"Emotionally abusive and toxic. Told me i couldn’t be friends with someone because they didn’t play and i did. Ices people out for no reason. Says really mean thing to players in front of everyone. She shouldn’t be a coach"

"Toxic leadership and player management: This coach engages in psychological manipulation of her players and deliberately pits teammates against one another. Training demands exceed reasonable expectations even for a competitive D1 program. She attempts to control players’ personal lives, including dictating who they can and cannot be friends with — even among teammates. Her treatment of and communication with players is consistently harsh and demeaning. Lack of positional knowledge: She does not appear to understand the responsibilities of positions outside of attack, which raises serious questions about her fitness to serve as head coach. Team culture: Morale is at an all-time low. Health and safety concerns: Mental health is not treated as a priority, and injured players are pressured to play through injuries rather than being given appropriate time to recover."

"I had a very disappointing experience with Notre Dame tennis, largely because of the coaching. Silverio consistently demonstrated poor communication, often failing to clearly outline expectations or provide constructive feedback. Practices felt disorganized, and there was little sense of a structured development plan for players. What stood out most was the lack of support for athletes both on and off the court. Instead of fostering a positive, competitive environment, Alison often created unnecessary tension and appeared to play favorites. Opportunities didn’t always seem to be based on performance or effort, which made it difficult to stay motivated and trust the process. A major concern was the impact this environment had on my mental health. The constant pressure without adequate support, combined with inconsistent communication, created a stressful and discouraging atmosphere. Instead of building confidence, her coaching style often left us feeling anxious, undervalued, and mentally drained. Over time, this kind of environment takes a serious toll, especially for student-athletes already balancing academics and high-level competition. Concerns brought to the coach were frequently dismissed rather than addressed. For a program like Notre Dame, you would expect professionalism, accountability, and a commitment to athlete well-being—not just performance. Overall, my experience with tennis was extremely frustrating and disappointing. Notre Dame is a great school but Notre Dame tennis will never be good with Alison Silverio as the coach! "

"It is a real bummer Notre Dame does not have a coach that can cultivate the culture that a Notre Dame team should have. "

"Toxic coach, Toxic culture. Pushes sports psychologist but needs her own. ND would fire her but they don’t care about tennis"

"I wish there was a more notable forum to talk about College Coaches and College Programs. It would have saved myself and my family a lot of time and aggravation if we would have known the history of this woman. First, I want to say that the recruiting process for a Coach and Team is a business and the program is trying to get the best possible players to enhance their program. However, this program is absolutely HORRIBLE and it starts at the top. I want to tell everyone about our experience with Alison Silverio, her Asst. Coach and the Notre Dame Women's Tennis Program. My daughter is a Senior in High School, ranked #20 in her class and was interested in Notre Dame Tennis. Alison and the Assistant Coach contacted my Daughter and spoke to her many times. They attended her matches and welcomed her on a visit to Notre Dame. The school is great but the tennis facilities are not good. We were still very interested in the program, even after ALL the Negative stories about Alison. This is where all the excitement starts. Notre Dame had 2 spots and had already gave a commitment to 1 player. That left 1 more spot. Alison told my daughter that the spot was hers if she wanted it. Again, my daughter was a highly ranked player who was talking to many SEC and ACC schools. My daughter decided to attend Notre Dame and called Alison with the news. Alison said she was excited and couldn't wait for my daughter to be a part of her program. We went on Tennis Recruiting Website and posted that she was going to Notre Dame. I then had her call ALL the other coaches that offered her spots and tell her about her commitment to Notre Dame. Signing day was still months away but we were very excited about Notre Dame. This is where things got fishy. We were at a tournament and another family told us that her daughter was being looked at by Alison for my daughters class. It was strange because they supposedly had only 2 spots. We spoke to Alison a couple of days later and she said that everything was okay and still was very excited for my daughter. One week before signing day Alison called my daughter and told her that ND was going in a different direction! You can't understand what this does to a teenage girl who has been playing tennis all her life. We quickly pivoted to the other schools that had offered my Daughter Scholarships but nearly every spot had been taken. Alison had waited to see if she could get another player before telling us, and she told us so late in the game that it really hurt our daughter's options. I spoke to the assistant and he denied knowing about Alison's intentions. My daughter has since landed at a school at West but this was a very stressful time. So forget about how Alison Silverio creates a TOXIC CULTURE for Notre Dame Tennis, forget that her players don't like her, forget that she CAN NOT develop players and FORGET that she is a POOR MATCH DAY COACH. The most important attribute of a coach is TRUST. You are TRUSTING somebody to watch after your daughter for 4 years. This women Alison Silverio is NOT to be TRUSTED!"

