College of Coastal Georgia

"Despite what some of these disrespectful and untrue posts say, Gretchen is a great coach. She puts all of her heart into coaching and you can see it. Even when and if I don’t believe in myself, Gretchen shows that she does. If she is not coaching, she is planning an event for Georgia College Athletics or helping another coach with something. Her goal is to create the best student-athlete experience and she has accomplished it. If a player is slacking on their academics, she holds us accountable. She is not perfect, but no one is. Her door is always open for you to talk about anything you are dealing with. She understands a lot because she was a college athlete too. She cares about so much more than the wins and loses unlike what another post said. She cares about her team so much and we can tell. Gretchen has done so much for the volleyball program and athletic program as a whole and she will be missed so much! "

"Gretchen believed in me when I didn’t ever believe in myself. She has also been understanding, and always puts her whole heart into everything she does. She’s not perfect of course but her love for this program overshadows everything. Life’s not perfect and we have one gym so our schedule isn’t always perfect and she’s not the best communicator but if you ask her she’ll tell you. You have opportunities to talk with her ab problems and what you know you want to work on. You will receive the same attitude that you give to her, and respect is a big deal with her. She makes it known she’s here for us, and does a lot for our program. I’m forever thankful for how much she has changed my life."

"Coach Gretchen was one of the most real coaches I’ve had. She is strong and passionate for the sport and she showed that in her coaching. She was intense at times but that’s all a part of the game, especially at this level. She made it her goal to connect with her players and give them a good school/sport experience and I’d say she achieved that very well. I’ve had many coaches but when it comes to the ones that have made me stronger and given me a healthier mentality, I had Gretchen. Thank you for making sacrifices for us and growing us as a team. You are appreciated a ton, and you will be missed. "

"Gretchen is a good person, she has a strong soul and is passionate about things she believes in. However, my experience with her as her player was foul. I have seen tough coaches who want to make their players stronger, but I have not seen tough coaches who degrade their players until I played for Gretchen. Motivation is the key to any sport, especially in college. Without motivation, each day and each practice becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. Gretchen does not have an ounce of motivational encouragement in her body and that nearly destroyed me as a player and nearly ended my career of volleyball after many years of playing. Another issue I found with her was her lack of organization. Being a college athlete means you have a lot going on a once and one thing that made my experience very difficult was not knowing our practice and lift schedule until the day of, and then getting yelled at if you “couldn’t make it work”. She preaches that academics comes first but then she says school work and academic activities are not an excuse to miss practice. The way I got through practice was by pretending she wasn’t there, and that was very difficult considering she likes to give dirty looks after a mistake and crap talk to our assistant coach right in front of us. The way she blatantly talked bad about us in front of us and behind our backs destroyed our morale as a team. She only cares about the wins and the success and her self image rather than her players well being. I enjoy hard work, I enjoy being pushed, because in the long run it makes me a stronger better player, but I need the motivation to do it and that became very difficult when I dreaded practice everyday. The attitude she gives when you talk to her about anything is degrading and unreal. I began to sympathize for her, maybe she had difficult things going on in her outside life and we’ve all be there, but we are told that when you step on the court you leave the negativity out and you play for your team, the same should be applied to her. She has her moments when she is enjoyable to be around and practice is fun, but those moments are rare and they shouldn’t be. Everybody’s experience is different, it all depends on the type of player you are. If you are the type of player who gets in your head and likes reassurance and motivation to play well, then I do not recommend playing for her. "

"Very disorganized. Makes you feel more replaceable than “family”. Talks about her players behind their backs. Overall she doesn’t care about her players personally and only sees them as what they can do for her."

"He thinks basketball is the only thing we should be focused on"

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"My experience with Gretchen has been a very difficult one. I, as a player already struggling with mental health issues, went into a very dark place during my time as her player. Everyday, I would wake up and have a knot in my stomach from the dread of practice. I felt like I could never make any mistake, and if I did there would be a punishment. This was the kind of environment where I struggled to grow as a player and was unable to find any enjoyment in my sport. Gretchen is the sort of coach who only cares about her self image, and not the welfare of her players. If we won, there would be no practice, but if we lost, we would have such a gruelling practice that players would hurt themselves. She saw her coaching style as what was best for us to win, but in reality I was destroying our mental health and breaking our team apart. I believe Gretchen needs to take a step back and look at how her actions affect others, not just how they benefit herself. Overall, being her player made me almost quit volleyball and I think she needs to be evaluated before she really damages a player"

"Communicates so poorly that her players have no idea what is going on. She is extremely disorganized and often changes practice schedules and plans last minute. She is extremely uncaring and acts as if she is still in high school. Gretchen never fails to speak extremely low of her players to either her assistant or her favorite player of the year. Playing for her was absolutely miserable and will crush your love for volleyball altogether. Aside from the fact she is problematic and unorganized, her knowledge of volleyball is very slim and often has to be corrected by players or her assistant (who is much more educated than Gretchen). Overall, I would not recommend her to my worst enemy and hope whoever is considering playing for her seeks other options. "