"I am not a player but my daughter played for coach Roger’s. I have played college volleyball and have coached volleyball at all levels to include college for 30 years. I’ve seen it all. I owned and operated my own club for several years and employed coaches. I will say with all honesty that all of my club coaches were better coaches than coach Rogers and his assistant. Both lied to my daughter and me, and others about their coaching style and what they did for the team. Neither of them coached. Practiced were track practices. When they tried they told them the WRONG things to do. I sat in the stands with amazement and frustration as the girls were not playing defense correctly or even running any version of an offense. My middle school teams ran a faster offense than his college team. NOT a joke. Never ran anything but highs and 1s that were not successful because he didn’t coach his setters , Even freeballs were all high, never ran anything play the whole season. The girls ran a handful of slides (the whole year) that were successful, kills, and then got yelled at. He made his setters set to the ceiling. If you don’t believe me go watch film. When the girls were having issues all they did was threaten them and tell them “they sucked”. “They spent a lot of money on them and they better perform”. Constantly threatening instead of coaching. He told the girls “I don’t coach, if you want coaching you’ve come to the wrong school”. He definitely had a favorite, the only player he would talk to during time outs. He allowed that player to be verbally abusive to the other girls, laughing and encouraging the behavior, many of the girls went on anxiety medicine and started to deal with depression. Come to find out past players dealt with severe depression stemming from them. Definitely did not promote a team environment. Definitely was not a healthy environment. Definitely not leaders you want leading our young women, or men. I would never hire this coach to coach in my club much less college. "

"I find some of these comments laughable. Both “former” Coaches drove many of these young athletes into the ground with their physical and mental gymnastics. Some into depression. These young women couldn’t enter a public restaurant or take a bite of food until they ate first, even if their food was cold. And so many other BS reasons they both came up with to punish them. Too many to list here. Military style. Now the tables have turned and they are both being exposed. What’s done in the dark will come to light. Neither of them deserve to be coaching young women…ever! This is not a matter of these young women acting bitter. They finally feel empowered to standup for themselves because of the “former” Coaches poor behavior. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long to become public. I would hope that any of these young women would never allow their future husband, boyfriend or manager to treat them the way they both have. It’s despicable. The coaching style was always about control and power. Finally, numerous complaints were filed and caught up to them. They might want to consider another profession. "

"My experience with this coach was not what I had hoped for. During my visit, he clearly outlined his expectations and how practices would be run, which I appreciated. However, many aspects of his coaching style did not align with what I was looking for in a supportive and effective coach. One of my main concerns was finding a coach who genuinely cared about the players' well-being and team success. While he mentioned having strong relationships with all the players, it felt like his focus was only on two specific girls, which created a divide within the team. I value a coach who challenges players to grow and improve, even if it means stepping outside their comfort zone. However, the approach often felt excessive and unrelated to volleyball development. For example, practices sometimes involved over 50+ suicides that left players physically drained but didn’t contribute to skill improvement at all. There were also instances where players sought guidance but were met with dismissive comments, such as being told they should already know what to do. rogers said "I don't know how to coach". It was disheartening to see players struggling without receiving the support or encouragement they needed to succeed. Team morale was affected as well. Practices often created a stressful environment where players felt anxious about the amount of running or conditioning rather than focusing on improving their volleyball skills. Finally, while the team had successful seasons, he ONLY HAD SUCCESSFUL SEASONS BECAUSE HE HAD TALENTED GIRLS ON THE TEAM, NOT BECAUSE HE IS A GOOD COACH! "

"I honestly didn’t care about the conditioning or dress code. It was about there being absolutely no respect anywhere. His inability to respect any of his players caused the players to disrespect each other and it was an ongoing cycle of people arriving, getting treated poorly, and either leaving, losing self confidence , or adapting to the toxic environment and becoming a disrespectful person themselves. I understand harsh coaches, I’ve had them my whole life, but I’ve never seriously questioned how one of them was allowed to be a coach at this level. If it were a NCAA D1 school, he’d have been gone the first season. Parents and players spend years saving up for the college volleyball experience just to have it be a nightmare . There is absolutely no family environment around him, and he did not try to make it like that at all. You would expect a group of girls coming from all over the country to need someone to look up to, or go to if they needed something. I spoke to my mom on the phone more than I spoke to anyone the entire time I was there. I have never seen teammates treat each other so cruel, but I don’t blame them because it was tolerated. I will say, I am thankful for the experience because I was at such a low place and through that, I found a relationship with God. "

