Virginia Tech

"Worst of the worst! Listen to all the others! This woman doesn’t belong in college coaching or any coaching!! She is belittling and a liability to Tech! Get rid of her once and for all!! Your lacrosse program will be better for for it! Do the right thing AD white. You got rid of Bridgette get rid of this one too!?"

"These comments are so validating ! I never really know if people think she’s a good coach or not , but watching this poor team play it’s so frustrating and you just think how can people keep supporting this? It’s D1, ACC and Skiera is so out coached by even the very low ranked conferences . She is HORRIBLE!! Any positive review on here is probably her dad. Even the coaches dislike her and are leaving . So many on here have summed it up perfectly -Narcissist!! Mean Girl! Horrible game management!! Abusive! The list. Is endless ! But I have to let the people know who are saying it’s probably just an upset parent that is mad their kid didn’t get play time .. NOPE!!!!!!! Do your research - this team lost so many players that she played constantly, but NEVER coached them to be smarter or higher IQ. She doesn’t know how to coach or run a practice . So many of those players that she was obsessed with LEFT!!! They got tons of play time , they got recognition, etc. why would they leave if they were playing or getting her “favoritism”? She’s clueless… timeouts for her are useless , girls shooting 30 Shots and making a couple goals were never taught how to figure out when to shoot and when to pass. There were players that transferred and reminded how to actually play the sport . Defense is awful!!!! They get burned and no one takes accountability and coaches don’t know how to adjust. Positive side is Virginia Tech is a great atmosphere, a great education , and a beautiful area. She has many players that put up with her because they have family support and common sense . You graduate and move on. It’s sad because she doesn’t deserve to be there, all you have to do is look at any game she has coached . So many people have said even the male coach before her that was let go was better than her. The team competed and at least showed they were better than low ranked teams and the girls were close and supported each other. She turned it into a mean girl sorority. I guess we could all go on and on about how terrible of a human she is , but people saying only families complain because their athlete wasn’t chosen .. YOU ARE WRONG! VT deserves to have a good program !! No one is expecting to win it all every year , but there have been some great players that she destroys and seem to forget how to play the game because she’s just that bad. "

"She is a genuinely great coach who helped me find my love for the sport again. She pushed me, challenged me, and held me to a high standard, but she also cared about me as a person and wanted to see me succeed. I am a better athlete because of her, but more importantly, I left the program with a renewed appreciation for the sport. Having played at the Division I level and experienced multiple coaches and coaching styles, I feel like I have a pretty strong frame of reference for what demanding coaching actually looks like. This coach is nowhere near “toxic” or “abusive,” and honestly, I think some of these reviews reflect a pretty distorted understanding of those terms. She is demanding. She holds her players accountable. She has high expectations and isn’t going to baby you or tell you what you want to hear just to keep you happy. But that is not toxic coaching, that is coaching at a competitive Division I level. Is she a perfect lacrosse coach? Of course not, no coach is. There are always going to be things athletes disagree with, decisions they would have made differently, or aspects of a coaching style that don’t work for everyone. But some of the stories being told about her being a bully, controlling who players can be friends with, or trying to dictate their personal lives are so far removed from the coach I actually experienced that they are genuinely hard to recognize."

"The WORST of the worst. I played for her prior to her coaching at Virginia Tech, and from the other comments, it seems she never changed. A jealous and belittling totalitarian who is determined to live out her high school mean-girl days. She dictates who can be friends with who, the style of your play, and fitting into her box, to the point of rather than focusing on lacrosse and improving their skills, athletes were more focused on avoiding their friends in drills at practice, who they were passing with, who they were caught walking to practice with, and altering their skills to mimic that of hers from 2 decades ago, all to avoid the wrath of Supreme Leader Skiera. She treats collegiate women’s lacrosse teams eerily similar to the Wehrmacht, where playing time, treatment, and positions are given on a loyalty basis, rather than by skill or aptitude. This is evident by her records at both Army and Virginia Tech. Army was not a successful program under her reign. Michelle Tumolo saved the program (and multiple players from depressive episodes), going on to beat Navy for the first time, consistently ranking in the Top 20, NCAA tournament appearances and wins, Tewaarton finalists, professional players in the WLL and national teams, etc. Contrary to that at Virginia Tech, a program that had historically been ranked, just not able to break into the top of the ACC, has suffered under her tenure. Supreme Leader Skiera puts players into a box, demanding they play exactly like how she did, which was clearly ineffective. Her wing woman, Gilroy, is spineless and bends the knee to anything Skiera demands, proving her to be complicit in the entire operation. I could truly write a full length book of the abhorrent things that crazy lady said to teammates, parents, and even the managers. She seems to have a lot of unresolved issues from her youth and college eras, which she now eagerly takes out on young impressionable women. We deserve better. "

"She was a terrible coach. Very negative. Harsh with her words. No positive reinforcement. Made players feel very small and in adequate she was a boy to my daughter"