"I had offered from several D1 & D2 teams but they didn’t have the design curriculum I was looking for. SCAD wasn’t on my list because I didn’t think NAIA would be a good match for the intensity I was looking for in a program. I don’t like mediocre or average. Coach Mel assured me her program was different and she delivered on that promise. Because of her I continued with my athletic passion while studying design. There are always a few negative Nancy’s in every environment, life must never seen this level of retaliation and entitlement. I feel sad she had to deal with it, but I know there is a better fit for her at a higher level. SCAD didn’t deserve her. "

"If you play for her, she expects full effort, no excuses and a positive attitude. I think every coach since I started playing 15 years ago has instilled that in my. I played at a competitive level and travel. Some of these girls just walked on from a low level HS team thinking NAIA is like club. Instead of resisting the expectations and always making excuses, they should’ve just found something else to do with their time. College sports at any level is intense. Coach Mel was the best coach I’ve had. Other coaches always complimented our conditioning. We didn’t have a lot of subs, so we had to be prepared to play the whole game. It’s a running game!!! Now because a parent complained we can only run 5 miles a week. So most of us just do the extra on our own. I hope our new coach isn’t afraid to put people in line and holds us to the same athletic standards. "

"I’ve been playing since 3rd grade and I’ve never had a coach go above and beyond for my personal well-being, physical improvement and lacrosse development. She was always there for me off the field and I really needed that away from home. I’ve cried to her and she’s helped me battle my mental health struggles and I grew to become a better person and lacrosse player because she believed in me and pushed me beyond my comfort zone and I achieved things I never dreamt of. Our team success was because of Coach Mel and she deserves everything she has achieved. Shes a true leader, a student of the game and is legit in the game since she played D1, coached D1 and also would ref college games on her only day off from coaching us. She made lacrosse fun again after some coaches burnt me out. I feel honored to have played under her experience. Her future teams will love her like I did! "

"Having only been a part of this team for one year, our first last year, we sat back and observed. What my daughter reported to us on the daily is severely different than what is being reported here. It is also obvious that these egregious complaints are coming from the same few people, the same that we heard complaints about all season from our daughter and her friends. Their body language on the sidelines, their parents in the stands- all very unprofessional. Coach Mel had her hands full with no support. This year will be different, the new parents aren’t going to allow a few bad characters to take down the team or the coach. I’m baffled at how many parents think it is ok to communicate with the AD about menial complaints, and why any teacher or administrator for that matter is allowed to communicate with parents of adults. I couldn’t even speak with my daughters professor about a project, but a mom is telling the bleachers how she’s discussing her daughter playing time and how she doesn’t like her room assignment for travel or meal accommodations. None of this should’ve been allowed and the administration allowed it to get out of hand. It was a lose lose situation for Coach Mel and for our girls. I truly hope she lands her feet at a program with a professional and driven group of like-minded athletic winners, because that is what she deserves. Best of luck to her! "

"It’s really unfortunate that a few disgruntled players who she did not recruit were sour over playing time and held accountable for their lack of effort and improvement. She was not fired for abuse, those claims were all unfounded. Our team witnessed the few who ruined it for the rest of us, and we’re glad most of them are gone after having graduated. They quit once our regular season was over bc they didn’t play and because they were bitter they weren’t chosen as captains. Their parents were just as toxic, the apple didn’t fall far. Parents yelling profanities in the stands, physically assaulting coaches after the game. She’s had a solid, career for 20 years in coaching and comes highly recommended by every department she worked for. It’s sad this is how the world works when a few bad apples are so toxic and create so much negativity. The athletic department at our school is a joke in comparison. Our AD is a retired golf coach with zero experience and didn’t know how to handle these out of control parents and it snowballed. The fitness, nutrition and expectations are on par and our strength coach 100% agrees with her conditioning, and those of us who followed it were the ones who were starters. If you don’t want to compete at a high level- go play club. The majority of us want to win and wanted to succeed and we loved Coach Mel. She hands down deserved every award. There are multiple parents on our team willing to speak on her behalf and fought for her to stay. Don’t be misguided by these toxic losers. When you try to get out of practice by faking “mental health”, and you get called on it- it’s called being held accountable. We miss you, Coach Mel. It was the best 2 years I’ve ever had on a team. We can already see the drastic differences without you here. "