"If there is any speculation on what to believe about James Rogers. Since the voices of young women who have endured years of power abuse are barely ever heard. Let’s look at statistics! James Rogers began his career at Keiser University in 2018. He has collectively been in power over 67 total players at Keiser University. Guess how many of his players stayed 4 years and graduated as a Keiser Volleyball player. Only 7…. Only 7 girls out of 67 players were able to withstand this man for 4 years. Every other player transferred/left. Which means 89.6% of his players leave. So if you don’t want to believe all of the reviews from his players/victims go ahead and find out for yourself. Let me ask you this! Do you think your daughter, player, sister, or friend has what it takes to be a part of the 9.5% of girls who ride out this man’s abuse for 4 years?"

"“My feelings towards playing NAIA volleyball having 5:45-7:45am practice with 8am lift and practice consisted of running 50 suicides a day without water if we couldn’t finish a drill and our coach called it a dictatorship. We also had dress code that consisted of us carrying our contract and a specific water bottle around or it was 3 30 sec suicides and 7 basketball length down and backs” “I had an asthma attack running 50 suicides and couldn’t finish the last 6. He made me start over the next morning…” "

"“My feelings towards playing NAIA volleyball having 5:45-7:45am practice with 8am lift and practice consisted of running 50 suicides a day without water if we couldn’t finish a drill and our coach called it a dictatorship. We also had dress code that consisted of us carrying our contract and a specific water bottle around or it was 3 30 sec suicides and 7 basketball length down and backs” “I had an asthma attack running 50 suicides and couldn’t finish the last 6. He made me start over the next morning…” "

"A truly awful coach. Mentally abusive to all his players. He allows his favorite players to disrespect the rest of the team. I have played for him for a couple years and I was going to quit volleyball completely because of him. Luckily he got fired so I ended up staying here at Keiser. I continuously lies to his players and finds anyway to punish his players. Whether it be a player being 7 seconds late to class to having a girl fresh out of acl surgery run to the vans before he leaves her and other girls behind. Everything we did would be considered a punishment and we would have to be on the baseline running no stop suicides back to back to back at 5:45am. He openly told us that metal health doesn't mean anything and that is is "bu!lSh!t". He is an awful coach to be helping young girl grow into their young adult lives. "

"Rogers and his sidekick Sydow were absolutely disgusting coaches and relied on the two girls to give them everything they wanted. He allowed the two to cuss out fellow girls for them, and on multiple occasions during practice, they threatened "to kill" other players or "to beat the **** out of them." Rogers actually laughed when either one would say these statements and even told some girls that he encouraged this behavior. This coaching staff created the most disgusting and pitiful environment I've ever seen. He even allowed ONLY those two players to go to their houses, have lunch with them alone, and Rogers had even visited them in their dorm rooms ALONE. He does not deserve to be a coach or in any respected field where he can use his position of power to abuse women. They are disgusting"

"When this coach was fired or “forced to resign” from Keiser, most of the volleyball program screamed “the war is over” because that is how he runs his program. I played for this coach and was able to earn all the accolades despite how awful he made me (and the rest of the girls) feel physically and emotionally. He never celebrated these wins or accomplishments. He did not train me or any of the girls one bit. You come in and out of this program with the talent you already had. He doesn’t coach, he just runs you till you cannot anymore. Personally, he ran me until my foot was broken from an overdue stress fracture that turned into a bad break. Ignoring my limp and direct emotional breakdowns over the pain, he told me I need to play on it until the season is over in two weeks because we needed to go to championship with me. If I didn’t play, my team would suffer. Listening to this man and the fear he instilled in me over my own body for a chance at winning cost me surgery, 10 weeks of non-weight bearing college lifestyle, room transfers, physical therapy, and unbelievable amounts of drama. He enjoys drama and wraps himself in the girls’ fights even if it does not involve him. He will lie and lie and lie to get out of uncomfortable situations. He talks to girls privately about what other players tell him in confidence. My biggest issue was that he favorited the setter and would only communicate with her about inside coach decisions. A good coach would communicate with all of his team at one time like he valued all of them, but he didn’t and was pretty open with his players about who he did not value. We learned from our mistakes (on and off the court mistakes) by running suicides (the most ironic name for a punishment issued by this man). He makes it up as he goes, ignoring rules he created in his 16 page long contract (that we had to have on our person at all times - or else it was 3 suicides and 7 down and backs for “out of dress code - I can’t make this up). So ridiculous that other sports and professors knew how insane the players were for abiding these rules and this treatment, but what they didn’t understand is that scholarships were on the line. The amount of running is so unacceptable that the NCAA wouldn’t allow it. We played NAIA so he could run us till we were throwing up with no questions asked. We also asked no questions - because he would add on punishments, criticize you for wasting time, or call you stupid (or have your captain call you stupid) for not understanding the first time. Don’t play for this man if you value a drama- free team. Don’t play for this man if you value your body and rest. Don’t play for this man if you’re looking for an understanding, respectful, and/or personable coach. "

