A 2010 report detailing alleged unprofessional conduct and sexual harassment by former head volleyball coach Jon Stevenson was released Wednesday, following a public records request.
Cal Poly athletics director Don Oberhelman relieved Stevenson of his duties last week, and appointed Caroline Walters as interim head coach. She was an assistant coach to Stevenson for the last three years.
The report details findings from an investigation in which current and former players accuse Stevenson of alleged inappropriate conduct, including attempting to “pants” a player, engaging in sexual conversations, hugging and kissing players in a way that made them feel uncomfortable and calling Latinas “crazy bitches.”
Stevenson denied the allegations in the report at the time, and said his actions either never occurred or were taken out of context. The report sites 23 witnesses and concludes that he acted “unprofessionally.”
“We find Mr. Stevenson to be less credible than other witnesses,” the report stated. It cited that, to believe Stevenson would be to disbelieve the vast majority of witnesses who all provided a consistent picture of how Stevenson behaved.
Former Cal Poly volleyball player Grace Sprague said Stevenson caused her so much emotional stress that she sought therapy.
“I can’t do it justice, but I had very little self-worth,” Sprague said. “Psychologically, it was terribly damaging. I went to therapy afterwards when I transferred to UC Davis, and I learned to accept that I liked school more than sports. It took a toll on me, when you’re on a team and you’re not getting to participate.”
Sprague transferred to UC Davis following her freshman season in 2008, partly due to her difficulties with Stevenson, she said.
Sprague said once she failed to earn a starting spot on the team, Stevenson stopped paying attention to her, leaving assistant coaches to work with her and did not allow her to travel with the team, often telling her at the last minute. In a separate interview, Sprague also said that during the season Stevenson took a few players, including herself, out to dinner and paid for the meal — a violation of NCAA rules.
When an assistant coach asked why she had missed study hall that day, she told the assistant Stevenson had taken them out to dinner, assuming he had notified him of the situation. A few days later, Stevenson called Sprague into his office and told her that by saying what she did, she betrayed him and was a “cancer” and a traitor to the team. A similar comment is also mentioned in the report, stating that Stevenson would refer to players he disliked as a “virus” or a “cancer.”
“It was too bad that I had to speculate as to why nothing was being done when so many rules were being broken; so many inappropriate things were being done,” Sprague said. “It was like, what the hell does (Stevenson) have to do to not be involved in this program anymore.”
Although the allegations in the 2010 report did not result in Stevenson’s dismissal, the recent documents played at least some part in Oberhelman’s decision to relieve Stevenson of his coaching duties.
Oberhelman said in a press conference Wednesday that he did not originally read the 2010 report after becoming athletics director, because he did not want them to taint his view of Stevenson.
“At that time I felt it was probably best for me to not go and read the report because I didn’t want to be prejudicial in my evaluations of our coach and of our program,” Oberhelman said. “When you have a new (athletics director) coming in … everybody gets to start over with a clean slate. Everyone gets a chance to reinvent themselves and the program. There’s no history. So I felt it was best to not read that report at that time.”
However, during the past few weeks, Oberhelman came to the decision that Stevenson could not continue to coach volleyball at Cal Poly, although Oberhelman could not comment on a specific reason the decision came now, in the middle of the women’s volleyball season.
“I had seen enough to be able to appropriately evaluate the program and his leadership abilities,” Oberhelman said. “The bottom line is, I lost confidence in him prior to all of this.”
The report cited other players who said Stevenson played “mind games” and created a stressful environment, sometimes keeping players from going to class due to elongated practice. The investigators stopped short of calling Stevenson’s behavior sexual harassment, saying instead, “We find it a very close call as to whether the totality of his conduct was severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.”
In August 2010, after the report was finalized, Stevenson retained his coaching responisbilities, but had to agree to refrain from calling or text messaging any of his players, attend an additional sexual harassment course and avoid talking to players about their sexual lives or experiences, according to a separate document released with the investigation report. The document also included a provision that, should Stevenson violate any of the terms of the agreement, it would be just cause for Cal Poly to “take personnel action against (Stevenson).”
Alison Cone, the athletics director at the time of the investigation, declined to comment on whether she made the correct decision in allowing Stevenson to continue coaching last season. Oberhelman said he wanted to avoid second-guessing her decision, because he was not a part of the original investigation and did not see the information they had at the time. Ultimately, he said he respected the decision Cone made at that time.
Although Cal Poly has recently been impacted by another coach leaving the program suddenly when head tennis coach Justin McGrath retired in July, Oberhelman does not expect these to diminish the way outsiders view Cal Poly.
“I think it shows what we’re going to stand for,” Oberhelman said. “It’s going to show that we’re not going to tolerate anything other than excellence in our representation of Cal Poly. I think it’s going to show that we care about the successes of our student athletes (and) our commitment to creating better citizens.”
Oberhelman said a positive outcome of the dismissal is that former assistant coach Caroline Walters will now be taking the place of interim head coach.
“(Walters) is thoughtful, she’s bright, she’s well-spoken,” Oberhelman said. “I’m excited to see what she’s going to do.”
Oberhelman met with the volleyball players to discuss his decision, but he would not comment on the team’s take, only that he expects them to persevere and “take the high road.”
“I felt like I owed them an apology for the timing, but I don’t feel like I owed them an apology for the decision,” Oberhelman said.
Stevenson commented that he is writing a blog post as a response to the situation, and that news outlets are missing important pieces of the story. He has yet to provide his post.
Read the Redacted Report and accompanying Agreement here.