"I brought my daughter to watch a Notre Dame Tennis Match in March. They were playing University of Miami, who were not ranked and finished the season at 10-13. My daughter was very interested in Notre Dame the school, but didn't know much about the tennis program. I did read ALL the Horrible Reviews that Alison Silverio has received on this site, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to see her in action as a coach. Notre Dame went in ranked #23 and on paper should have won this match easily. The Irish got crushed that day 4-0, but that was not the alarming thing. Watching Alison and her Assistant Coach try to manage her team through the match was very uncomfortable. The players don't respond to her and really seem like they don't want to win for her. No positivity from her at all. Really hard to watch. I am not surprised she has NEVER coached an All-American. A poor Match Day Coach and by reading the reviews the Team Culture is horrible."

"Does not live up to Notre Dame ideals. While at Notre Dame, has never coached an All-American in singles or doubles. Her teams have beaten almost no teams that have finished in the top 25 of college rankings. The results that Silverio publishes are misleading. The program needs funding for a new facility and she is definitely a liability. "

"If you are considering being coached by Sean Carlson, please do yourself a favor and reconsider. While he is great at recruiting (by lying the whole time) once you are on the team, he only cares about the top 2-3 athletes. If one of his “favorites” gets injured, they lose his favor immediately too. Everyone else on the team is disrespected, manipulated, mentally abused, and treated like garbage. He destroys team culture, doesn’t understand the intricacies of training ay altitude, and has absolutely no idea how to coach or interact with females. Hey recruits, notice how you only met the top 2-3 athletes on your visit to CU? That’s because he barely acknowledges the rest of the team. Notice how Colorado’s results are abysmal this year? Well what do you expect when the coach thinks a TEAM consists of 3 people?! And when he takes credit for training Yared Nuguse…that’s laughable. Yared gives him zero credit, because Carlson is not even half the coach he believes himself to be. I could write paragraphs about the destruction this man has caused and how negatively he has impacted so many talented athletes. If your care about your future as a runner and your mental heath, avoid him like the plague!"

"I wish I knew about this site before I started this very stressful college committing process. I want to share my experience to help families with this journey. I have a daughter that is Top 25 in country and loves the sport of tennis. My wife went to Notre Dame and loved the school and everything it did for her in her career. She really wanted our daughter to go to the school. I met Alison many times and found her to be a good person and I want to say I have nothing against the woman. ND was one of 5 schools that we took official visits to. I will review All 5 school coaches on this site to help other parents and players make better decisions. The school (ND) itself was wonderful and the faculty seems excellent. The tennis facilities are okay. We left the visit slightly impressed with the tennis but really impressed with the institution. However, after speaking with other college coaches, players , parents and tennis pro's the real information was discovered. Former and current players talk of a terrible culture on the team and a horrible overall tennis experience. Other coaches talk of Alison not able to develop players. But the biggest statement we heard was from 2 of the 5 coaches that we visited saying that they didn't want to speak to harshly about the ND program because they wanted Alison to stay with the program. The reason- because if ND ever got a real coach in place they could really be a factor in Women's College Tennis. If we heard it from one coach that can be explained, but two coaches made similar statements about Alison and the program. Bottom line, if you want a top level education and don't care about the tennis ND is the place. We just felt that we wanted our daughter to enjoy the tennis and school. The school is important but please do your homework on the coaches."

"This coach looks like she is recruiting international players now because she isn't able to attract good US players. I've heard the team culture isn't good and that players feel unsupported by coaching staff. "

"My daughter was being recruiting by Silverio. She decided against Notre Dame primarily because of the coach. She has heard from several girls that player have not enjoyed the experience of being on Silverio's team. If you look at results during her tenure, players don't improve. She has never coached an All-American and had never finished in the top 25! "

"lied to entire incoming class of 27, rude, poor communication, HAS FAVORITES!!!!!! she is on a crazy power trip about “creating a culture” no culture available, controlling and tried to prevent us from being friends with baseball team, was not kind to players that were not here favorites when ill or otherwise."