Matt Fannon (Iowa state womens soccer coach) accused of body shaming/ verbal abuse

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Sorry, I won't subscribe to the rag. So I'm going to guess it's just a subscription bait article. I don't follow women's soccer so I had to google "Matt Fannon". Seems like a pretty good coach, hugely successful at both Wittenburg and Bowling Green..
 
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Clonehomer

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Can't read the article, so it's hard to comment directly, but the first question that came to mind was whether telling players in a sport that they need to get in better shape to see playing time would qualify as body shaming.

Yeah. Going to need context for how this was delivered. There's definitely a way to communicate this in sports that would be acceptable, but I can envision situations where this could go way overboard as well.
 

madguy30

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Can't read the article, so it's hard to comment directly, but the first question that came to mind was whether telling players in a sport that they need to get in better shape to see playing time would qualify as body shaming.

And you'd think through recruiting etc. that the players would know that's a part of the deal.

It's like in the 'who would want to come play for ISU basketball with this putrid offense?' take while a very good recruiting class is coming in with all sorts of evidence to what's going to be expected of them.

Now if the coach is straight demeaning or has gotten worse when that wasn't how it appeared, imo there's a case there.
 
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jsb

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Without repeating what the article said, it sounds like there were some accusations at Bowling Green. And then at least one Iowa State player went on the record.

It doesn’t sound great for him. But it also doesn’t seem like a sure thing.
 
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Drew0311

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This is a problem with womens sports compared to mens sports. Football coaches and basketball coaches constantly tell football players they need to lose weight and all of that stuff. They even list height and weight on the football roster. My daughters soccer coach told one of our girls she needed to lose weight if she wanted to play college soccer. Of course there was an out cray and before you know it the story became he called her fat. I was actually there for the conversation and he was super nice and just explained reailty. I love womens soccer. I could see how coaching it would be a really delicate thing though.
 

MJ29

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If 17 players have quit since he arrived, there may be a legitimate problem.

It sounds like he mocked international players, had players do a drill that other coaches deemed was unsafe, they did weigh-ins before and after practices, dictated what they could eat and drink, .... yeah, it sounds bad to me.

It's not OK to tell people what they can weigh or what they can eat (male or female). This is how disordered eating begins.
 

WooBadger18

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If 17 players have quit since he arrived, there may be a legitimate problem.

It sounds like he mocked international players, had players do a drill that other coaches deemed was unsafe, they did weigh-ins before and after practices, dictated what they could eat and drink, .... yeah, it sounds bad to me.

It's not OK to tell people what they can weigh or what they can eat (male or female). This is how disordered eating begins.
Yeah, that just seems like a really high attrition.
 

beentherebefore

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Seems to me that if these allegations turn out to be true, he may not be coaching at ISU much longer. The reporting seems solid, but there often is more to the story than the initial information.
 

CoachHines3

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If 17 players have quit since he arrived, there may be a legitimate problem.

It sounds like he mocked international players, had players do a drill that other coaches deemed was unsafe, they did weigh-ins before and after practices, dictated what they could eat and drink, .... yeah, it sounds bad to me.

It's not OK to tell people what they can weigh or what they can eat (male or female). This is how disordered eating begins.
17 players - something probably went down.

we have no problem telling football players/basketball players/wrestlers what they should weigh and what they should eat. so i think its ok to tell them to an extent.

you cant have a 300 pound midfielder out there!