Lauded Rutgers women's basketball coach's leave approaches a year, leaving players in limbo

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They expected to learn from a legend.

But when players on the women's basketball team arrived on the Rutgers University campus last summer to get ready for the 2021-22 season, coach C. Vivian Stringer was nowhere to be found.

The players were told she would be back soon.

Instead, weeks turned to months, practice began, and just a day before their season opener against St. Peter's University, the Rutgers players gathered for a message from Stringer.

During a video call on Nov. 8, the coach told her team that she would be out for the rest of the season.

“These young ladies were told that they would be playing for C. Vivian Stringer. That didn't happen,” said Ralph Martino, whose daughter Liz is a sophomore guard from Maryland. “A bunch of smokescreens were put up to masquerade and cover things.”

“That’s how they kept the girls there,” he added. “Otherwise, they would've left.”

Some parents said there were tears and disappointment after the videoconference. Some players were angry and upset.

During Stringer's absence, the team had one of its worst seasons in recent memory, finishing 13th in the 14-team Big Ten Conference, with an overall record of 11-20 and a conference record of 3-14. 

Players are starting to enter the transfer portal. Others are considering following them out the door — especially if Stringer doesn’t return — and behind the scenes there has been some discontent with communication by the university and how her coaching replacement has handled the team.

Stringer, 74, remains on a paid leave that has so far included at least $235,000 in bonuses on top of her $1 million annual salary, a leave that began in April — just days after she signed a new five-year contract. The university said she initially intended to be back for the season, but her leave was extended three times.

Rutgers' explanations for the leave are murky.

So is the prospect of her return — her leave has been approved through June 15, but there has been no public statement about her future from the coach or the university.

Rutgers is now denying widespread reports that Stringer’s leave was related to a fear of contracting COVID-19 and bringing it back home to her disabled daughter. Despite that denial, university officials have declined to say why Stringer is on leave — and if she is taking accrued sick days.

“Out of respect for her privacy and pursuant to law, we cannot provide any greater specificity into her circumstances,” a Rutgers athletics spokesman told NorthJersey.com in an email.

Stringer declined a request to be interviewed.

A hall of fame coach with more than 1,000 wins, Stringer posted a public service video on the gender gap in retirement income earlier this month on her Twitter account, in which she made a cryptic reference to a return, saying she’s “not done mentoring, coaching or fighting for women of color who deserve an opportunity.”

Asked about it, a spokesman for the athletic department said only, “We do not question her intention to return to her duties as coach.”

Some parents said it wasn’t clear from the Twitter video that Stringer was coming back to coach at Rutgers, and that their daughters have been in limbo without a clear signal about her return. They said communication about the coach's status has been poor all along, with the university offering almost no information.

Player Liz Martino is already in the transfer portal, a database accessible by coaches across the country. So is teammate Joiya Maddox, according to one women’s basketball blogger. And the parents of two more players said their daughters are considering a transfer — and need an answer about whether Stringer will be back as head coach next season.

“The sooner the better,” said Nikia Sanderlin, whose daughter Kierra Sanderlin is a freshman from Texas. “That's where I'm at right now with them. They need to let us know for sure.”

Several parents said they were never told that Stringer had taken a leave as far back as last April.

One mother said the university and the athletic department have handled the situation “horribly” and that her daughter wouldn’t have committed to Rutgers if she had known Stringer had stepped away from coaching.

“No. Absolutely not. Because had we known that we wouldn't have accepted,” said the mother, who asked not to be named for fear of jeopardizing her daughter's basketball career. “Most of the teammates and their parents, that is like an across-the-board feeling.”

“She wanted to play for a legend, and she was getting that opportunity, and now that opportunity wasn’t there,” the woman added. She said her daughter still wants to play for Stringer and has not yet decided whether to transfer.

Rutgers maintains that “since the spring of 2021 leading up to the team meeting on Nov. 8,” players were told “it was Coach Stringer’s intention to return to the program and coach the 2021-22 season, however, the exact timetable was unknown.”

More recently, assistant coach Tim Eatman, who has taken over for Stringer as the interim head coach, hinted at her possible return for next season during a press conference, saying she called him after the team defeated Penn State during the Big Ten Conference tournament and was “doing terrific. Can’t wait until she gets back.”

