"First word that comes to mind is liar. Team is not motivated and most just go through the motions. Change is needed and I don’t mean the coaches that constantly leave from his managerial style. One of the worst D1 coaches there is. "

"Dishonest and has shown absolutely no personal personal growth. Still an insidious human being only attempting to financial screw young women. Deceptive and disgusting. If you're going through the recruitment process be careful and don't fall for her trap. Unfortunate to society and the university that she is still allowed to coach, bully, manipulate, and mentally destroy young women. "

"Not supportive and very controlling. She did not look at the gifts handed to her. SELFISH person ruined the VIBE. "

"He was a terrible mens soccer coach at Northeastern University. He is zero knowledge of soccer, doesn't under tactics so forget about learning or growing under him. He is a coach that just plugged along as an assistant for couple years then got the Northeastern mens soccer job in 1995. In America, all to often you don't need to know anything about soccer to get an assistant coach position. Then this allows someone like Ed to be a head coach. Then someone like him coaches kids and premier and the bad cycle of coaching and teaching continues to America."

"Eric has always been a coach that has chosen favorites and I think he's gotten worse about hiding it over the years. As someone who was recruited by him, I was equally as excited as he was about the new experiences and opportunities for growth as he seemed to be coming to UMass. After the first year though, his intentions became more clear. Emphasizing his excitement for the incoming classes have served as a scapegoat for him for the past three years of stagnant conference performance (4th in 2021, 2022, and 2023). He has tried to move past these years of failure by excitedly looking forward to the classes ahead, and in the process ignores the hard work and adversities that the classes he did not recruit have put in. This continues now even with the athletes that he recruited himself, continuing his trend of hypocrisy and lying. As a previous rower, it breaks my heart to watch over and over again as freshmen who are so excited to row well and improve have their dreams and potential ruined by a coach who chooses his favorite athletes not based on how well they move a boat, but by how much they go and talk to him in the office and "build a relationship." While I agree it is important for coaches to have a relationship with their athletes, it starts with how much of a safe, trustworthy, and reliable space a coach provides to there athletes, and Eric provides no such thing. Additionally, after years of being coached by him, my confidence in him as a coach on a technical and athletic level has diminished. Every year, he has switched the type of rowing stroke that he considers the "UMass stroke" around winter time, and then switches back in the fall at the beginning of the next year. By doing this, he creates different strokes within boats and tension between athletes because no one adjusts quickly enough to his drastic changes (ex: pause at the finish changed to fast hands around the back end last year and the year before). There is also tension created between the athletes because of his selection processes. Eric's favorites are put in the top boat, coxswain or rower. They are certainly fast because there is not a lack of speed on the team, but the way in which he selects the top boat inflates the heads of the athletes that he choses and belittles the dedication of all those placed (not ranked-placed) below the 1st Varsity 8+. Eric also has a tendency to inflate egos by making lineups that are requested to him by his favorites, collaborating with them over the training plans, and considering their opinions in selection processes; all things that athletes should essentially have no say in. Overall, Eric is an indecisive man with a love for drama among his teams and I would not recommend him as a coach to any young athletes or any programs looking for a coach."

"Lack of personal development and character development. I would recommend the University to anyone, but Weinberg is the downfall of the university and the field hockey program. In addition to the team's ability to win a championship. Creates inner turmoil and attempts to push people away from the program while celebrating others. If you have a good exeperience, of course you're in support of Coach Weinberg, but for those (she has a high turnover rate of players) who do not, you have a terrible experience because she targets you and is relentless in her act of bullying and having meetings to degrade you. Recovering from her abuse on my self esteem even years after playing for her has been one of the largest challenges in my life. "

"Acts with zero ethics or regards to DEI. One of the least inclusive people I've ever met- going as far as making a point to make players feel excluded in order to get them to quit. Wins games barely... constantly going into strokes or OT against teams UMass should be beating during game play. The games are a painful watch under her coaching. Lack of understanding of keeping the players who deserve to be in the game- too busy being focused on a rotation and bullying players to quit for their recruiting money. Emotionless. Stone cold. Stoic. Will look you in the face and say the most blasphemous and rude statements with a straight face then stare at you with no emotions behind her stone cold blue eyes. It's sinful and a crime and honestly scary that this woman is allowed to work with student athletes who are young women. She has more allegations against her than A10 championship wins... Well, I guess it would be a start to have a single a10 championship win or a national championship appearance "

