Dodgers announce plans for ‘DodgerFest’ fan event on Feb. 3

• January 12, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Apparently the team that spent $1.2 billion on players this winter can’t give things away for free anymore.

The Dodgers announced plans Friday for their annual fan event on Feb. 3 at the stadium. Traditionally free, admission this year for DodgerFest will cost $10. Tickets went on sale Friday on the team’s website.

Parking is still free. Gates will open at 10 a.m. and the event is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

As usual, the event will feature interviews and autograph-signing availability with current and past players. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani is among those expected to participate along with first baseman Freddie Freeman, second baseman/outfielder Mookie Betts and others.

There will also be live entertainment and activities for fans to enjoy. Stadium concessions and team stores will be open in the outfield areas.

For more details, visit www.Dodgers.com/dodgerfest.

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​ Orange County Register 

Kings look to shake worst slump in nearly 5 years

• January 12, 2024

The Kings haven’t had much horsepower or torque during their seven-game winless slump, their longest in almost five years, but their engines might be better tuned Saturday in the Motor City, where they’ll face the Detroit Red Wings.

Once the NHL’s most potent offense, the Kings have squeezed out just 14 goals in their seven losses.

Their scoring futility has been remarkably consistent, with just two three-goal efforts during the funk. One came in a defeat by these same Red Wings. The other was a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals that went awry in the dying gasps of regulation, much as their 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers did Thursday. In that affair, they had their hearts torn out by Sam Reinhart’s power-play goal with less than a full second to play in overtime.

In five of their past six losses, they’ve retroceded at least one lead, including stumbles that came twice in overtime and twice more in a shootout. They were shut out in the sixth defeat, and their inability to find the back of the net has persisted across situations.

“We’re not scoring goals easily right now, whether it’s five-on-five, four-on-four, three-on-three or in the shootout. So, those have to come eventually,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said.

Team captain Anze Kopitar’s outlook was similar, hopeful while maintaining a realistic view of a tailspin that has already helped the Edmonton Oilers narrow a 13-point gap behind the Kings to just three.

“Right now, it feels like we’ve got to play a perfect game. Good or pretty good is not good enough right now, so it’ll take a team effort to get out of it,” Kopitar said. “We’re getting better, we’re not as sloppy, we’re playing faster, we’re playing more physical, winning more battles, but we’ve got to find another gear to get out of this.”

While they may not have come up with the perfect game just yet, the Kings have enjoyed almost perfect health, losing very few man games to injury and maintaining lineup continuity, even through their current slog.

There was fright when Phillip Danault exited the match in the first period Thursday but he was able to return and finish the game, albeit while “banged up,” he said. Pierre-Luc Dubois, who dinged the iron with a potential game-winner for a second consecutive game Thursday, surmounted a scare earlier this season when it was his leg rather than the puck that banged hard into a goalpost. He was out for only the remainder of that same match Nov. 16. Vladislav Gavrikov endured a stint on injured reserve, but returned in relatively short order. He missed five games and Blake Lizotte missed six, while Arthur Kaliyev was absent once due to illness (he missed two other games while suspended and was scratched for another).

Otherwise, the Kings’ scratches have been healthy ones, apart from winger Viktor Arvidsson, who has yet to play this season after undergoing back surgery. Even with Arvidsson’s 38 games off the ice, the Kings were the seventh least-injured team in the NHL, and if one were to exclude Arvidsson’s man games lost, the Kings would have the second-fewest man games lost in the league behind St. Louis, per NHL Injury Viz.

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By contrast, Detroit has had just six players play in all their games and sits closer to the NHL median in man games lost. Among those who have dressed in every game for Detroit are leading scorer Alex DeBrincat and workhorse defenseman Moritz Seider, their top minute muncher.

Though he wasn’t healthy to start the campaign after undergoing a hip resurfacing procedure, former Chicago Blackhawks dynamo Patrick Kane signed with Detroit during this season and has laced up in all 17 games since his Dec. 7 debut. He has posted 14 points, including an assist against the Kings in a 4-3 win on Jan. 4 in which he nailed their coffin shut with a shootout-clinching goal.