Displeasure with Stringer's replacement

Whether or not Stringer returns, some parents said there need to be changes in the program.

Ralph Martino said his daughter, Liz, would consider staying at Rutgers if Stringer returns and other changes are made. He said his family loves Rutgers but that Eatman actually pushed his daughter to transfer, berating her in front of the other players and saying, “I will make it so difficult for you that you will leave.”

“If Tim comes back, we have an issue with that,” Martino said.

He said he brought up that incident and other concerns late last year to a Rutgers athletics compliance official who asked why his daughter was planning to leave the school. Martino said he told the official about “mistreatment” of his daughter and made Eatman’s threat “crystal clear.” He said the official was “challenged by what they heard.”

In a recent interview, Martino also said Eatman refused to listen to his daughter and other players’ suggestions, speaking to them in a way that created “a very abusive environment.”

“Nobody knows how caustic and hostile that environment was without Coach Stringer being there, because Tim is just a different person,” Martino said. “The way that he talked to them, degraded them, demeaned — it just wasn't healthy. For Liz, that was one of the reasons why she made the decision, like, ‘I can't do this anymore.’ ” He said that after she entered the transfer portal and played her last game with Rutgers in late January, it was like being "released out of prison.”

Eatman declined a request to be interviewed.

Martino said he also voiced his concerns to Stringer in a phone conversation a little more than a month ago, saying “she was probably more shocked than anything else. She was very apologetic.”

But she did not say whether she planned to return to coaching the team, even after the family posed the question. Martino said the conversation “shifted” and never returned to that subject.

A Rutgers spokesman said in an email that “no complaints or allegations regarding abusive behavior by the acting coach have been presented to [Athletic Director Patrick] Hobbs or his administration." The university acknowledged that conversations took place with the Martino family, but said they “did not involve discussions about threats, abuse or mistreatment.”

Rutgers said in the email that Eatman “has stepped up to fill in for Coach Stringer during her unexpected leave. While we understand that this is not an optimal situation and is a challenge to everyone, most players have been understanding and compassionate.”

Will Abrams, who until earlier this year was director of player development for the team, said, “Coach Eatman did a phenomenal job for the hand that he was dealt.” He declined to provide further comment.

Program 'needs to be revamped'

Nikia Sanderlin also took issue with how her daughter, Kierra, was coached this past season, and was critical of Eatman’s behavior. She said that if Stringer doesn’t return, “I don't foresee her playing for Eatman another year.”

Sanderlin said “the program needs to be revamped.”

“As a parent, I'm not really confident in the program at this moment,” she said. “However, I am optimistic that if and when Coach Stringer comes back that there is a possibility that she can revamp the program.”

Sanderlin said there has been a problem with communication, and that there have been hidden agendas and a lack of respect between players and coach. She said her daughter is accustomed to being “coached hard” and was “groomed well enough to communicate with her coaches on a player-coach level.”

“This year, that wasn't the case,” she said. “It was pretty much whatever she had to say was null and void. It didn't matter. It's basically my way. The players didn't really have any input on what they saw on the court. I will say that there was no mutual respect there.”

“I just think that in this day and time, women should be treated with respect. And they're all adults, young adults,” Sanderlin said. “They should be treated as such — not berated or talked down to.”

Andrea Lafayette, whose daughter, Erica, a sophomore from Louisiana, had come to Rutgers to play for Stringer, said she understood the coach's taking time off during the pandemic, but acknowledged that it may have affected the team's performance.

“We had a lot of seasoned folks on the court,” she said. “So, no, they shouldn't have had the record that they had, but also the system was chaotic. A legend wasn’t here.”

“I don’t have ill feelings," Lafayette said. "I think young ladies have to take accountability for themselves. I’m hoping that they go back to being one of the number one basketball teams” and that “nobody’s pointing fingers, and just getting it back to where it needs to be.”

New $5.6 million contract — then a leave

Stringer’s leave began on April 19, 2021 — just nine days after she signed a new, five-year contract that guarantees her $5.6 million in base pay, as well as performance, academic and retention bonuses. She received her first $200,000 retention bonus in July 2021 — while on leave — and is due a second $200,000 retention bonus this July. She also continues to receive a $1,000-per-month auto stipend.

