Stollings withdraws preferred walk-on offer to NRHEG's Schultz after coaching change

BleedGopher

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per Waseca County News:



When University of Minnesota women’s basketball coach Pam Borton’s 12-year tenure with the Gophers came to an end in late March former New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls basketball coach John Schultz and his family reached out to the University regarding the state of his daughter Jade Schultz’s status with the team.

Schultz was initially offered a preferred walk-on spot with the NCAA Division I Gophers, which would have secured the incoming freshman a spot on Minnesota's roster.

But while athletic director Norwood Teague initially reassured Schultz that nothing had changed, recently hired head coach Marlene Stollings had other plans.

“Coach Stahlings had called, and she explained to Jade that she doesn’t work her walk-ons like Pam did,” John Schultz said.

According to Schultz the university had maintained that nothing would change until April 19, when Stahlings called to clarify her walk-on policy.

“The athletic director had told us that everything would stay the same, so we had assumed that everything would stay the same,” she said.

The senior guard has decided against attending the University of Minnesota, and will instead attend Minnesota State University, Mankato in the fall.

Basketball, she says, is no longer on the table.

“I’m going to go to MSU and I’m just going to college and major in health and education,” Jade Schultz said.

Schultz played her way into a preferred walk-on role with the Gophers as a an integral member of back-to-back Class 2A championship teams, and was recruited late in her senior season.

“It was pretty disappointing,” she said. “It was just sad that they told me I’d be able to stay and then turned around and said it was a miscommunication.”

http://www.southernminn.com/waseca_...cle_f183acb6-a9a7-53ce-ab6f-e54497ec8792.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Norwood should have put the kibosh on that loser move by Stahlings. Let her walk on is low/now cost PR...Not a smart move on her part with respect to endearing her program to the MN. girls basketball community.
 

Norwood should have put the kibosh on that loser move by Stahlings. Let her walk in is low/now cost PR...Not a smart move on her part with respect to endearing her program to the MN. girls basketball community.

I tend to agree that it would have been wise to let her participate as a walk on. With that being said, after watching NHREG's team in the state tournament, I was surprised that Schultz was offered a walk on opportunity by Borton.
 

I tend to agree that it would have been wise to let her participate as a walk on. With that being said, after watching NHREG's team in the state tournament, I was surprised that Schultz was offered a walk on opportunity by Borton.

Schultz has one basketball ability that I witnessed: throwing baseball passes. I'm guessing she was a walk on because of her relationship with her high school teammate Wagner and possibly intangible qualities, but not basketball skills? Definitely not handled well. The initial response from Teague should have been that is not my decision. Teague put the coach in a bad situation but what's it been a month since she was hired? Coach feels now her relationship with Wagner is solid enough you can now tell her teammate to buzz off? Dunno And I thought Schultz was coming to Minnesota to pitch on the softball team?
 

I don't pay attention to girls basketball but if your options are PWO here or nothing then you probably aren't a D1 player. Most players good enough to be a PWO in the B1G are good enough to play in a smaller conference or D2
 


Shultz is putting words in Norwood's mouth, nothing had changed, but guess what it's not Norwood's call who is on the team, it's the coach.
 

Norwood should have put the kibosh on that loser move by Stahlings. Let her walk on is low/now cost PR...Not a smart move on her part with respect to endearing her program to the MN. girls basketball community.
Agree not a good start or smart move for the new coach.
 

It's probably because she didn't want to have to remember the name "New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva" when talking about Schultz during interviews.
 





It depends on what exactly was said by Norwood. If he said nothing has changed as of now, then it's not really his fault. If he said nothing has changed, you're still a walk-on, then he shouldn't have said that. I don't put any blame on Stollings, it's her team and if she feels that Shultz can't help then she shouldn't feel obligated to let her have a spot on the roster.
 

I can't fault Stollings here. Why should she be beholden to a walk-on recruited by the previous coach?
 

Not the point

I can't fault Stollings here. Why should she be beholden to a walk-on recruited by the previous coach?

