raising speculation that something was going on negatively during practices.
On the other hand several other players, like forward Alec Brown, spoke up and defended their head coach stating that they never saw any signs of abuse. When asked whether he thinks his teammates are lying, Brown responded: “Yeah, I believe so.”
Guess we’ll have to wait for the video…
Wisconsin-Green Bay Coach Accused of Abuse:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
