"I had the opportunity to be Craig Roberts assistant coach at Grambling. Craig works tremendously hard put a lot of thought effort and detail into all of his programs. This is the reason he’s been so successful at the collegiate level. "
"My experience with Coach Robert’s has always been nothing but professional. Coach Robert’s goes above and beyond what’s required for his student athletes. He expressed care for his players both on and off the field. Roberts has a deep knowledge about the game. You can tell by the way he has been able to improve his players abilities and contribute that to wins on the field. He turned around a program that struggled and was able to help the girls to believe they could win. The girls had the upmost admiration for him and could tell they were genuinely happy to have them as their coach. I would recommend Coach Roberts to wherever he decides to go and he will have the ability to build a winning culture. "
"My personal and group experiences with coach Roberts were....that Coach Roberts was highly respected by us, and we never wanted to disappoint him. For the club and him, we wanted to go out and always give it our all. He was revered by everyone in the club because he protected us. The discipline was incredible, and it aided in upholding the standards we set for our lives. He acted as a father figure to the younger players on the team and served as a friend to the more experienced players. To be a strong leader, Coach Roberts' character traits are extremely essential.
When I played for Coach Roberts, and looking back, I believe what inspired and fired me up was when he brought up our families, because there are times on the pitch when you feel like you're struggling a little bit and then you remember how hard your family worked to enable us to be where we are now. In the club, we all respect one other equally, care for one another, and ensure that we are compassionate. He was incredibly attentive and asked about everyone's families and knew their names. Things like that stick out in my recollection. "
"Craig has dedicated his life to the world of academia and competitive level soccer and I felt the impact of this from my time under his coaching. From day one Craig approached the team with a professional but fair position, he was always dedicated to helping us push our abilities and develop as a team. High level sport is an intense and competitive environment and for some they may have struggled to balance this change of pace. I found Craig’s honest and passionate mindset to the sport and to his players to be inspiring and what is required to make a professional athlete. I would highly recommend Craig and thank him for his time and efforts."
"Coach Roberts encouraged my daughter in this sport. He built her confidence and enhanced her skills.
My daughter became a member of a team with coach Roberts guidance. He treated everyone with respect and was very fair to all the team.
"
"Great all around coach and person. In short amount of time he managed to take us from an unsuccessful program to a contender. My personal growth on the field came from his insight. Each member of the team was individually cared for and pushed. Due to this we had tremendous success. Our institute creates leaders. He was an example of how to compete and set standards. If you broke the rules there were consequences for your actions. He instilled qualities and expectations that have assisted me beyond soccer. "
"Nothing but positive things to say. He is very driven and expects a lot from his players however this drive enabled me to develop as a person and player. I received accolades for my performances during my playing day. Craig has been a strong reference for me and written reference letters that I believe helped me in my early stages to get a job. "
"Craig provided me with a chance of a lifetime. He was demanding but respectful. His coaching was very detailed and organized. Each year I believe he improved his relationship with me. His scouting reports enabled us to have an advantage over our opponents and also were a big reason why we got to compete for championship titles. Its been several years since I graduated but still to this day he checks in with me and wants to know how I'm doing."
"He is a fraud. Doesn’t. Know how to coach, wonder why he keeps moving from college to college…who interviews him? He is not loyal and lies to the student athletes "
"Personally wasn’t really a great fit to be coaching womens soccer. Made sexist comments regularly, would make derogatory comments to girls about their appearance and would justify it as “I just care about you and your fitness levels” but when he’s saying boys don’t like girls that look like that then it makes it a disappointing experience having a coach like that.
He makes a very good first impression, but it was all downhill once he had you there for preseason where he has the power. And he knows he has the power.
Abusive man, stay clear "
"Very knowledgeable of the game and prepares his team to win. Coach Roberts is great at choosing the right tactics against opponents to give his team the best chance to win."