"One of the least honest and most deceptive and manipulative people I have ever encountered. She has multiple cases of financial deception. Emotionally abusive. Truly a sickening human being. She should not be allowed to work around and emotionally abuse young women. Looks as if though statistics for the 2023 season aren't great. Stone cold heart. Has pushed people to their lowest emotional. Played favorites. Didn't act with proper DEI values. Singled people out and bullied those with anxiety and depression. Made a point to make players not feel included and attempted to bully them to quit to regain their recruiting money. You must know exactly what you're getting into."

"For my review I am including a passage or text I sent across to the Athletic Director at Umass, to which I had no real response apart from asking to discuss via a call, which I agreed to (as long as it was recorded). I heard nothing back from this acceptance, which, in my opinion states what little regard is had for the views of Alumni. In October of 2019, a team mate and I raised a report with the administration of Umass athletics denoting many concerns we had regarding the umass field hockey program. These concerns were noted personally in a six page letter, that contained issues I have chosen not to mention in this account. These concerns varied from unprofessionalism within the coaching staff to extreme disregard to their athletes mental health. Covid then happened and little to no change was seen. I graduated and put my concerns to bed, maybe the program would change on its own, maybe coaches would see the error of their ways. However, it has recently come to my attention that nothing has changed. Athletes aren’t leaving this program with conference titles and rings, more so a bitter taste at the very least. I think it’s easy to read a report and brush it off as an isolated case. Maybe it’s time for those with stories to tell to speak about their experiences too, I’ll take my turn. Having grown playing hockey at a junior international level, I was no stranger to hard work and brutal setbacks - I thought the NCAA was where athletes went to have the time of their lives. I was unlucky to gain an injury my first day of preseason, leaving me on the bench for many weeks. I missed all of preseason and came back (arguably too soon) and nervous. My confidence was knocked and I struggled a lot mentally. While never explicitly said, it was made very clear in my opinion that the coaches deemed my weight an issue, I would be repeatedly asked about my nutrition and fitness levels. In one particular meeting I was asked which player I looked up to fitness wise, I gave my answer and was told ‘well she runs 12k every Sunday, are you going to do that?’. Pitting players against each other is a hellishly toxic thing to do to begin with, let alone when it is balanced on a perceived weight issue. Adjusting to college, especially when one is a D1 athlete is hard, let alone when you’re an international student 3,000 miles from home. In one particularly bad spell, I asked for a mental health day from practice. I wasn’t sleeping, I had an extremely low mood and the thought of facing practice that day made me feel physically sick, I would have been off the ball and risked injury. After the practice I was pulled into a meeting with our coaches and the mental health counsellor we had at the time. It was suggested I should be left at home for our forthcoming away trip, I viewed this as a punishment for taking a singular mental health day away from practice. If it wasn’t for our counsellor stepping in, I’d have been alone for four days, totally isolated as all my team were away while in a really bad mental health state - in what world would that be a sensible idea? It was around this time that I was asked if I’d be happier player for the club side. This was ludicrous to me as I did not have the desire to leave and not once had I ever alluded to not wanting to play varsity field hockey. Had I struggled with my mental health? Yes - a lot! But I still loved the team and my identity as an athlete. This was the first (of at least three) times when I was asked directly if I wanted to leave. It was apparent that they wanted me gone, maybe I didn’t fit the vibe, or I wasn’t the player they had in mind but one thing was apparent, they didn’t want me there. Now, as a player in a substantial scholarship, if I were to be cut they would have to continue paying my scholarship until I left. But, if I quit, I’d lose my scholarship, hence, in my opinion, their attempts to get me to quit. Now, anyone who knows me will know I am hellishly stubborn! If you don’t want me somewhere, you bet I will turn up everyday and stick it out, just to piss you off. From then on, no matter my mental state, I ‘put on a brave face’ and turned up to every practice giving it my all. Practice, from the very first training of preseason, had a feel of starters vs scrubs. If you were a player not getting many minutes on the field, you were totally expendable. This meant every session was an uphill battle for many of the team. But, I muddled through the season and made it out the other end. Spring came along and due to the graduation of our senior keeper, and the departure of the other keeper in my freshman class (the first of three keepers to leave the program in three consecutive years), I was the only keeper. I saw this as my shot, I poured everything into field hockey, going on extra runs in my own time, doing individual sessions multiple times a week, sometimes everyday. But really, all I was doing was keeping my head above water. The pressure in practice left me in a state of panic for the entirety of most sessions and I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. Before we knew it, it was sophomore season. Having made it to the A10 finals the previous season, we were ready to make this our year. This pipe dream came crashing down pretty quickly in a brutal 5-0 loss in our opening game. Next followed a trip up to Vermont where some athletes ordered baked sweet potato nachos, resulting in a verbal degradation citing the fact we ate nachos as the reason we got out ‘arses handed to [us] by Michigan’. That is only one of many occasions our food choices were ridiculed by staff, on one occasion a red-shirt ordered a grilled cheese as a meal on a road trip and was told off in front of the full team, meals on away trips were heavily regulated. However, for the coaches, anything was fair game. We as students had little support when it came to our academics. I remember it being commented that we spent too much time on our work and this coach had not known a team so focussed on academics. On one particular occasion we had a Tuesday night game over two hours away and a scheduled off day the next day, at 9pm on the way home from this game we were told our off day was cancelled. I had allotted that off day to catch