KINGS AT DETROIT

When: Saturday, 4 p.m. PT

Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit

How to watch: Bally Sports West

​ Orange County Register 

How Abraham Lincoln and David Gilmour’s guitar collided at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall

• January 12, 2024

Rows of glass display cases filled the Shrine Expo Hall, holding priceless relics of rock and roll, pop culture, and American history.

Guitars, drums and a piano played by the Beatles during legendary performances. A handwritten letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson.

The 1969 Fender Mustang guitar that Kurt Cobain played in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. The original manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road.”

All of these and more on display for a single day Thursday, Jan. 11, highlights of the collection of Jim Irsay, owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and a passionate collector of music memorabilia and American pop culture and historical artifacts.

But the one piece missing speaks to the uniqueness of how Irsay views his collection and how it should be used. Inside the display for David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, a placard on the wall showed where his famous Black Strat, purchased in 1970 and used by Gilmour for decades until Irsay purchased it at auction for nearly $4 million in 2019. At the time, it was the most-ever paid for a guitar.

A few hours later, it reappeared on stage inside the Shrine Auditorium, where the all-star band Irsay puts together when his collection travels to a few cities each year, was thrilling a full house of fans who’d come to see legends both on display inside the cases and live in concert.

“One of the great things about Jim and his collection, you can buy something like the Mona Lisa and all you can do is hang it on the wall and look at it,” said blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who served as the bandleader for the night. “But with these instruments, you can take ’em down and still make art with them.”

Shepherd and the band then played Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar,” with actor-musician Danny Nucci singing, and “Comfortably Numb,” with R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and guitarist Tom Bukavic sharing vocals, though the real star of both was the Black Strat and the liquid notes Shepherd teased from its strings in his soaring solos.

Irsay, who normally plays with the band, and Stephen Stills, who was booked as a guest star, both bowed out due to illness. But Irsay and the band, which included star session drummer Kenny Aronoff and a handful of guys from John Mellencamp’s band, had plenty of power on its own and with other guests.

Wayne opened the show singing a few of his songs before blues legend Buddy Guy strolled on stage, dapper in dressy overalls and a white shirt with black polka dots and French cuffs, singing and playing three songs including “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues.”

After Mills sang R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” and “Superman,” Ann Wilson of Heart came to deliver powerful versions of the Who’s “Love Reign o’er Me” and her own band’s “Barracuda.”

The rest of the night moved swiftly through Kevin Cronin doing lively takes of REO Speedwagon numbers such as “Take It On the Run” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” then Peter Wolf of J. Geils Band doing the ’80s MTV hits including “Centerfield” and “Love Stinks.”

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top then wrapped up the show with three bluesy rockers including “Sharp Dressed Man” and “La Grange.”

The exhibition included many more fascinating artifacts than those mentioned above.

The American history cases included more letters from Washington, including one actually penned by his aide Alexander Hamilton, and Jefferson. Items related to Abraham Lincoln included a pair of tickets and a pocketknife given to him by a Philadelphia organization, which had its case made from wood from the original support for the Liberty Bell, and also a pair of tickets to Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. on the night Lincoln was assassinated.

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Kerouac’s manuscript for “On The Road” was famously written on a 120-foot-long roll of paper, a little more than 30 feet of which was unfurled inside a long, narrow case. A first-edition copy of Kerouac’s “The Dharma Bums,” which had belonged to the writer Hunter S. Thompson sat inside a case next to an inscribed original edition of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.”

Music displays included a piano used on tour for 20 years by Elton John, the handwritten journal Jim Morrison of the Doors kept in Paris, shortly before his death, and the red cape worn on stage by James Brown.

Parked outside the Shrine, as fans streamed back to their cars, they passed one more significant piece of the collection, the Great Red Shark Chevy convertible once owned by Hunter S. Thompson, shining brightly in the street lights.