"He put winning above the health of his players. Said that concussions were the new 'thing' that people were exaggerating and would often try to overrule the AT. That was when I knew I no longer wanted to play for him. I signed up for 4 years to be 'coached' by this man and he had zero thought for any of his players. Thankfully I had great teammates who became lifelong friends to overshadow what can only be described as a very underwhelming, disappointing part of my career"
"Verbally abusive coach who tried to justify his behaviour as what was needed to win games. I’ve got friends who won games and still have great contact with their coaches after leaving their program. I can’t think of any players that would say that about Craig. Looking at other reviews I’m sad so many people had these experiences and he’s continued to go about abusing his power "
"Never let this man have any kind of power over young women. Soccer aside, he was mentally abusive and seemed to enjoy the power he had over players with scholarships. Like he thought he owned them. Treated us with no respect and expected us to babysit his step kids in return for playing time. If you’re a wound woman who has chosen to play elsewhere rather than for Craig Roberts you have made the best decision of your life I can assure you "
"Reviewing Craig Roberts is something many of his former players tried to do for years. We tried to tell the Athletics Department at Ball State about the mind games he played, the way he made his own players make feel worthless, the times he made players play through injuries. Despite these efforts, we were ignored because of his “winning records”. Records that came at the expense of girls that now live with thoughts in their heads that they were never good enough, and never would be. So, to finally get the chance to “review” Craig and not be silenced, you can see that many of his former players are not taking this opportunity lightly. I often look back on my college experience and wish it had been different. I wish I hadn’t lost the love of the sport of soccer, I wish my coach built me up as a player and person instead of taking that love from me. I wish I hadn’t watched my teammates endure the mental abuse that came from Craig Roberts. I can’t go back in time and change that. But if this review forum can prevent a player from going through that in their future, I will gladly share my experience and hope that the next girl doesn’t have the opportunity to be coached by Craig Roberts. "
"As much as it saddens me to waste any breath or time discussing Craig Roberts, I cannot stand idly by and allow his abuse to affect a single other young woman. Like many on this forum, I was sold on the dream of a MAC championship, DI scholarship, and Craig’s fictitious initial charm. Do not let an exciting official visit/first impression fool you, this guy is bad news and VERY good at hiding his true colors when need be. Aside from the fact he was controlling, degrading, and narcissistic, he was a genuinely bad soccer coach. We had no style of play and his “tactics” were to out-athleticism opponents. Practices were extremely unproductive - if a practice was 3 hours long, we spent about 2.5 of those hours standing around listening to him talk. Like some have already stated on this forum, we won games because he is a good recruiter and we got off on raw talent, not because he had any hand in developing us as players.
The one thing that always resonated with me about Craig was his need for control. He would do small things to assert his dominance and make sure we all knew we were lesser than - he’d randomly ask math and geography questions that no one knew the answers to, and gloat about him knowing the answers and us not knowing …? When he was talking you could not move a muscle (fix your hair, take off your shin guard) or break eye contact for fear of being called out for not paying attention. When I decided to transfer, I was lucky enough to land at another DI program and learn that there are programs and coaches that run intense practice sessions, develop players, and establish great culture. A team that is ran by Craig Roberts will NEVER be one of those programs.
If it wasn’t already obvious, I would absolutely NOT recommend playing for Coach Roberts, however, if you want to regress as a player and enjoy mind games, Craig is your guy! "
"He should never coach women. He didn’t know how to talk to anyone on my team respectfully. I tore my acl and immediately asked the trainer “she’s good to go right?” We barely got fed on away trips, we would go hours without food. Should never lead a staff and didn’t know how to talk to his assistant coaches and any other support staff. Only cares about himself."
"I would definitely correlate me hating soccer for years after graduating based on my experience with him as a coach. It’s shocking to this day that he was able to attain any coaching position with women after ball state when the AD and department had knowledge of his abusive behavior. Poor as poor can be, and allowing him to continue in his manic and manipulative behavior.
I will never forget him on multiple occasions taking injuries into his own hands and pressuring players to continue practicing and playing without AT or doctor approval. My favorite is when he told players that concussions were the new hot topic and we don’t actually know anything about them or their effects, which is probably why we had players medically DQ for concussions and numerous players got them over the course of my four years with them.
If you’re on scholarship, essentially be prepared to have that held against you or be forced to transfer so he can reclaim that money. I’ve known him to go as far as to pressure players to no longer communicate or live with players he’s trying to push out.
I highly recommend him never attaining any position with girls or women. He doesn’t develop them. He leaves them with pain, confusion, and anxiety. If you weren’t affected by his abuse, it’s not a stretch to say you have heard or witnessed his actions against other people. Protect yourself and anyone else from being exposed to him and his “coaching.”"
"I never thought I’d write a review about Coach Roberts. I had an awful experience. But after receiving a text message today from him asking to write him a positive review, I thought this was a little strange. I decided to browse the internet to see what this could be about and shock of shocks he’s on administrative leave. Whilst I couldn’t see what this was about, I can 100% guarantee it’s abuse to players, staff and other school staff. I will never recommend this man to anyone. I would go as far as saying he is pure evil. And the players like me he bullied he now wants us to help him out? No thank you "
"If ever there was a coach to confuse you about soccer, Craig is the perfect coach. I’m very lucky to have been coached by National Team coaches but to this day I still don’t know what Craig’s tactics were. We just went out there and played ourselves and that’s what got us wins. There was never any consistent coaching, it was always very ad-hoc, I was a Forward and spent the majority of sessions stood around. Proper sessions I’ve experienced since were all about repetition in my position. After reading some of the comments, people have clearly had some awful, awful experiences with him, and I can see what they mean. Whilst I fortunately never got the brunt of it some other players dealt with some horrific abuse from him. He used to tell some players that other players were awful, but yet he recruited them? Makes no sense.
I was very relieved to leave but I often do wonder what many other girls he recruits are going to endure "
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