(some backstory: Basha was/is a Vball powerhouse in years past)
full stop !The Basha HS volleyball program parted ways with head coach Justine Spann on Wednesday night. The move — technically a result of Basha asking Spann to resign — was announced in a meeting between parents and athletic director Eric Magaña. Spann will be replaced by the program’s junior varsity coach, Bryan Meyer.
Spann had been placed on administrative leave earlier in the week following a slew of allegations that included verbal abuse, body shaming and inappropriate social media posts, according to four parents who spoke with The Republic. The parents were granted anonymity in order to protect their daughters.
Because of the culture fostered under Spann, an unprecedented 23 girls elected not to return to the program this year, not including graduated seniors. Those girls were members of the varsity, junior varsity and freshmen teams last season.
Justine Spann during her time as a high school volleyball player at Basha.
Spann took over the head coaching role last season after her mother, Terri Cox-Spann, left just one year after leading Basha to the 2019 6A state championship. Justine Spann graduated from Basha in 2016 before playing four years at Colorado and one year of beach volleyball at Grand Canyon.
wait, nepotism + hiring a 24 y.o. head varsity coach?
what could possibly go wrong?
This part is interesting. Spann herself, at "playing weight", isn't/wasn't exactly thin or svelte herself....
At the time of her hiring, Magaña described Spann as “focused, driven, and good for young adults.” Soon, though, a different picture began to emerge. “There was no coaching going on,” one parent said. “The majority of what was being said to the girls was to demean and belittle them. I think they thought that that would make them perform better.”
Added another parent: “Degrading, demeaning, demoralizing comments to the girls, about the girls, often in front of their teammates, pertaining to their volleyball skill, their looks, their character. All in an effort to embarrass and harass — outright bullying.”
On multiple occasions, Spann demeaned players because of their weight.
At tournaments, she told players they “were not going to be consuming any more food because they had had enough.” And in games, she told players that were late to the ball that they “may have gotten it if they weren’t so heavy.”
(she looks even heavier now)
It would be interesting to see if all of the other shit hadn't happened here, if this weight shaming thing would've still been a problem.
Being a performance based guy myself, if those girls are looking a little chunky....
...well, they are in fact not going to be as fast, as quick, or can jump as high if they were a lighter weight.
....and we're talking about a lighter-healthier-weight vs. overly-fat. Easier on your joints too.
Looking at the team on twitter .... there's only one girl who's 'heavy'. They look fine weight wise to me.
...I have no words.
There was also name calling, which included slurs and profanity.
And, according to one parent, when Spann didn’t believe that a group of players was taking post-game ice baths at home, she required that they send pictures of themselves in the baths — which means high school age girls were sending pictures of themselves in sports bras to their coach’s personal phone number.
The team pic on twitter is awful.
The coach in question here, is seen doing a faux-cheek-kiss with one of the team/students.
This seems weird. I'm surprised they went here .... and/or this^ was the 'final straw'.The larger theme, though, was a culture of belittling players. One parent went so far as to compile a list of insulting remarks delivered by Spann as she anticipated the situation would worsen throughout the season — as it did.
Those quotes included the following:
“You are completely irrelevant on the court.”
“Leave her. Let her have her mentally weak moment.”
“You serve like a 5-year-old.”
“If we were in practice, I would have mentally broken you down by now. You’re lucky it’s senior night.”
Because of complaints from parents, the administration held meetings with Spann and put her on an improvement plan going into her second year. To many parents, though, that wasn’t enough.
“To our shock and utter disappointment, the same coaching staff returned this season,” one parent said.
Another described the decision for Spann to return as “unfathomable.”
A third saw it as favoritism because of her connections within the district, through her mother and others.
In early practices this season, Spann’s pattern of behavior continued. Rather than recognizing her missteps when 23 girls left the program, she “was very angry about that,” according to one parent.
The final straw for the administration came earlier this week when Spann posted a video to her public Instagram and TikTok accounts. In the video, Spann — who is Black — sang along to a sexually explicit song using the word N-word.