​ Orange County Register 

Rams’ offense preparing for raucous Lions fans

• January 12, 2024

THOUSAND OAKS — Sometimes, generational events mean that you don’t know what to expect when they occur. Other times, though, it’s easy to predict. And you can count Sunday’s NFC wild-card playoff game between the Rams and the Detroit Lions among the latter category.

The Lions will host their first home playoff game in 30 years. And there’s no question how Detroit’s success-starved fans will respond when it arrives Sunday night at Ford Field.

“I’ve played in a lot of loud venues throughout my career,” said Rams quarterback and former Lion Matthew Stafford, “but I’m sure this one will be up there.”

The Rams have spent the week at practice blaring music from their speakers in some attempt to mimic the noise they expect at Ford Field, a domed stadium that will only magnify the roar of the roughly 65,000 fans expected at the game.

“You can’t even hear yourself think, really,” running back Kyren Williams said of the practice atmosphere this week. “It might be kind of overboard, but I’d rather be overboard than not enough.”

Under the not-so-dulcet tones of Eminem, Busta Rhymes and M.O.P., the Rams have worked on silent counts at the line of scrimmage and different forms of communication inside and out of the huddle.

Veterans like right tackle Rob Havenstein are coaching up teammates making their playoff debuts on how to stand in the huddle: Turn sideways so an ear is pointed at Stafford as he makes a play call.

If you still don’t hear it, then grab a teammate and ask as you head to the line of scrimmage.

The same goes for checks and protection assignments at the line of scrimmage.

“Just really echoing things down,” Havenstein said. “You almost gotta play a game of telephone now and then.”

The Rams may have to resort to other methods of communication, too, from reading lips to non-verbal gestures to get their messages across.

As they try to get on the same page, all eyes will be on Stafford. But given the challenges of calling out an audible at the line of scrimmage, there will be an onus on players to take stock of the defense to predict what changes the quarterback might make before the snap.

“So then when we are getting an audible or something from him, we can anticipate what that is,” receiver Cooper Kupp said, “even if we aren’t able to hear it exactly but we’re able to kind of make out the ideas behind what we’re trying to get done and then communicating with each other. In our offense, there’s usually someone saying right next to you and we’ll be able to talk to each other and make sure we’re all on the same page.”

Head coach Sean McVay expects Sunday’s atmosphere to be similar to the NFC championship game following the 2018 season, in which the Rams went to New Orleans and beat the Saints in the Superdome. It was that experience that taught McVay to allow players to take the lead as they determine the best methods of communication on the field.

“I think it’s just learning in terms of how important the communication is and having a good, streamlined process where the players have ownership,” McVay said. “Ultimately, Matthew, as soon as something’s coming in through the headset, then he knows exactly what it is and how efficient can we be with the overall communication and how decisive can we be as coaches and myself with some of the decisions where 40 seconds or 25 seconds out of those quarter changes or clock stoppages? That’s going to be super important for us.”

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Injury report

Rams safety Jordan Fuller (ankle) did not participate in practice Friday and will be questionable for Sunday’s game. McVay said the Rams will continue to give him the opportunity to play against the Lions if he progresses enough to be ready to go.

“He is a guy that because of his experience, because of his ownership, you want to give him all the time that he needs,” McVay said.

Whether or not Fuller plays, the Rams’ game plan will stay the same as players like Russ Yeast and Quentin Lake stand in the wings ready to fill in.

Offensive lineman Joe Noteboom (foot), linebacker Troy Reeder (knee), tight end Tyler Higbee (shoulder) and offensive lineman Kevin Dotson (shoulder) are all listed as questionable for the game, too, but McVay said he expects Dotson and Higbee to be ready to play.

​ Orange County Register 

Alabama is close to hiring Kalen DeBoer from Washington to replace Nick Saban, AP source says

• January 12, 2024

Alabama is negotiating with Washington coach Kalen DeBoer and is close to hiring him as the replacement for Nick Saban, a person with direct knowledge of the talks said Friday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a deal was not completed yet. The talks were first reported by ESPN.

DeBoer, 49, is a former NAIA coach who led Washington to the national championship game in just his second season.