up on work and study for a test. When I told Barb that I had had to stay up to 2am studying due to the off day cancellation at the last minute, I was told ‘if you don’t want to stay up late to study, you don’t have to be on this team’ - not particularly student first if you ask me. Physically, we were pushed to our limits. It was a generally accepted norm that if you could get out of bed, you should be at practice. This resulted in practicing while extremely unwell and prolonging the time it took us to get healthy again. I personally remember a particular indoor practice tournament where I was struggling with a quad injury. Being the only goalkeeper, due to my classmate stepping down from the squat and transferring colleges, I had to play through extreme pain and the coaches were finally reticent to let me rest while injured. I was made to feel like I was lying, that I wasn’t actually injured and it was some moral failing to be in pain. We as a goalkeeping unit had a joke of ‘sweat or tears’. While this was a funny game to us, the harsh reality was it was relevant due to the fact that in one particular season at least two of us would cry most sessions… We’re not weak people, we just had extremely unhealthy pressure put on us for no reward. During my sophomore spring, I decided to do everything in my control to be the starter in the fall. I attended individual training sessions almost everyday before practice, I ran extremely excessively and especially over the summer break I lost a lot of weight. This was praised by the coaches and began to cement an idea that the thinner I was, the more I was valued on the team. This spiralled and resulted in me spending the fall of my senior year juggling classes, practice and three days a week of intensive outpatient treatment for an eating disorder that had gripped me. I was so stuck in the belief that I had to be as small and as fit as possible I ran my body into the ground just to be good enough. Even while I was in treatment I was still required to go to practice on the field. The idea that you had to go extremely above and beyond was instilled in many of us. And, while arguably this could be seen as a good trait in moderation, it caused strong divisions in the team. It left us believe certain players ‘deserved’ less playing time as they couldn’t meet the rigid fitness test goals despite injury, or they didn’t deserve it because they weren’t going to multiple individual sessions a week. We had been truly brainwashed. It was not their fault at all, they were student athletes with great career goals and high academic standards, there was no time or mental energy to be doing five extra hours of workouts or training on top of the mandatory 20 hours. The coaches were so disconnected from the mood of their players that they were astounded to know that at the end of one season, at least 9 players on their roster had sought psychological help throughout the course of the season. It took the team athletic trainer to bring it to their attention, and quite frankly it is preposterous that they were unaware of the sheer numbers of unhappy players on their team that were mentally struggling. When you’re already feeling mentally low, realising your coaches don’t even realise really kicks you while you’re down. When, as a captain group, we raised the idea that many on the team were unhappy, it was brushed off by the coaches as it being players disgruntled by a lack of playing time. Despite the fact all of those struggling had varying playing minutes, including some starters. I was approached by many players, all of whom were receiving different amounts of playing time that have said they are not happy with how things are being run and working out but do not feel they can speak to the coaches about it for many reasons. For myself as a non-starter, I always felt my issues were brushed off because I wasn’t getting the minutes I wanted. No, I was horribly depressed, unsupported by my coaches and quite frankly had no desire to even wake up in a morning. Having your mental health dismissed and put down to just being down to playing time is heinously disheartening. Starters were scared to speak up due to fear of losing their spots, all of which lead to an environment where people were scared or unwilling to talk to the coaches. On one particular occasion in the fall of 2018 when I raised concerns to the coaches in a meeting (for which my parents were present) I was told if I didn’t like the way the program was run, I could leave. Were they really that fragile that the way they responded to criticism was to show me the door? One thing causing that caused me and others extreme pressure and sense of panic in practice was the extreme competitiveness in practice. This went way beyond the normal acceptable levels. Even after the coaching staff were made aware of this detriment by the head of sports psychology at the time, nothing changed. In fact certain players were asked in the weeks following what could be done to make practice more competitive. In my career at umass there had been so many occasions where I felt gaslit. The most resounding one of these came in the meeting in which I told the coaches I would not be returning for the season of spring 2021. I had spent weeks at home and finally started to get a grip on my mental health. I had really started to improve and see how toxic the field hockey environment had been for me and I knew had I returned, I would have gone back into a very bad mental place. I explained this to the coaches in a meeting and I was met with Barb telling me she was ‘questioning my loyalty to the team’. I had given three and a half years to that team. For the majority of my time there I was in such a bad mental state that I struggled to get out of bed each morning. Going to practice was an extreme dread and I cried my way through almost every session. But I was there for my team, so much so I had been voted as a captain my junior year, despite being a ‘scrub’. I had their backs, supported them out of their own dark places, and tried my hardest to make them feel like they weren’t alone. I stepped down from the program while the world was ravaged through covid, border entry to the US and back to England was complicated and the season wasn’t even confirmed and definitely wasn’t a ‘proper’ season. To be, in my option, gaslit, right until the very end is something that just leaves me saddened. Now, I accept I am not on the team currently, so some may argue I don’t have my finger on the pulse. However my lasting question having read recent events would be, when I reduced Barb to tears in her office in the fall of 2019 as I made her realise she had become the sort of coaching monster that had been plagued with in her career, did nothing change? Why are girls still going through what seems like the exact same thing that I, and many others in my class and since have been through?"