No, Stollings shouldn't be required to honor the commitment of Borton to a walk on. To me that's not the issue. The issue is that it takes Stollings a month to deal with it. The issue is Teague communicated to Schultz the status hadn't changed when it's not his decision to determine. If Teague thinks it is his decision then Teague should honor it. It shouldn't take weeks for Stollings to leave Shultz hanging. Those to me are the issues. The indecisive, poor communication by leaders.

The issue is Not whether Schultz can play. Not whether Stollings should honor Borton's promise. Bumbling, stumbling, mumbling for a month is the issue to me. Not good leadership IMO. Adam Silver, for example handled a bit tougher situation in 3 days. In this case the leaders created the situation by poorly handling it. To me that's the story.
 



No, Stollings shouldn't be required to honor the commitment of Borton to a walk on. To me that's not the issue. The issue is that it takes Stollings a month to deal with it. The issue is Teague communicated to Schultz the status hadn't changed when it's not his decision to determine. If Teague thinks it is his decision then Teague should honor it. It shouldn't take weeks for Stollings to leave Shultz hanging. Those to me are the issues. The indecisive, poor communication by leaders.

The issue is Not whether Schultz can play. Not whether Stollings should honor Borton's promise. Bumbling, stumbling, mumbling for a month is the issue to me. Not good leadership IMO. Adam Silver, for example handled a bit tougher situation in 3 days. In this case the leaders created the situation by poorly handling it. To me that's the story.

Fair enough.
 

Norwood should have put the kibosh on that loser move by Stahlings. Let her walk on is low/now cost PR...Not a smart move on her part with respect to endearing her program to the MN. girls basketball community.

Your opinion would hold more weight if you knew who the coach actually was.
 

So this shouldn't jeopardize Wagner still coming to play, right?
 

No, Stollings shouldn't be required to honor the commitment of Borton to a walk on. To me that's not the issue. The issue is that it takes Stollings a month to deal with it. The issue is Teague communicated to Schultz the status hadn't changed when it's not his decision to determine. If Teague thinks it is his decision then Teague should honor it. It shouldn't take weeks for Stollings to leave Shultz hanging. Those to me are the issues. The indecisive, poor communication by leaders.

The issue is Not whether Schultz can play. Not whether Stollings should honor Borton's promise. Bumbling, stumbling, mumbling for a month is the issue to me. Not good leadership IMO. Adam Silver, for example handled a bit tougher situation in 3 days. In this case the leaders created the situation by poorly handling it. To me that's the story.

Meh. I'd be more upset if the first thing she did when she got to town was evaluate the future walk-ons.
 

Jade has been a good small school athlete. But I never understood why Pam offered her. I have never seen that she was offered by any other school, DI or D2. She would never seen the floor.
In the long run, this will be the best for her as she can concentrate on her education without the demands and frustrations that she would have encountered as a PWO.
 

Communicating with recruits during a coaching change doesn't seem to be one of Norwood's strong suits....Maybe they can keep Maturi on to send them daily (hourly) emails with a status update? :cool02:
 

Ya, and Maturi can get those kids summer jobs at the chop stick factory up on the Range.
 

Jade has been a good small school athlete. But I never understood why Pam offered her. I have never seen that she was offered by any other school, DI or D2. She would never seen the floor.
In the long run, this will be the best for her as she can concentrate on her education without the demands and frustrations that she would have encountered as a PWO.

The only reason that any of us on press row at the state tournament could come up with re: the offer was some sort of package deal to appease the NRHEG coach.
 

Jade has been a good small school athlete. But I never understood why Pam offered her. I have never seen that she was offered by any other school, DI or D2. She would never seen the floor.
In the long run, this will be the best for her as she can concentrate on her education without the demands and frustrations that she would have encountered as a PWO.

When Borton gave a scholarship to Nicole Mastey, lots of people thought it was to seal the deal with Brianna. Even though they're twins, it was pretty clear Nicole was borderline. So it might be some of that though Wagner seemed to be pretty set on the Gophers.

To make it even stranger, Schultz has said she's going to Minnesota State and won't be playing basketball. Guess it could have been handled better, but we only have heard one side of the story.
 

Just be happy Borton is gone. Things will shake out for the best.
 