"She doesn't deserve the Coach of the Year title. Take it away!!! She didn't earn it!!! The only reason she received it was because the girls hadn’t been corrupted yet, and she relied solely on a few of them to score goals and carry the team. She never actually coached them. The girls only made it as far as they did based on their own skills. She does not deserve credit for any of it. Her first year at SCAD, she barely showed her true character but after that, all hell broke loose. Take it away the title!!! "

"I just want to make it clear-- Melody Shotwell, who doesn't even deserve the moniker of 'Coach' is an individual who takes pride in bringing down college age girls who's brains still arn't fully developed. Absolutely baffling hers is fully developed and she continues to treat young adults, who need guidance, care, and love to help them grow into strong individuals both mentally & physically, with absolute garbage behavior. Clearly she gets off on it-- sick freak. Keep in mind, SCAD is an NAIA school-- if the girls who played at SCAD wanted to go top D1 & wanted to experience what it takes to be top D1 *institutions where sports tend to be put ahead of academics* then that's where they would've committed. The girls at SCAD chose SCAD for their education-- not for lacrosse, but, we were really never able to get the full education we all wanted due to Melody wanting to win games & coaches awards for her own bragging rights, not for her love of us. She despised us. She ran us into the groud, making us run the equivelant of almost a marathon every week as punishment. No wonder we were all so hurt & exhausted. The way Melody Shotwell coached wasn't for the girls, it was for her. She never cared about us. She posts crap on instagram all the time that says she did, but we all know she didn't. She is an extremely calous individual who laughs in your face when you are struggling. She doesn't care about mental or physical health. Moral of the story-- SHE DOESN'T CARE. This woman is so butthurt that none of us enjoyed her coaching style she even began to block her old players. Is that the behavior of an adult? No, that's the behavior of a child. If anything this woman needs to be institutionalized. Legitimately put her in the looney bin. She had this issues of pulling captains into meetings where it should've been one on ones, like her constantly threatening to kick girls off the team in front of their best friends as some sort of freaky power move. She did this constantly to multiple girls. None of us enjoyed that. It was psychological abuse. She loved to single out individual players after a loss and claim that the loss was their fault in front of the entire team (when in reality the loss was Melody's fault due to her terrible coaching!) She never EVER worked on defense, older defenders were forced to coach the younger girls. She acted like she worked on attack but that wasn't organized either, she relied on her 1 to 2 favorites to score goals and then just was shitty to the rest of us. She constantly claimed girls who were struggling with injury or mental health were 'faking it' and never took anyone seriously-- we constatly had girls saying they wanted to die after practice. I don't think that's normal. We were only sucsessful her first year of coaching not cause of her, but because we were a family who confided in one another & became closer due to her abuse. She deserves to take no credit. She deserves to have her coach of the year award stripped. This woman is horrible and I hope and pray nobody hires her again for the sake of young adult's mental health."

"What a horrible experience my daughter had with this coach. After multiple practices, she would call me in tears emotionally drained and defeated. Mel was emotionally abusive and consistently unsupportive of several players. At one point, she even said to them, “What value do you bring to the team?” An unbelievably cruel and demoralizing thing to say to young athletes. The environment Mel created was toxic. Several players ended up quitting the team because they simply couldn’t take the emotional strain anymore. No young woman should have to endure that kind of treatment, especially from someone who’s supposed to guide and support them. I truly hope this coach is never given the responsibility of working with young women again."

"Melody is very, very intense. She is extremely old school in her teachings, and is a very punishment oriented coach. She will not care about your health. Whether you are healthy or injured, you will run. You will lift. You will cry. She will run you until you can't anymore, and then more. You will never get free time, she will make you train, or threaten you. Your academics don't matter to her past bragging rights for herself, and she will give you no time to do work. She has publicly shamed those who stood up to her. If you want to train like a top 10 division 1 athlete aiming to go pro, have zero life outside your sport, get shamed for your health or being injured in any way shape or form? then go ahead and hire her. But if you want to still love this sport, you should stay away."