DeBoer would replace Saban, who announced his retirement Wednesday after leading the Crimson Tide to six national championships in 17 seasons.

DeBoer signed an extension after going 11-2 in 2022, raising his salary to $4.2 million with incremental increases to $4.8 million in the last year of the contract in 2028. It also included an increased buyout of $12 million if DeBoer left for a new job.

Washington offered a seven-year deal worth an average of $9.4 million annually to keep DeBoer, the person with knowledge of the situation said.

Athletic director Troy Dannen has said he first approached the coach about a new contract in October, soon after leaving Tulane for the Washington job.

DeBoer hired high-powered agent Jimmy Sexton, who also represents Saban, last year. Saban received an eight-year deal in 2022 worth at least $93.6 million, including some $11.1 million this year.

DeBoer had a scheduled in-studio appearance with KJR-FM — Washington’s flagship station — scheduled for Friday morning. The station announced about two hours prior to the appearance that DeBoer would not be coming on the air.

The fast-rising DeBoer led the Huskies to a 14-1 record that included a Pac-12 championship before losing to No. 1 Michigan 34-13 in the national title game. He was named The Associated Press coach of the year.

DeBoer led the Huskies to a 25-3 record in two seasons after taking over a program that was 4-8 in 2021.

DeBoer led his alma mater Sioux Falls to a 67-3 record from 2005-09 and won three NAIA championships at the small, Baptist-affiliated school in South Dakota’s largest city. He later had immediate success at Fresno State, going 12-6 in two seasons from 2020-21.

At Alabama, he would replace a coach who won a major college record seven national titles, including one at LSU. The Crimson Tide have been in national title contention just about every season since winning their first in 17 seasons back in 2009, Saban’s third year.

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Alabama’s short-term expectations won’t change with a team led by quarterback Jalen Milroe and a roster fortified by a string of highly rated recruiting classes.

DeBoer coached Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr. last season and brings an offensive track record to replace Saban, a former NFL defensive coordinator. He was Fresno State’s offensive coordinator in the 2017 and 2018 seasons and held the same job at Indiana for a year before replacing Jeff Tedford.

DeBoer was an All-America receiver at Sioux Falls who helped the Cougars win their first national championship in 1996. He then stayed on as receivers coach, returning in 2000 as offensive coordinator after a stint as a high school coach in Sioux Falls.

​ Orange County Register 

California’s 7-year housing push has yet to boost building, experts say

• January 12, 2024

Despite passage of at least 140 housing bills, California has made little progress in solving its 2.5-million-home shortfall, a panel of experts told Realtors last week.

California’s municipalities issue fewer than 120,000 new home permits each year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. But economists estimate the state needs to build 180,000 to 300,000 homes a year.

“Even with all the legislation, we’re not really getting up to snuff,” said Robert Kleinhenz, director of the Office of Economic Research at California State University, Long Beach. “There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

See also: See what’s behind California’s push to adopt more housing laws

Kleinhenz’ comment came during the Center for California Real Estate’s first event since the pandemic, held Wednesday, Jan. 10, in West Hollywood. The group serves as the California Association of Realtors’ think tank, tackling public policy issues affecting the real estate industry.

Frustrated by a lack of homes for sale and the lowest number of transactions in four decades, CAR members expressed concern about boosting the state’s housing supply.

Estimates for California’s housing shortfall range from nearly 1 million to 2.5 million units. Citing the state’s 2.5 million unit figure, CAR Chief Executive John Sebree asked, “How did we get there, first of all, and what are we doing about it? How we can increase supply?”

The panel of experts had few answers.

California “is still in a multi-decade period of woefully building fewer homes than we should,” said former state Housing and Community Development Director Ben Metcalf, now managing director of UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

“The state of California has put out something like 140 distinct pieces of legislation (aimed at) doing something on housing affordability since about 2016 or 17,” he said. “(But) we haven’t seen much benefit from any of that yet, unfortunately, in the permitting numbers.

