Minnesota State University (Moorhead)

"He is rude and treats his team horribly. He only treats the best on the team with respect. He, also, disregarded sexual harassment claims the team was brining up to him."

"Let’s start with the basic. MSUM IS AN AMAZING SCHOOL. I have always felt safe being on campus, and my professors have always been supportive and good. When it comes to the athletic side though, there is a struggle with feeling welcomed and loved. Charlie, makes u feel so loved and welcomed during recruitment. He craves about the amazing experience on the team is and how there is nothing better than Moorhead. I 99% disagree him. I think the MSUM swim team could be everything and the best and so amazing to be on if Charlie wasn’t the coach. He makes u hate going to the pool and swimming. He gets up set if he doesn’t know everything that is going on, but at the same time tells u he doesn’t want to know everything on your life. He is controlling beyond words. It’s his way or the high way and he doesn’t make any expectations, until you mentally break down and can’t be a human anymore. He plays favorites like no other, he went almost the first week of the swim season not saying a word to me because I wasn’t the fastest… he is like a child when it comes to what is going on. It isn’t his team it should have been our team. If u are an incoming freshman or someone on the team looking at Moorhead or debating leaving DO IT. DONT JOIN THIS TEAM. Take into consideration how the whole team quits or transfers after the first year! "

"I coached with Charlie. He was awful to the kids, and to me. He wouldn't call kids by their preferred name, berate them on deck (in front of the whole team), questioned their loyalty to the sport (when they're literally paying to swim, it's div 3), etc... He's a class A beezy"

"Charlie overall is a horrible coach. He does not care about you at all. His lack of communication is impossible to plan around. You were expected to not have any mental health issues and any you did were used against you. He would scream at the team before practice but except to have a strong team bond. He would pull you aside after and during practice and yell at you. Every year over half of the class quits do not swim for him."

"Charlie King was my second college coach and I had hope that he would turn the program around and take us further than we’d gone before as a team when he came on (based off the interviews we got to sit in). Boy was that the opposite. I felt like my injuries and declining mental health were being ignored by him. By senior year I was struggling with my events physically and mentally but was told I had to continue in the events since I was one of the only team members specialized in those events. It’s been a few years since I retired from competitive swimming and I’ve just started feeling like the water is a safe space again (thanks to the help of my therapist). If you love the sport of swimming I would not recommend swimming under Coach King. "

"My experience with this coach was highly negative. This coach came into my swim career during my junior year of swimming. I had mild-intense shoulder problems but had worked with previous coaching staff to modify workouts. I was mostly kicking the swim workouts and focusing on sprints. During my junior year with this coach I tried over 5 different types of hybrid training. The head coach switched the training every 2-3 weeks depending on his mood. This head coach was constantly yelling or screaming at his athletes. I was in the athletic training room for shoulder rehab about an hour each day. The head coach did little to accommodate what the athletic trainers would advise or ask when in terms of training with the given shoulder problems I was having. I cried almost everyday during my junior year of swimming. My next year swimming was filled of getting yelled at for schedule conflicts, as well as lack of “commitment” to my team. I ended up quitting the team 2 months before conference. The athletic trainers had told me that if I had kept swimming that I would not be able to lift anything above my head if I continued swimming during my last year. I asked the coach if I would be able to manage the swim team to help get split times, manage food and hotel orders, and more. I was told that if I wasn’t going to swim then I did not have a place on the team. 0/10 do NOT recommend this coach. "

"Toxic, emotionally manipulative, injuries/your medical conditions are not real if he doesn’t want them to be"

"Ignores athletes injuries if he doesn’t want to “deal with it” "

"Watched him coach his entire career. Any parent should be ecstatic to have him and his staff coach your child. They know the game, no doubt, but what makes them different is their commitment and accountability to The Dragon Way: Do What's Right. Find a Way. Keep Getting Better. Be a Great Teammate. It's not lip service...they talk about it every day and then some. Their goal is to win games with men of character. Check your ego at the door and be a part of something bigger than yourself...battle for your brothers."

"Charlie is very knowledgable about the sport of swimming. His practices are challenging and stay away from "Garbage yardage". On a personal level, it was obvious to see that Charlie did play favorites and often would scold people for doing things that other people, whom he liked, were getting away with. He gets frustrated easily and often does not take responsibility for problems but rather places blame on others. Not easy to negotiate with on differences."

"Charlie is a very emotionally abusive coach. He’s very good at recruiting but it’s all talk. He doesn’t care about his athletes mental health and plays favorites. It is very clear who he likes and who he doesn’t. Every thing depends on his mood and his communication skills are terrible. He will call you aside after practice and absolutely destroy you mentally saying a bunch of things that aren’t true just to make you look like you’re in the wrong. Every year half or even more than half of the team quits because of his mental abuse and because he also does not care if you have injuries what so ever. "

"As the only black girl on the team, I was treated completely different. Charlie is racist and sexist. He creates a culture in which people of color aren’t safe. I was called a “Ni**er” and a teammate spit water in my face and he said, “Well they are from a small town. I also grew up in a small town but I can’t be racist because my middle name is Grant, after US Grant who led the North again the South to end slavery.” Charlie took it a step further saying he knows what it’s like to be discriminated against. I was not safe on the team. He didn’t see me as human. One day I asked him, “why do you talk to me the way that you do? You don’t treat anyone else on the team this way.” I was being cussed out in front of my teammates, he would scream at me in practice if someone messed up, and even act like I didn’t exist to him. He responded, “You are the only person on the team that can handle it and when I get mad I have to unleash it.” I was his daily punching bag. In terms on mental health, he doesn’t care. I started to suffer panic attacks and had to get on antidepressants and anxiety medication due to his actions towards me. One day, the team has a talk with him about how he treats us and how we are suffering mentally he said, “That’s not my problem.” In my opinion, he should not be allowed to coach. "