"I have played for Coach James Rogers and I was the worst coaching experience I have ever had in my life. I completely lost my love for the sport. He made multiple of his players, including me, play through injuries and would never check in. I had high hopes coming into college volleyball but I was highly let down. He had me and my parents fooled as he lied straight to our faces when we came on a visit. He doesn't care about anyone on the team unless your a 5th year or the player glazes him. It is unbelievable how he got away with so many years of metal and some could say physical abuse. Girls that have played under him have even ended up taking there life. It is disgusting that it took 2 players that once played for him to take their life to shine the spotlight on him to finally get him fired. I pray for any of the girls he is going to end up coaching next, I feel so sorry for them all. I have had so many good and bad coaches throughout my career and he is the worst one ever."

"All this guy cares about is winning. He is mentally abusive towards players along with Coach Sydow, Assistant Coach (now former). He is a narcissist at best and does not need to be coaching any young women or men for that matter! He has the king mentality where you can’t even eat a meal or walk into a public restaurant without him going first. He must exhibit total control, and power over players. He keeps them in a state of anxiety to maintain his control. He is absolutely disgusting. Complaints were filed on him at the school. I pray no University hires this guy. "

"I played for Rogers for two season and it was a nightmare. I don’t even know where to begin there was so much inappropriate behavior. He made it very clear his bottom line was winning and he would do anything to achieve his target record. My first year I wasn’t a starter so I don’t really think I had a full conversation with him the entire year. I was completely disregarded as a person. As a team we literally ran so many suicides the majority of us ended up with injuries from toenails falling to shin splints to even stress fractures. If anyone especially a starter got injured, they were pressured to return to the court much sooner than was healthy. Whatever suicides were missed counted as debt and had to be made up. If you missed three suicides five would be added to total eight in debt. If the team lost he would find any excuse to make the next practice a living hell. Every minute we were late to classes, practices, weights, or team meetings added suicides. One girl was .004 seconds late to class meaning we had to run. One time after a close loss girls took four steps towards the Chick-fil-A in front of him resulting in an extra 4 suicides. If we ordered before him, suicides. If we ate a single bite before him, suicides. If we didn’t fully clean the table, every piece of trash or straw wrapper resulted in suicides. The team especially freshmen lived in a constant state of fear because he had created such a toxic environment that the rest of the team would turn on anyone that added suicides to the bank even if it was for ridiculous reasons. The dress code was so strict. There were certain jackets shirts and water bottles meant for specific occasions that could result in extra running if worn wrong. The environment was military and cruel. I was only treated as a human being when I started my second season. There is so much more like him staring at our butts while we bear crawled and laughing when girls cried or puked. All the reviews before mine are true as well and I hope he gets fired. He doesn’t deserve any position around young women. "

"Fitness is important. But not to this coach- given his much higher than average bmi. The chick fil a he makes the players eat 3 times a day has obviously gotten to him. It must’ve affected his brain as well- given he is a complete and total @**wipe. He preys on young girls which is the only reason he started coaching volleyball. Very creepy and weird behavior overall. Wouldn’t trust my kid around this guy to save their life. I would rather watch my child go away to war then to deal with this predator."

"He only cares about the starters, in fall of 22 in an interview, he pointed out key players that we’re going to make all conference with that being said he identified certain girls that were going to play all the time in the other girls basically were benched for most of the season. He had nine key players out of 22."

"He doesn’t allow you to ask questions. He is constantly manipulating players. He doesn’t care about you unless your a starter. Only cares about winning. He will pressure you for grades, but he believes that you should put volleyball first. You are constantly walking on egg shells around him."

"Does not care about your mental well-being. Discusses reducing your athletic scholarship money occasionally. Racist. Will make comments about players of color."