See also: A detailed look at 12 new laws to boost affordable home construction

Metcalf said there are “a whole host of reasons” why it’s difficult to build new housing in California. Among them: environmental regulations, building codes, high builder “impact fees,” the cost of land, rising labor and construction costs and high interest rates for construction loans.

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In addition, there’s local resistance to new housing, in part because Proposition 13 limits property taxes that housing generates.

“It boils down to the cities that have to approve new housing. And many policies have been passed at the state level to try to get the cities off the mark,” said Kleinhenz, a former CAR economist.

But, he said, “cities don’t necessarily want to build more housing. From a city perspective, housing doesn’t pay because the cost of services isn’t covered by the amount of tax revenue generated from a new household. So, that’s one impediment. Then you’ve got the residents that the city council and planning commissioners and the mayor are representing. They don’t want to have their little corner of the world changed.”

The lack of housing has fueled bidding wars for listings for most of the past dozen years, causing the California house price to triple. At the same time, 2023 was tied for having the sixth-lowest for-sale inventory on record.

See also: Real estate agents, industry providers grapple with slowest market in 35 years

Home sales last year were more than a third below the statewide average.

“I just wonder where we’re going to get the 30% increase in inventory to get the 30% increase in sales? That’s my biggest concern,” said Selma Hepp, CoreLogic chief economist. “California has the most inventory-constrained market in years. People don’t want to move. We don’t have an increase in new construction. But on the flip side, we do have pent-up demand. If we had more inventory, we would have much more … sales.”

California’s homebuilding shortfall

A state housing plan determined in 2022 that California needs to build 180,000 new homes annually to close a shortfall of 2.5 million units by the end of the decade.

However, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis show the state hasn’t built that many homes since 2005. The number of new home building permits has averaged just over 103,000 per year for the past decade.

California’s municipalities have issued just under 555,000 since Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in January 2019, up from 509,000 permits during the five years preceding Newsom’s tenure.

Here’s a breakdown of new home permits for the past decade:

2014: 82,603
2015: 97,611
2016: 100,629
2017: 111,788
2018: 116,411
2019: 109,904
2020: 104,554
2021: 119,558
2022: 113,094
Jan-Oct, 2023: 107,791

​ Orange County Register 

Citi cutting 20,000 jobs in CEO’s bid to boost returns

• January 12, 2024

By Todd Gillespie | Bloomberg

Citigroup Inc. said it will eliminate 20,000 roles in a move that will save it as much as $2.5 billion as part of Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser’s quest to boost the Wall Street giant’s lagging returns.

Expenses company-wide are expected to drop to a range of $51 billion to $53 billion over the medium-term, Citigroup said. In the meantime, though, the firm expects to incur as much as $1 billion in expenses tied to severance payments and Fraser’s broader overhaul of the bank.

The outlook for cost savings helped mask a disappointing fourth quarter, when Citigroup’s fixed-income traders turned in their worst performance in five years as the rates and currencies business was stung by a slump in client activity in the final weeks of the year. Revenue from the business slumped 25% to $2.6 billion.

“The fourth quarter was very disappointing,” Fraser said in the statement. “Given how far we are down the path of our simplification and divestitures, 2024 will be a turning point.”

Shares rose less than 1% in New York. That’s after falling 1.8% on Thursday, after the bank reported billions in one-time charges from its restructuring and exposure to troubles in Argentina and Russia.

Fraser in September initiated the biggest restructuring of Citigroup in decades as she seeks to improve the bank’s returns. She has said the moves will allow the bank to eliminate bureaucracy, slimming it down from 13 management layers to just eight.

Fraser has also said the overhaul would help her boost a key measure of profitability known as return on tangible common equity to at least 11% by 2027 at the latest. She reiterated that medium-term guidance on Friday.

As it has sought to increase those returns, Citigroup decided to shutter its municipal business and distressed-debt trading unit, just as rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. invests further in the latter area. The bank is prepared to exit additional businesses within its markets division if they “don’t make sense for the go-forward strategy,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason said on a call with reporters.

The fixed income division faced a slew of headwinds in the final weeks of the year, Mason said, noting there was very little volatility in currencies and commodities.