" I think with any coach there will be those that support them, and those that do not. Two girls can have been on the team at the exact same time and have very different experiences. I think the extreme polar opposites in reviews are actually indicative of the culture created by this program, at least historically. There are the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. Throughout my time on the umass field hockey program I could have been considered both a have and a have not, depending on the time frame we look at. As a have not, you are lead to feel unworthy as a human being, that you simply aren’t good enough. Your worth as a person is dictated by your playing time on the field, which I believe is not truly down to ability alone. Yet, when you’re a have, you believe the have nots have done this to themselves. I remember, when I became a ‘have’ I genuinely looked down on close friends and believed that were being treated badly by Barb and the coaching staff because of their own behaviours. They weren’t, they we your average 18-22 year old girls just trying to juggle life. It is a sign of an unfit leader that girls turn on each other, pointing fingers inwardly rather than moving forward as a team. I truly believe, those in such outspoken support of Barb will look back in the future, when they’re fully removed from the system and realise that fundamental flaws. I cannot fault them for not seeing it while the are fully immersed in the experience - but some introspection upon being removed from the program will show it’s shortfalls. Retention rates for this coach are shocking. When you look at the class of 2021, 11 committed to be part of that class and I believe 2 walked on senior day - they had Barb as their coach for all four years. The class of 2022 lost 3/6 of its players. The class of 2023 lost 3/9 of its players after their first year, and this was before Barb started cutting people - I won’t get into the utterly preposterous fact Barb has been cutting freshmen after one season and not even giving them the chance to prove themselves in a spring season. These players left off their own accord - to remove themselves for this environment in various aspects. I personal suffered with my mental health for the entirety of my time in the program, and I know many of the girls I was there with fought some very similar battles. One could argue this isn’t fully down to Barb, this culture has been allowed to fester by Ryan Bamford and the umass athletic faculty. I know Barb’s shortcomings were raised to athletic administration in October 2019 and yet, in spring 2023, he is still admitting Barb has some communication issues. I could write a novel on the shortcomings of this program and the individuals that lead it, but I shall not turn this into a vendetta. I would just urge anyone reading reviews, news articles or consuming any type of media related to umass field hockey to be objective. Would a team that is so heathy and balanced have such polar opposite view points? And would it have such a high turn over rate? "