"Do. Not. Hire. This. Person. Coach Melody Shotwell should never have been, and should never continue to be, a coach. Words cannot fully capture the extent of this walking red flag. She publicly hazes her players, sends old photos of players when they were heavier while making comments about their weight, continuously fat-shames, and forces various diets on her players. If you got injured or suffered a concussion, she would pressure you to lie to the trainer so you could continue playing. If you were a good player, she loved you, but if you needed actual coaching and help improving, she would verbally attack and single you out. She never actually coached during games, relying only on one or two girls to score goals, without creating a cohesive offensive strategy. If the team lost a game or championship, she would single out one specific player, blame them for the loss, and publicly announce it at every opportunity. She got fired for a reason, and frankly, she should have been fired sooner. It’s no surprise that so many girls quit because they couldn’t handle the constant abuse and the toll it took on their mental health from being constantly degraded. If you know what’s good for your program do not hire this person. "

"I am writing to strongly caution against the hiring of Coach Melody Shotwell, who was fired from SCAD due to her abusive treatment of players. While she may have tactical knowledge of the game, her behavior off the field was toxic, harmful, and entirely unacceptable for someone in a leadership position. She routinely belittled and humiliated players, creating a culture of fear, silence, and emotional instability. Any athlete who dared to speak up or express concern was met with swift retaliation. She weaponized scholarship money to control players, making them feel powerless and afraid to stand up for themselves. She made it explicitly clear that athletics came before academics, and players who prioritized their education were punished. For a collegiate environment, this is not only unethical but dangerous. Rather than building athletes up, she broke them down mentally and emotionally with no regard for their well-being. This coach is not someone who should be trusted with the development of young athletes. I strongly urge any institution considering her for a role to speak directly with multiple former players before making a decision. The damage she caused at SCAD should not be repeated elsewhere."

"Horrible Coach, fired from SCAD for abuse. There are so many horror stories from so many girls, they could probably make their own expose doc like Alex Cooper did. DO NOT HIRE THIS WOMAN unless you want your daughter to become suicidal."

"An inspiration to all who love the game. What an honor to play for her and learn all she has to offer me as an athlete. She challenged me in ways I never thought I could grow. She was always motivating and positive towards our team goal of winning and being great people in the community and on the field. Coach Melody’s lax IQ is top-tier and taught the team things we never heard of before, giving us that competitive edge to be successful. She is passionate about nutrition and fitness so that our bodies stayed healthy to perform and I really benefitted from this knowledge because my lacrosse performance greatly increased. There were many times in my career she would be available for me to talk after hours and guide me through hard times . I felt like I could go to her for anything. We had many team sessions with nutritionists that she organized for us as well as sports psychologists and fun team bonding trips and activities which allowed us to grow our team chemistry and work together, while keeping our minds and bodies strong as athletes. She was very organized, proactive and always communicated as soon as she had updates for the team which was helpful with our busy schedules as athletes. Winning came easy with this foundation and she was a very successful coach as a result of the culture she implemented winning many championships! I am so grateful for the opportunity to play for her and still to this day, have a great relationship with her and she has helped me get a great job after graduating!! "

"Coach Shotwell turned this program into a winning, positive environment where we were all held accountable and had to earn our playing time. She cultivated a culture of a true team, from bonding, to team events, community service, academics first, and buddies within our team. I’ve never felt so connected to a group of women, yet so far from home. Don’t be fooled by this being a NAIA level, Coach Shotwell runs this team like a D1 program in every way. It was too much for a few girls to handle, and they caused a lot of problems. Also it wouldn’t hurt if the school would actually hire a real athletic director instead of a washed up golf coach- the athletics program overall could use more leadership. "

"Awful coach, she believed in you for her own benefit. She is mentally and verbally abusive. Only cares about winning and if you don't benefit the team, you're dead to her."