Ultimately, firmwide headcount will decline by 60,000 jobs to 180,000 by the end of 2026, Mason said. That includes the 20,000 roles that will be eliminated as part of Fraser’s broader overhaul as well as 40,000 staffers that will depart when Citigroup lists its consumer, small business and middle-market banking businesses in Mexico in an initial public offering.

Citigroup’s results for the fourth quarter swung to a $1.8 billion loss, or $1.16 a share. That included a number of one-time items, including a $780 million charge tied to the severance the bank offered to employees impacted by the restructuring. The company also recorded a $1.7 billion charge to operating expenses in the quarter to cover a special assessment to replenish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s coffers after a series of bank collapses last year.

Costs for the year ahead should be in the range of $53.5 billion to $53.8 billion — a decrease from the $56.4 billion the firm spent in 2023.

​ Orange County Register 

Idaho AD, president warned about Chris Gonzalez’s alleged abuse in December 2022

• January 12, 2024

The parent of a University of Idaho volleyball team starter detailed how Vandals head coach Chris Gonzalez had “created an extremely negative culture and hostile environment” in a 1,300-word letter to Idaho athletic director Terry Gawlik in December 2022.

Hans Doorn, father of Idaho setter Kate Doorn, said he received only a “generic” response from Gawlik to the letter in which university president C. Scott Green was also copied on and Gonzalez continued to bully and physically, verbally and emotionally abuse Vandals players through the 2023 season, according to 12 current or former Idaho players, five parents and two university employees. Gonzalez also allegedly pushed or shoved two players to the ground during practices in 2022 and improperly touched athletes, according to player interviews and university documents.

While Gonzalez continued an alleged pattern of abusive behavior that also included body shaming, depriving players of food and pressuring players to play or practice while hurt during the 2023 season, the Dorn letter shows that Gawlik and Green and other Idaho officials had notice of detailed examples of Gonzalez’s alleged abusive behavior.

“Chris Gonzalez has demonstrated abusive verbal behavior and created an extremely negative culture and hostile environment,” Doorn wrote in the Dec. 5, 2022 letter to Gawlik in which Matt Brewer, associate AD for compliance and Brian Wolf, the school’s faculty athletic representative, were also copied. “I am concerned about my daughter Kate’s mental health, and that of the entire women’s volleyball team. I am directing this note to Ms. Gawlik not only as the Athletic Director who oversees the athletic program, but as the Senior Women Administrator. These young female athletes need an advocate to help, provide advice, mentor, and to listen to their story of this volleyball season.”

But Gawlik and university officials have not listened according to Doorn, former and current Idaho players, other parents and university employees.

“We were very frustrated,” Doorn said in an interview Friday.

The revealing of the Doorn letter comes less than 24 hours after 10 current Idaho team members formally asked Green and Gawlik to place Gonzalez and the coaching staff on leave until a school investigation into abuse allegations against Gonzalez is completed.

Players and their parents have also alleged that Gawlik and other university officials have repeatedly ignored or dismissed their complaints or concerns over the past 17 months.

University officials, and Gawlik in particular, have been sharply criticized by players, alumni, boosters and some members of the Idaho media for not placing Gonzalez on leave while an investigation by the school’s Office of Civil Rights and Investigations and another probe by Texas law firm hired by the university proceed. Players and critics have also questioned Gawlik’s decision to attend the NCAA Convention this week in Phoenix in the midst of what even some of her supporters have described as the biggest crisis of her 4 1/2 year tenure as the Vandals AD.

Gonzalez, a Southern California native and former U.S. national team coach, is 5-51 in two seasons at Idaho.

“If he was coaching any other sport for his record alone he would already be let go,” Doorn said.

Gawlik and a university spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Gawlik is scheduled to meet with Idaho players on Tuesday. It will be the first time Gawlick has met with Idaho players since an SCNG report on December 30 revealed player allegations that Gonzalez has routinely physically, verbally and emotionally abused players during his two seasons at the Big Sky Conference school

Gonzalez is scheduled to hold his first practice with players on January 18.

