Dear President Mason, I know that you have received a high number of emails from current and former Iowa Field Hockey Players in support of re-instating Head Coach Tracey Griesbaum. I am writing to you as a two-time All America for Iowa, Olympic athlete, a 4 time Final Four participant, a 2008 Inductee of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame, and Big Ten Centennial Athlete. I earned a Ph.D. from Iowa (Counseling Psychology, 2004), an M.B.A. from Iowa (Leadership and Organizations, 2002) and a B.A. with Honors from Iowa (Psychology, 1992). I also was a USA National team teammate of Tracey’s, was coached by Tracey at Iowa as student-athlete, and we assisted coached together for Head Coach Beth Beglin at Iowa. I have returned to Iowa on several occasions to witness recently coaching by Tracey, and have had discussions with her about the challenges of coaching in a top D1 program today. Currently, I am a high performance coach, licensed psychologist, and current business leader. I feel as if I have a healthy perspective on the components of strong athletic leadership, and how to effectively develop performance cultures within high level athletic, business or military teams (Special Forces) and organizations. I feel as if I have a relevant perspective to offer about this unfortunate situation. I was completely shocked to hear about the decision to fire Tracey. In my direct experience of who Tracey is as a person and coach, I have never experienced her as being less than completely professional, aware and sensitive to the needs of women athletes, and a person who is a driving force to propel women forward to succeed on all fronts: academic, athletic and social. No abuse. Challenging, direct, accountable, and setting clear, reasonable and high expectations. Nothing ever that could be construed as disrespectful, rude, uncalled for, or abusive. As you can see, Iowa Field Hockey student-athletes and Alum are proud of the very strong and powerful tradition and standards for women that have been set forth in the program starting with Dr. Grant, Dr. Judith Davidson, Beth Beglin and now Tracey Griesbaum. You might personally reflect upon and can understand how important your women mentors are as a powerful woman today when you listen to the Iowa Field Hockey Alum speak out. If Tracey is not reinstated due to the current embarrassment of how this has been handled by the Iowa Athletic Department, then at least consider having stronger corrective decision-making processes in place before firing women head coaches. There are appears to be a series of firings related to Iowa’s great, strong women head coaches (Rowing –Kowal, Softball -Blevins—and others --soccer, gymnastics, volleyball, etc.). My understanding is that these women may have been fired due to a few (not a majority) of disgruntled athletes. These firings are not occurring from the voices of many. Is Gary Barta and his administrative team listening to a variety of views before making their decisions? How quickly are these decisions being made? This is a massive leadership concern. Thank you for considering what the Iowa Field Hockey Alum are saying about the strong leadership and positive impact that Tracey has had on numerous student-athletes and her current impact due to her positive influence on Alum today. I ask you to inquire more deeply into the firing processes of Women Head Coaches at Iowa. This is very relevant to your legacy as the President of the University of Iowa. Sincerely, Andrea Wieland Ph. D. 2004 M.B.A., 2002 B.A., 1992 Iowa Field Hockey 1987-1992 Olympian, 1996
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 03:28:30 +0000
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