At the risk of sounding cruel, Jade Schultz is not a D1 BB player. Not big enough, not quick enough. Like many others, when I heard she was going to the U, my 1st thought was that it was some kind of package deal to get Wagner to commit.

Now, this is sheer speculation, but unless Stollings is a complete idiot, I hope/assume she touched based with Wagner before this was announced - as in, "look, I know Borton told your friend she could walk on, but she really doesn't fit my system, and I don't see any way she can contribute to the team. I hope you understand." Otherwise, you run the risk of your #1 recruit taking a hike, which would make the new coach look really bad.

My ultimate reaction is that the new coach is paying the price for another bad decision by Borton. Which is why every decent player in MN in the last 5+ years is playing somewhere else.
 

My ultimate reaction is that the new coach is paying the price for another bad decision by Borton. Which is why every decent player in MN in the last 5+ years is playing somewhere else.

Agree, except you are overlooking someone.
 

Come on...

At the risk of sounding cruel, Jade Schultz is not a D1 BB player. Not big enough, not quick enough. Like many others, when I heard she was going to the U, my 1st thought was that it was some kind of package deal to get Wagner to commit.

Now, this is sheer speculation, but unless Stollings is a complete idiot, I hope/assume she touched based with Wagner before this was announced - as in, "look, I know Borton told your friend she could walk on, but she really doesn't fit my system, and I don't see any way she can contribute to the team. I hope you understand." Otherwise, you run the risk of your #1 recruit taking a hike, which would make the new coach look really bad.

My ultimate reaction is that the new coach is paying the price for another bad decision by Borton. Which is why every decent player in MN in the last 5+ years is playing somewhere else.

You have no idea what Borton's thoughts were on Schultz. I'm pretty darned confident it wasn't with the idea she'd contribute on the court. I believe most every year Borton had a walk on or two that couldn't play. Do I know the background on all of them? No, but they were there and couldn't play.
Much more like managers than players. I'm guessing this was more the role Borton had in mind for Schultz. To those people, I'm confident they viewed it as a blessing. Not something to be criticized. An experience they appreciated.

Hirt, Banham, Coughlin and Wagner are Gophers. Did Borton miss on some recruits? Yes. Did she maybe not go after some as hard as she should have? Yes, but no coach anywhere gets all the home state players they'd like. She did have a better record at a higher level than the coach who replaced her. She did recruit the number one player in Minnesota, the number two scorer in history, but won't get to coach her. She does leave behind TWO FIRST TEAM ALL BIG TEN players to go with nice complimentary pieces. So, I'm not sure why the disgust? She leaves the pieces to a Big Ten championship contending team to the new coach.

You tell me the way this was handled that Wagner trusts Stollings right now? What is the number one most important thing for a player and a coach to have a successful relationship? Answer trust! Right now there has to be doubt in Wagner's mind. Is Stollings going to communicate one thing to Wagner and change her mind too? It has to be a question based how this was handled.

People keep focusing on whether Schultz can play. It has nothing to do with the issue. (she can't at this level and for someone to think Borton couldn't see that shows small thinking) The issue is that it's an issue. It shouldn't be.

And to the comment it's not important to deal with this issue 100 times better. It's about players...walk on or not. That's the most important part of your job as a coach...the players. Nothing should have taken precedence to this three or four weeks ago. As a coach, your players are watching...evaluating your decisions...deciding whether to buy in all the way or give you lip service. Not good.
 

Maybe, just maybe, Wagner knew her friend Schultz was not B1G caliber, and life goes on.

Overanalyze Psychology 101.
 

Maybe, just maybe, Wagner knew her friend Schultz was not B1G caliber, and life goes on.

Overanalyze Psychology 101.

Quite possibly, but again not the point. It's girls and they are friends. It matters.
 

Quite possibly, but again not the point. It's girls and they are friends. It matters.

Well Wagner is still here so I'm guessing you're overeating. If this is the worst thing a coach other does then they should be up for sainthood
 

Quite possibly, but again not the point. It's girls and they are friends. It matters.

Time to grow up and stop making. "My friend wants..." and get on with life. Matters not to me.
 




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