The athletics department did not respond when asked if Hobbs, the athletic director, knew that Stringer was about to go on leave when the contract was approved. It includes a provision that permits Rutgers to reassign her to other duties — including placing her in an administrative role — at equivalent pay.

It also allows the university to terminate her employment if she is unable to perform her duties for a period of 90 consecutive days due to total and permanent disability as verified by an independent medical professional.

If she is terminated without cause, she is owed the remainder of the contract.

It wasn’t widely known that Stringer had stepped away until the Big Ten Conference media day in October. By then, she already had been out for six months, and her leave had been extended once.

Initially, her return date was set as Aug. 31, 2021. Her leave was later extended at her request to Nov. 1, and then extended again to Jan. 1, 2022, a Rutgers spokesman said in an email.

On Nov. 4, 2021, Stringer’s leave was extended for the third time, with her return date set for June 15, 2022.

Stringer has been with the university since 1995 and would have accumulated 15 sick days a year, which could be taken for her own illness or for being exposed to a contagious disease. An employee can use only 15 days of accumulated sick time annually to care for a family member.

Documents obtained through a records request do not specify whether Stringer is using sick days, but they do show she has been receiving regular pay and bonuses during her leave. The university declined to provide absence records.

When Stringer missed the Big Ten media day in October, Eatman, her replacement, said that “she is trying to find a way through this pandemic.” A team spokesman said Stringer was worried about the lack of COVID-19 testing for the 2021-22 season compared with the prior season and feared transmitting the disease to her disabled daughter.

Meanwhile, the Rutgers faculty union said the university has routinely denied requests by employees during the COVID pandemic to take time off or work remotely because of concerns about infecting family members — although they were allowed to work from home if they were concerned about their own health and could provide documentation.

“It was striking that in the case of faculty, Rutgers insisted on only complying with the letter of the law and not taking a more humane view,” said Rebecca Givan, the president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT union. “And then they seemed to take a more humane view with coach Stringer and her family's needs.”

For months, local and national media reported that Stringer would miss the season because of concerns about COVID and her family, and Rutgers did nothing to correct that impression until questioned by NorthJersey.com about her leave and how it complies with university policies. A spokesman said the reports were wrong, that no policy has been violated and that Stringer’s leave was approved by the university, requiring “vetting and verification” — but declining to provide further information.

Ruth Smikle said her daughter, Kaylene, a high school senior who is one of Rutgers’ top recruits for the upcoming season, plans to play for Rutgers even if Stringer remains sidelined, saying she was drawn to the school because of academics and its proximity to her home in New York state.

“It would be the icing on the cake with coach Vivian,” she said.

Other parents said their daughters may transfer to other schools.

One mother said the players are at a disadvantage because “the way that their season went, that made them look like they don't know what they're doing out there. And they're all girls that know the game of basketball.”

“They need to truly, honestly just come straight out and let us know what's going on, because they're playing with these young ladies’ futures,” she said. “So, stop playing around with our kids.”

Drawing plays on a napkin

Stringer has taken three schools to the NCAA Tournament Final Four — including Rutgers twice — and won her 1,000th game as a head coach in 2018. She has been installed in both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

She has faced and overcome illness and adversity in her life, losing her father as a teen and her husband to a sudden heart attack on Thanksgiving in 1992, and quietly battling breast cancer. Eatman filled in for her briefly when her mother took ill and died in 2016, and again in 2019 when she stepped away from the team for part of the season due to exhaustion.

A revered figure in women’s basketball, Stringer has been able to lure top recruits from across the country.

Johnnie Lawson, a Florida high school coach who sent a player, Tyia Singleton, to Rutgers several years ago, said Stringer treats her players like daughters and was impressive during a recruiting visit.

“She fell in love with coach Stringer, and so did I,” Lawson said of Singleton.

Stringer took out a pen while they were at a restaurant and began drawing plays on a napkin, to show how she planned to use Singleton. Lawson said he kept the napkin and “might have run some of the plays.”

He said that “it was a solemn day” when it was announced Stringer wouldn’t return for the season.

“She was very upset she wouldn’t be coached by Coach Stringer,” Lawson said of Singleton. “She really wanted to dedicate everything she did to Coach.”

Email: koloff@northjersey.com; rimbach@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @jeanrimbach; @abbottkoloff