"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 "
"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 "
"After three years with Craig as my coach I would say the word to describe my overall experience was misleading. I committed to Ball State as a Junior in high school and was excited to continue my soccer career as a D1 Athlete at ball state. My expectations were high as I walked through the gates of ball state and I was disappointed almost right away. I was promised so many things and yet what I experienced 99.9% of the time was head games. The head games took place from the start of my career with Craig until the very end when he left the university. I saw many of my teammates that I would consider family put into horrible mental situations that no one should go through while playing a sport they so called loved. I roomed with many other players and our afternoons and evening conversations were filled with nothing but discussions of what was going on on the field and how none of it made sense. Specific experiences that took place that impacted me during my time at ball state included when he would pit two players against each other during practice rather than having them work together… also another experience I recall is when myself and two other players were told we were the reason we lost the even though we spent the majority of the game on the bench cheering for our teammates. Overall, I would like to say that I wish no one else has this experience with Craig but weirdly as an adult now I want to thank him for making me realize that I can work for anyone because I will never have a worse coach or leader as him. Most of all I hope that my teammates that were impacted by his treatment will someday be able to heal because at the end of the day they are so much bigger, better and stronger than he is. "
"As a women’s collegiate head coach, Craig Roberts held an extreme position of power during a time of maturation for girls as they aged from eighteen into their twenties. Parents entrusted their daughters to Craig, believing he could mentor and mold their daughters correctly as they became young adults. He was fully aware of the significant and influential role he held, yet he completely abused it. He was incapable and unfit, and Ball State University let him reign for too long. Craig Roberts cultivated an unsafe and toxic environment that bred insecure, anxious, and panicked women. The examples of his mental and emotional abuse are clear—as you can reference the multiple testimonies from other women on this forum. Craig Roberts constantly dismissed me and mislead me, made me feel worthless. So, it is no surprise I left Ball State with a heightened awareness of my inadequacies that carried affect my personal and professional life. Under his care, my adoration for soccer progressively became demented and the passion turned into misery. He completely took advantage for our love for soccer: he knew that our only goal was to perform in games, and that we would go to any length to achieve that. Therefore, he exploited this as a bargaining chip to act however he wanted—completely inappropriate. For four years, he was rude, deceitful, hypocritical and an overall fraudulent leader. "
"At first I thought Craig was just a stern coach. Very disciplined which I don’t mind. But slowly as the season developed it turned into pushing players to play when injured, body shaming players when they were eating out on the road, throwing a clipboard at a player. I think he thinks he’s being funny but no one on the team found him likeable or even that knowledgable. He screamed at players if they asked questions about practice. The scary thing when I look back is this man has power over scholarships. Players will put up with a lot because it also comes down to how much money they get. We can’t just walk away because we needed that money to pay for a school, and I think he knows that. Very worrying "
"Sexist & abusive. I don’t care how many wins we had. The verbal abuse I endured is what I remember. Don’t let your daughters/sisters play for this man "
"I too, was sold the college dream of a MAC championship and a starting position. In reality, Craig was emotionally abusive, manipulative, and will make it nearly impossible to transfer to a different school even if you're not playing and clearly unhappy. He would force us to baby sit his step kids for free or we wouldn't get playing time. I submitted my letter of release and he told me and my father that I was worthless and wouldn't amount to anything. He didn't want me to leave but also said he couldn't tell me why I wasn't playing. He found out where I was transferring and called the head coach and told her I was an alcoholic and she shouldn't accept me as a transfer. He then proceeded to try to create a match between the team I was transferring to in order to disrupt my transfer. I had to go above him to the compliance director and beg to leave as I was depressed and was distancing from friends and family. Please do not fall for the charm and the lies. "
"A very egotistical, narcissistic man. He always made it about himself. I honestly think he thought he was some sort of inspirational coach. He seemed to have little knowledge and was blessed to have very good players. I only spent 1 season with him because of his behaviour to the girls. Having looked at his track record in recent years it’s perhaps no surprise his career has not progressed but rather dropped to lower teams despite a winning record "
"After having a negative experience with a coach at my first university, Craig did a wonderful job of convincing me to transfer and finish out my D1 college experience at Ball State, where he ensured me I would get the college soccer experience I had always dreamt of. I was very wrong.
Craig was a master at creating the facade of being a wonderful, knowledgeable coach, but behind the scenes he treated his players, opposing team coaches and even his fellow coaching staff as if they were inferior to him with constant mind games, controlling behavior, inconsistencies in coaching decisions, verbal and emotional abuse.
He was especially abrasive towards women, whether that be his players, female coaching staff or female athletic trainers. He was constantly displaying sexist behavior.
An experience that stands out in my mind was when myself and my teammates walked into the locker-room one day to find that Craig had printed out pictures of various professional athletes, body-builders, etc. wearing sports bras & spandex and taped them onto the wall of our locker room telling us that these bodies are what men find “sexy” and these are the bodies we should be aspiring for.
Need I say more?"
"As a player I have never fallen out of the game so quickly. Manipulative, verbally abusive and at times I found him to be sexist. He has a winning record which seemed to be really positive but the day to day experience was a horrible environment to be a part of. Wins are great but It’ll be the verbal abuse and sexist comments are what will always be remembered at Grambling"
"In my collegiate experience Craig was manipulative, controlling and a liar. While he was a good salesman for his team and university, Craig drained any passion I had for the game almost immediately and created a toxic environment for his players and coaching staff. Everything from your daily schedule and workout regimen to diet was controlled by this man. If you were deemed “not good enough” by Craig you’d be tasked with early morning fitness and extra supervised study hours on top of the regularly scheduled practice, weightlifting, games, etc. Craig ignores injuries and doesn’t believe in an “off day” for recovery, though advised otherwise. It is a shame Craig has put so many young women through these traumatic experiences."
"Mentally and physically abusive. We would almost always go over our practice hours in and out of season. When we lost he made us eat McDonald’s and said we didn’t deserve a proper meal (apple bees) then we all had to write him a letter on the word appreciation. I didn’t transfer until he told me I wasn’t slow physically but mentally I was I was retarded. I’ve seen him throw clip boards at players, kick soccer balls at them to “teach” how to make an accurate pass. Would not recommend him to anyone. Mind you we won the MAC conference my junior year so the complaints never got him fired. I think it was a mutual hate for him that rallied the girls together to play for ourselves and each other after everything he put us through. I will say the man can recruit top talent. "
"My experience under Craig was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone to go through. I witnessed and was subjected to verbal abuse on a daily basis. He’s a manipulative liar. Forces you to play through injuries. Literally calls his players “f****** stupid” to their faces. This man should NOT be allowed to coach, especially women. He’s a sexist, body shaming, sick human being. He does not belong in college sports, or any level for that matter. A coach should be a mentor. He was the exact opposite of that and sucked the love of the game right out of me and many of my teammates. I feel sad for those who have to go through what I did. "
"If you want your mental health to be completely destroyed, then Craig Roberts is your guy. If you want to learn, grow, and have a healthy relationship with your coach and with the game, I cannot express enough how much I do NOT recommend him. Constant mental games, abuse, lies, and lack of compassion are what you will get with him. He won’t believe you when you’re sick and injured and will make you play anyway which WILL have long term effects. He will scream at every referee and opposing coach to the point where it’s embarrassing. I could go on for days- do not hire this man to coach women! "
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