The University of Alabama

"I was a rower on Bitz’s team when she was a coach at Michigan State. She was emotionally, psychologically, and verbally abusive while I was on the team. She would regularly berate people, scream at them, threaten them, and humiliate them. She would regularly talk about people’s weight, including saying that someone was in stroke seat because she was too fat for the middle of the boat. I also heard that she asked the coxswains why they got hungry and why they ate, that they shouldn’t get hungry or eat because they don't do anything. She isolated/shunned people who were not performing up to her standard—in cruel and ultimately unnecessary ways. She also blatantly divided the team into two, and would speak with the higher performing teammates for 20 minutes to half an hour at a time, away from everyone else. This really divided the team and was not good for our culture. She would stare at people when they said something she didn't like to intimidate them. She called people useless or brain dead or lazy. She would seemingly decide someone wasn’t trying “hard enough” at random and start to eviscerate them. She also yelled at the assistant or volunteer coaches when they did or said something she didn't like either. She would laugh at people whenever they were crying or upset. We were all afraid of her, even the people who she liked and got along with-they were afraid of her as well. If you were not performing to her standards, she would use your performance as an excuse to berate, yell at, and humiliate you in front of everyone. Nobody got better when she did this. It was very confusing because she seemed really passionate, charismatic and inspiring sometimes, and was sometimes a good coach and seemed to care about us, but things would flip on a dime so easily that it gave you whiplash and made you doubt what was happening. If she didn't like someone, she would just terrorize them and blame them for whatever bad thing that happened. This truly overshadowed whatever benefit she may bring to the table-in my opinion-and I am someone who she was relatively neutral towards. She was “let go” AKA fired from Michigan State due to her behavior. It has been some years since she has been at MSU, so she may have changed, but if you are a rower/coxswain working with her and she is still behaving like this, please do what you need to do to get away from her-she has done this consistently as a coach and it is a her problem."

"It’s interesting to read the comments referencing Coley on deck. There is no one quite like him in swimming. I think people confuse his intensity, passion, and creativity with the fact he speaks loudly and gestures (gives off the impression he is abrasive and direct-which he is to some extent). Reminds me of a baseball/football coach (which is great for swimming imo). Most swim coaches have no personality. Coley makes up for the dull ones to be sure. "

"This coach yelled at me a lot and it was hurtful."

"Great coach, not scared to let the offense run aggressively. Can’t wait to watch him work with Bama in the SEC. Deserves it, big time. Great at making sure we were good with academics, while also being a great hype man for everyone."

"Dennis Pursley is tagged as men’s swimming & diving but in reality coached the women’s team, too. He fostered a culture of a “boys club” mentality, held meetings just with the women’s team to discuss us being too fat, and was overall a disgusting perpetuator of abuse. This doesn’t even go into the old school mentality he held onto despite the data showing it held little to no weight in getting athletes better nor his erasure and belittling of the gay members of our team. "