Idaho players have repeatedly expressed concerns about their safety if they are required to practice with Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said in an email to SCNG Friday that, “yes, we have strategies in place” to deal with player safety concerns. “I am awaiting a response from our administration on which type of information I will be able to provide as the investigation is still ongoing.”

Dean of Students Blaine Eckles will also attend the meeting, Gawlik said.

A case manager from the Office of the Dean of Students “will attend and monitor all team practices, meetings, and activities where the coaches are present, or when requested by any of you,” Gawlik wrote in the email to the players.

A psychologist from the Counseling & Mental Health Center has also been assigned to the team.

“Additional concerns may be brought to the assigned case manager and additional support measures can be implemented, including individualized referrals to the appropriate services necessary to care for your welfare,” Gawlik also wrote.

But Doorn, Idaho players past and present, parents, alumni and financial donors question why Gawlik, Green and other university officials didn’t take similar action more than a year ago?

“I would have been great,” Doorn said Friday. “Then another group of (players) would have not had to go through the same things Kate did.”

In describing “textbook bullying behavior” by Gonzalez in his Dec. 5, 2022 letter to Gawlik, Doorn detailed examples of bullying, verbal abuse, “severe diet and meal issues while traveling,” and “zero attempts to create a culture or team identity, zero attempts at forming relationships with the athletes.”

Doorn also refers in the letter to meetings in which Idaho players presented examples of Gonzalez’s alleged abuse to Gawlik and information from women who played for Gonzalez at American University and Iowa that detailed the coach’s alleged abusive behavior.

“By now you have had a meeting with certain members of the current women’s volleyball team, including Kate, and therefore you are aware of this situation and the issues being raised,” Doorn wrote. “I implore you to look into each of these issues, examples, the breadth of how many people are involved, and the pattern of this behavior. The list of people that are involved includes current athletes, prior athletes that have already left the program, athletes from last spring, members of the support staff such as Trainers, Nutritionist, Strength Coach, and Biomechanist, and other members of the volleyball community. You have been presented with information from players that goes back more than 15 years and 4 years ago that outline this exact same pattern of abusive behavior by Chris Gonzalez. Please interview all these people, ask questions, and come to your own conclusions.

“There have been multiple examples of abusive verbal and other behaviors from Chris Gonzalez that I believe you are already aware of as indicated by you and members of the Athletic department attending multiple practices earlier in the season.

“There was no coaching taking place nor follow-up on what she could do to improve. Calling out an individual team member in front of everyone else is demoralizing, embarrassing, unproductive, and simply disrespectful. I am very concerned about how this may affect an athlete’s mental health. In addition, this creates an extremely negative culture and hostile environment. The entire season the players were so scared to make the littlest mistake and then to receive his abusive rhetoric. This is just one example, and there are many many more. The girls that met with Ms. Gawlik today (December 5th) have documentation on examples throughout the season, last spring, and from other athletes and coaches. There are several athletes that included their names as part of the letter. Several other athletes are reluctant to be named because they are afraid of the repercussions from Chris Gonzalez and are terrified of him not only because of his treatment this season but also because of his position of power that he wields over them in terms of their futures and scholarships. “

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Kate Doorn transferred to Sacramento State where she played in every one of the Hornets’ 130 sets during the 2023 season while directing the Big Sky’s top offense en route to winning the conference’s regular season title. Doorn was seventh in the Big Sky in assists per set (6.28). Idaho finished the 2023 season with 885 assists as a team. Doorn recorded 704 assists this past season all by herself.

Doorn wrote what he described as a follow up email to Green and Gawlik on Friday.

“My intent for this email is to once again implore you to be an advocate for these athletes and support them,” Doorn said. “The current athletes should not have to face the person that they accuse of abuse by seeing him in practice and on campus. Show these brave young people the respect that they deserve and place Chris Gonzalez on leave until the investigation into him has concluded.

“The University of Idaho is better than this. Do the right thing and support your students. “

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​ Orange County Register