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From the archives
Read Rachel Bachman's November 2005 profile:
CORVALLIS - Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis fired women's basketball coach LaVonda Wagner "without cause" on Tuesday, ending her turbulent five-year reign that has left the program currently with too few players to field a team and the university on the hook to pay her $1.2 million.
De Carolis, who informed university leadership of his decision on Friday and Wagner when she returned to Corvallis on Tuesday, said he decided on the "without cause" termination, in part, to avoid legal complications. A "with cause" firing would have meant Oregon State would have argued -- in court, if necessary -- that it did not have to pay Wagner the $350,000, $400,000 and $420,000 salaries called for in the remaining three years of her contract.
De Carolis, whose department ran a $5.9 million deficit in 2008-09, said he plans to pay Wagner from athletic department funds, but that the money, if necessary, could be borrowed from the university's general fund. If Wagner gets another job before the contract was set to expire in 2013, Oregon State would owe only any difference in salary between her new job and what she would have made with the Beavers.
On Sunday, The Oregonian detailed allegations of mistreatment by eight of the at least 23 people, including 15 players, who have left Wagner's program in the past four years. Chief among the concerns players and their parents raised was Oregon State's failure to respond to years of complaints alleging that Wagner put the well-being of the women on her team at risk.
In addition to Wagner's firing, De Carolis announced on Tuesday the potential departures of two more players -- Haiden Palmer, a freshman guard from Moreno Valley, Calif., who has requested paperwork to transfer; and Angela Misa, a freshman forward from Oceanside, Calif., who is considering leaving. If they both were to go, the Beavers would have two players from the 2009-10 season left on their current roster.
Although De Carolis said he has not received a written report from the outside consultant the university hired to review Wagner's program, preliminary talks about the findings "just verified what we had heard."
Eight former players and four of their mothers told The Oregonian that Wagner created a culture of fear and intimidation in five seasons at Oregon State, and aimed to control players' lives. They alleged that she pressured athletes to play through serious injuries, ordered players to attend Weight Watchers sessions and once threw a chair in a locker room tirade that almost hit a player.
"This probably should have happened a long time ago," said Alex Mitchell, who played under Wagner for two years before transferring to North Carolina A&T after the 2008-09 season. "I feel like the administration let all this stuff build up to the point where they had no choice."
Hired in April 2005 with 17 years' experience as an assistant at Duke, Illinois and East Tennessee State, Wagner became the fourth head coach in the history of the Oregon State women's basketball program. She went 68-85 in five seasons in Corvallis, including 26-64 in Pacific-10 Conference play, and led her teams to two berths in the Women's National Invitation Tournament.
"These things are never easy for anybody on either end, having been through it myself," De Carolis said. "It's like losing a family member."
De Carolis declined to comment on Wagner's reaction, saying that he didn't "want to speculate on her emotional frame of mind."
Wagner was not available for comment.
De Carolis said the athletic department would take a "hard look at our organizational structure as far as sport management is concerned" in light of the allegations that Oregon State ignored years of complaints about Wagner,
"We are, by far, the smallest administrative staff in the conference," De Carolis said. "With a lot of people wearing a lot of different hats ... you run the risk of things falling through the cracks, and certainly we will take some responsibility for that."
But for parents such as Debra Champlin, whose daughter Whitney Champlin sought counseling after leaving Wagner's program in 2008, a review of procedures is too little, too late.
"I would say to them, 'Where were you when we tried to say something was wrong years ago? Why did you let it go on this long?'" Champlin said. "Those girls didn't want to leave, they were proud to be Beavers -- but they got so miserable that some of them had to leave."
De Carolis said the search for Wagner's replace would start immediately, and that the department has already received, "double-digit inquiries" from people interested in the position. The $1.2 million Wagner is still owed, coupled with the department's budget problems, will make hiring Wagner's successor more difficult, De Carolis acknowledged. As a result, he said, he expects the next coach to start with a lower salary, then have compensation backloaded later in the deal once the Beavers have finished making payments to Wagner.
He declined to name anyone who might be on the Beavers' short list.
Although current and former players didn't know what was next for the program, they welcomed closing what they called a painful chapter in Oregon State sports.
"I don't wish unemployment on anyone, but it's good for the athletes' sake (that she was fired)," said Ashley Allen, who played two years for Wagner after transferring from Oregon. "It took a while but they finally made the right choice."
"Now they need to focus on rebuilding the program and rebuilding the name of Oregon State, because she tarnished both of those things."
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, Special to The Oregonian