Four athletes on the women’s basketball team were recently suspended for using cocaine over the winter break. Amanda Bryant, Dawn Ross, Tiffany Jones, and Shannon Kynoch were all suspended for four games after admitting that they had used cocaine at a party.
Athletics Director Al Bean, confirmed that the students had been suspended for student conduct violations, but would not confirm the cocaine use due to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, which does not allow student records to be disclosed.
Bean and Women’s Basketball Coach, Gary Fifield, tacitly acknowledged the students’ drug usage.
“I think that initially…I was personally embarrassed by the incident,” said Fifield when questioned about his feelings on discovering the athletes’ drug use. He said he felt the students came forward out of guilt.
An anonymous source in the athletics department said the students were suspended for cocaine use.
According to Bean, the University hasn’t notified the NCAA of the incident, and doesn’t plan to take any further action against the students. Bean said that, to his knowledge, the University was under no obligation to report the incident to the NCAA and “there are lots of cases involving students and student athletes handled at the campus level.”
NCAA regulation states that students caught using substances forbidden by NCAA regulation must be punished according to the institution’s policy regarding substance abuse. USM policy states that drug use violators face immediate suspension and may be dismissed from the athletics program pending investigation.
Fifield said when he learned of the incident he “alerted the administration and tried to make sense out of the stories that I had.” Initially some of the players denied what had happened, but later confessed to using drugs.
Fifield said that the players’ willingness to come forward played a role in determining their suspensions.
“As an education institution you have to seize opportunities, whether they’re good opportunities or bad opportunities,” Fifield said, “and use them as a teaching tool.”
Bryant is a freshman and plays forward. Ross is a freshman and plays guard. Jones is a junior and plays forward. Kynoch is a sophomore and plays forward.
Jones is one of the best players in the team’s history. She was Little East Conference Rookie of the Year in 2002-2003, has scored the fourth highest total points in a season in USM women’s basketball history and was the second highest scorer in the LEC for 2003-2004.
When questioned about whether Jones’ status played any role in the choice of punishment Bean said “Tiffany’s a good player and it’s a good program, but it doesn’t matter.” He also said that he doesn’t make decisions like this alone, but usually seeks council from others such as President Richard Pattenaude.
This is not the first student-centered controversy the athletics department has faced during this academic year. An internal investigation last semester found 35 students in the athletics department had defrauded the University for about $8,000 of work-study money. Students involved in the fraud faced suspensions of up to 8 games.