NAIA Suspends Huntington University

Huntington won the NAIA Indoor championship in 2020 right before COVID closed the world. They had about 7 women who ran multiple rounds of mile, 1k, 3k, 5k, DMR, 4x8. Even as diluted as distance is in the NAIA event schedule, it’s basically impossible to do without “help.”

They should be forced to vacate that title for sure.
The president and AD get a pass that a real “investigative body” (instead of the not legitimate NAIA) would cite them for, not only the initial negligence but the coverup and stonewalling of any attempts to gain a full insight into the Johnson/athlete mess there.

This misses the point. The fact of the matter is without some punishment that affects the whole current program, Huntington Athletics won't learn or be forced to change their practices from the top down. If half of what has been written is true, it seems the school and administrators were complicit in a culture of secrecy, manipulation, and criminality. Keep in mind the last point - criminality. This isn't a "Sean Brosnan" like recruiting violation. People's lives have been irrevocably altered after Huntington failed to protect them or even stand up for them. Pretty much no one outside of the coaches at Huntington were punished, as all of the athletic administration is unchanged since then (and even then, the coaches largely received slaps on the wrists with Lauren getting PROMOTED for a time).

Huntington had every chance the last two years to clean house, change their ways, and apologize on their own, voluntarily. But they haven't. I truly feel terrible for athletes and current staff who played no part in what happened. But the only way Huntington will change to protect future athletes is with a punishment that unfortunately effects the current program.

You JUST lost respect? I understand what you are saying......Initially, I felt bad for the current athletes, but they are not hopeless victims. They knew what they were stepping into when they committed to that school. Even those that followed Neideck there. As distance athletes, this story has been unavoidable unless, well, no viable reason. Does the NAIA know what happened there last year? What are the chances that that stuff went through the proper channels. Maybe all the Huntington supporters, who have been oddly quiet recently, can elaborate on what tore the scabs back open

Different track head coach now. Roark was not there when all this crap happened. Childs was the previous track coach, but he conveniently resigned right before this story became public.

Weird that the NAIA levees all these penalties on the HU XC team, but nothing happens to the track program - despite Johnson being a track coach as well.

Everyone knew what happened. Everyone knew it was not properly dealt with.
And yet you still had people staying / transferring IN to the program.
Honestly blows my mind, but sorry, I have zero sympathy for anyone who got swept up in the vortex when they could have left or not went there in the first place.

What I’m reading is Roark and the current staff are great at recruiting?

I believe Roark IS the staff right now

True, as it appears he is coaching both programs, men and women; and handling this mess. Regardless, impressive recruiting and retention nonetheless.

Dipsh!t go look at the legal documents.

How many Huntington North superstars ended up going to Huntington? How many of them were 16 at the time?

How do people defend this still?

From what I know Reece Gibson (grad assistant) is effectively the head coach in xc.

He was an ardent defender of the Johnsons when everything was coming out

Huntington University is one of the most conservative, evangelical Christian universities out there. Sadly, these kids are taught to trust their elders and leaders without question, spun stories about how the secular world is seeking to bring down good Christians and Christian organizations, and when transgressed against to forgive those who have abused them.

I grew up adjacent to Christian evangelicalism, and have many friends and family who swum in the deep ends of those waters. Some still do, some got out. Many did not stay safe.

Nothing will happen to the good Christian leaders of Huntington University from Huntington. They are beyond reproach, or at most subject to good old fashioned Christian Reconciliation.

The Johnsons may not be there in the future, but they will replace one set of predators with another, chosen by the predators at the top who are running the place.

This is not to say you cannot have a good experience at Huntington or other ultra conservative Christian universities. You may fly under the radar of predators and make it out fine, none the wiser to what happens to some of your peers (because you're not to ask questions, of course).

I feel for these kids. Yes, they should get way, and know better than to come in the first place. Yet, they've been trained all their life, in many cases, not to question authority and to accept the excuses of those who abuse and prey on others and practice the same forgiveness that will be denied to them if they even step a toe out of line.

He should be canned along with AD Lori Culler (she should really be jailed for hiring Lauren).

You know, David Woods, the journalist who brought much of this HU/Johnson stuff to the public eye, is himself publicly an evangelical Christian. Just about every religious tradition contains elements that can sacralize existing orders and elements that can prophetically criticize them. Your generalizing about evangelical Christians seems just the mirror image of the "us against them" you're accusing them of.

They need to vacate any titles team or individual won during the Johnson era. Evidence of PED usage knowingly or unknowingly, sexual assault, kidnapping and on and on. Punishing the current staff and athletes does no one any good.

Does that include AW who was coached by LJ, during the Neideck days? Even he eventually, admitted that he wasn't coaching AW

I understand that you hate evangelical Christianity but at least try to make an intellectually honest argument. There are unfortunately tons of cases like this in our world, the majority not being at Christian institutions. Why are we supposed to believe that it’s Christian teachings that enabled this at Huntington when this occurs across institutions across all worldviews and religious traditions?

I can’t think of any evangelical Christian that wouldn’t want justice for everyone involved and anyone who does not is acting contrary to the Bible. The idea that evangelical Christians are taught to trust leaders without question is simply false. As is your accusation that these institutions are filled with predators seeking to take advantage of others.

Evangelical Christians should and do oppose this type of behavior more staunchly than any other group. It was predominantly Christians who brought about the end of slavery, segregation and child labor. It’s predominantly Christian organizations that fight human trafficking and serve the victims of sexual abuse. The fact that some supposed “Christians” are acting contrary to the teachings of evangelical Christianity does not show that it is their teachings that enable this type of abuse.

If Huntington was acting in accordance to biblical Christianity, they would have done everything in their power to protect that victims and bring justice against the Johnsons.

Neideck got attacked pretty viciously on these boards all of last year, mostly by the same people defending NJ and AW. There clearly seems to be some bad blood between those two parties. I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that they continued to coach AW even after LJ was fired. Even while Neideck was there, Roark was the head of both programs and seemed to have allowed this. I think it took Neideck a little while to fully realize the mess he had walked into and then got out of there as fast as he could along with his Cornerstone athletes. The program has repeatedly refused to cut ties with the Johnsons despite the obvious sexual assault and doping issues. Everything needs to be vacated and the NAIA needs to makes sure that their is some actual accountability for the staff members that have allowed this.

Roark is guilty of being selfish and a poor coach who cannot manage his own program. He should be embarassed but he likely isn't because all he cares about is himself. While he did not commit any of these named offenses, he condoned them by allowing things to continue, unregulated, under his watch. And the funny thing is, he doesn't think anyone knows anything because he thinks he's smarter...

Better than track meeting?