Pace University Benches Coach Amid Abuse Allegations
College Sports gone wrong. Pace University head coach put on administrative leave while investigation continues.
Pace University Benches Amid Abuse Allegations
Pace University has benched football coach Andy Rondeau while it investigates players’ allegations of physical and verbal abuse revealed in last Sunday’s Post.
“There is no room in collegiate athletics or university life for the type of behavior the Post article described,” fumed university president Stephen J. Friedman in a letter to students last Monday announcing Rondeau had been placed on “administrative leave.”
In October, a furious Rondeau used his crutch to pin a player against the wall by his neck and screamed at him for lining up too early for a team breakfast, said ex-players Corey Reeder and Ransford Quarrie.
Just a few weeks later, Reeder and Quarrie witnessed Rondeau throw his crutch across the team’s locker room after a 33-0 loss to tiny Stonehill College, the projectile narrowly missing a player recovering from a concussion.
The former players described the coach as having a “Jekyll and Hyde” temper, and said he lied to them about the academic certification they’d receive while he recruited the two.
Friedman wrote that the allegations, “if true, violate University policy and the sacred trust that exists between University faculty and staff and our students.”
Modal Trigger
Pace University head football coach Andy Rondeau
“The investigation will be conducted independent of the athletics department,” wrote Friedman.
Pace’s Athletic Director Mark Brown recruited Rondeau after they spent five years working together at Virginia’s Old Dominion University.
Following The Post expose, the father of a former player, Dennis Fiore, 58, stepped forward with additional complaints against Rondeau.
His son Michael, an 18-year-old middle linebacker, was one of the first players booted from the team after Rondeau took over the chronically-losing program in January.
About 40 players left the team between the 2013-2014 season, said Quarrie, with some graduating but many either quitting or getting axed by Rondeau.
In a March incident, Fiore claimed, Rondeau got in his son’s face, yelling and spitting that “you’re not going to amount to anything, you’re not going to make it. I’ve seen guys like you before.” It was in reaction to Michael briefly laying down on the practice field because he was feeling sick, Fiore claimed.
Rondeau suspended Michael for two weeks, then kicked him off the team shortly afterward, devastating the teenager.
“Football was his life here,” said Fiore, who said his son was treated for depression after his abrupt ouster. He now plays football for Concordia University in Montreal.
Rondeau “needs anger management help,” said Fiore. “There’s a fine line to me between discipline and abuse and I think he crossed that.
Pace Athletics did not respond to calls for comment
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