"It has been an extremely unfortunate experience for our player and we have watched as she has deteriorated emotionally, physically and in softball over the past years that Whitney has coached. Whitney came to URI already having a past history of abuse, cover up, hazing. When she was coaching for WPI, the school, Whitney, her husband, her mother and her father were all named in a suit for a severe hazing accident that resulted in a career ending injury as well as a very large out of court settlement. It's reported that the settlement was above 1 million dollars. UI was aware of this and hired her anyhow. For our part, there's really no describing the type of agetation that she creates on her team, between teammates, encouraging and giving favor to people who Tell on there teammates, withholding a food as punishment, body shaming and much more. This is by far the most hostile environment our athlete has ever been in. The assistant coaches join in on the belittling, berating, public humiliation, body shaming, intimidation... Players are not fed properly at all and our daughter has been sick multiple times due to this. If you have any type of disease or food allergy or anything like that you are 100% on your own and in most cases need to provide your own food while traveling as well as anytime there is a team event. Whitney threatened to punch a player in the face, saying, I am so angry, I could punch you in the face right now. She's regularly known for throwing tantrums and kicking multiple athletes out of practice with no explanation at all. It's a very sad situation with this coaching staff and definitely criminally abusive on so many levels. Please do your homework before sending your athlete to play under this coach. At the end of this season 75% of her players were seeking mental health counseling. Buyer beware, don't be fooled by her. Also, facilities are terrible, especially dorms. There are multitudes of pictures out there showing black water coming out of the faucets, trash everywhere in your rooms when you move in, there are no special dorms at all or accommodations for softball players, the shower water is known to turn blonde hair green. Illness is rampant for anybody that lives in a dorm. Just terrible. We do not recommend playing for any of the coaches on the staff. Players have been left for days with concussions, vomiting, forced back to play while they're still injured. All of this is supported by mental health department as well as the medical facility doctors including the chief of medicine for University of Rhode Island. Reports have been made for 3 years now and have not been responded to you by the AD's office. "

"The experience that was had by multiple players on the 2021-24 teams over several years, was nothing short of traumatic. Uncaring, untrustworthy, constantly pitting players against each other, traumatizing comments, temper tantrums, curses at players, belittles, degrades, body shames, encourages tattling on your teammates in order to get brownie points and favoritism, sets team captains up to carry out her abusive agenda, threatened to slug a player between their nose and their forehead, calls players disgusting and that she can't stand them, makes players rank other teammates on how bought in they are to her brand and program, public humiliation and so many other things. Whitney does not provide proper meals during travel and games, players often only getting two meals a day and sometimes one of those meals only consists of a smoothie. Players are given between $5 and $15 for 1-2 meals at the airport while traveling. We do not suggest anyone play for her. She was named in a lawsuit for a severe hazing incident at WPI that she orchestrated and that her parents and husband participated in AND ALSO PARTICIPATED IN THE COVER-UP OF THAT HAZING INCIDENT. Incident ended in the player being severely injured. The school (WPI) and her parents were sued, and Whitney and her husband Matt were named in the suits as well WPI WAS SUED. It was settled out of court for a very large sum of money. URI hired her knowing that she participated in the hazing incident and cover up, with this information and knowledge and nothing has changed about what she's doing. She did not learn anything from that experience. Absolutely abusive, old school style coaching with very little coaching actually going on. She believes in breaking kids down like they're in the military to build them up to be loyal only to her and fear her versus respect her. Lots of drama, very sporadic broken coaching, pitching coach tells the players to look up spins and different pitches and spins on Google or YouTube because she does not know how to teach them. Horrible experience for many athletes unfortunately. These athletes have now come together and come forward however and they are in the process of reporting the staff starting with Whitney. The complaint process began in March of 2024 which includes doctors, psychologist and well over 10 athletes. Meetings to hear specific incidences and reports begin on May 6, 2024. Anyone looking to play at University of Rhode Island should do your homework before you send your child there. Also, facilities and dorms are absolutely terrible. Many dorms do not even have clean water. The bathrooms are cesspools. Food is decent, professors are excellent overall. Compliance has been very helpful The AD's office has swept these complaints under the carpet for 3 years now. That will not be happening this year. These complaints are moving forward in the school will either respond to them or families intend on taking this to legal platform. "