"Worst experience of my daughters life stay away"

"Deceptive and manipulative. Verbally abusive. Will force you to quit or transfer. "

"The worst human to exist. Will put you through an awful experience on the team with mental abusiveness. Please watch out. "

"Is the most disgusting human being I have ever encountered. I fear for the people she comes across with. She put my family through mental abusive challenges when she broke her promises about scholarships and mentally abused me. I have heard from 16 girls who have had her who 100000% agree with the allegations people hold her to. Awful person and coach. Watch out please. There will be a very public article coming out about her soon describing her nasty behaviors. "

"May come off as a nice guy, but he has no idea how to build a team environment. He is dishonest and combative when athletes bring up real concerns and issues. He wants to be a part of the popular cliques on the team and will overlook bullying of team members. He does not care about mental health, and anything he says when recruiting that may contradict that statement is completely performative. He is only focused on “building” the team with all international girls, big talk about our future as a program but really no action. I would have to guess any of these positive comments on this page came from his favorites athletes - if you don’t fall into that category (which is not based on performance, either), consider your career and all momentum shut down. He also has absolutely no respect for the extreme hard work of our walk-on athletes, anything he says about eventually granting scholarships to walk-ons is a lie. It doesn’t happen. I am also not sure if he knows what he is talking about concerning rowing coaching specifically. His corrections are often confusing and contradictory, and the way he decides upon lineups (at the last minute as well) is nonsensical and not based on numbers or performance. Overall, don’t come here no matter how much he pushes for it or what you see from athletes on officials, unless you want to leave hating the sport of rowing just like me- the team is slow and super fake and unhealthy socially. He lied to me and he will lie to you. I hope you see this if you are considering rowing under him, and that you run the other way. Really, I have no other motive in saying this than to help avoid you having to go through something even remotely similar to what I did. "

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"Plays the favorite game. If you arent a favorite, couldnt care less. Constantly involved in the drama with the girls"

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"Rude; destroys confidence level; negative attitude; has no knowledge for the game/any strategy."

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"The most unmotivated coach I have ever had in my soccer career. Complete disgrace to the game. The lack of knowledge he possesses for the game is unacceptable. I feel sorry for the players that have been under his direction. His players caliber of play diminishes under his guidance. "

"He totally sold me (and plenty of othere athletes) during my recruiting process and during my freshman year I thought he was amazing until half way through my freshman year. I even ignored advice from older players on the team at first, but then came to realize everything they said was 100% true. Stay away and don't fall for his sales pitches, promises, and overall BS"

"I honestly think some of the positive reviews on here are fake, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't write anything. Eric comes across nice when you meet him, but it's a bait and switch. Once you're on his team, he will be manipulative and at times emotionally abusive. Because of him, I wish I never rowed"

"During recruiting, Eric is such a nice guy. Freshmen year was fine, but it went downhill from there. The team got worse each year, loads of drama, and practices were easier than high school teams. By the end, there was so much team fighting led by Eric that I couldn't wait to graduate. If I could do over, I would stay away from Eric (though GW was great)."