Rutgers University's new athletic director has been alleged of the same abusive practices that forced the former AD to step down the Star-Ledger reported.
According to the Newark, New Jersey publication, Julie Hermann emotionally abused and embarrassed her former University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer volleyball players.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made plans to meet with Rutgers University officials regarding the report, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
The artcile centered around a letter written in 1997 by 15 of Hermann's former players, who remained anonymous, about the coach's "mental cruelty."
Christie's spokesman Michael Drewniak told Bloomberg Businessweek that the governor was aware of the Star-Ledger report and that he wanted to get the details from school officials.
"He was not involved at all in the selection of the new athletic director and has never met her," Drewniak said. "He's not going to make any judgments at this time."
ESPN reported on Monday that many of Hermann's former colleagues stood up to defend the former volleyball coach.
"I was in every huddle and involved in every volleyball substitution, and what they are saying is crazy," Kim Tibbetts (formerly Kim Zenner), an assistant coach under Hermann beginning in 1992, told ESPN.
Rutgers hired Hermann on May 15 to replace Tim Pernetti, who resigned last month amid questions revolving around how he handled the investigation of Mike Rice, the men's basketball coach who verbally and physically abused his players.
One of the 15 players who wrote the 1997 letter came forward in response to the denials of abuse.
"I write this in response to make sure that the pain that we went through as a team is validated," Abby Watkins (formerly Abby Blazer) wrote to ESPN in an e-mail. "All of the things that were written are unfortunately true. Many of these things happened to me personally. I truly hope that Julie has changed but refuse for anyone to deny the fact that our dreams had been crushed and our hearts broken."
According to Star-Ledger reporter Craig Wolff, Hermann held a telephone conference Monday with reporters to tell them she never abused players while she was the volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee.
"Am I an intense coach? I'm absolutely an intense coach as many coaches are," Hermann said in the conference. "But there is a big canyon between being super-intense and abuse. And this was not an abusive environment for these women."