Congrates to OSU Transfer women

(6-20-02 out of:

http://www.stwnewspress.com/

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Several athletes claim misconduct

By Jacob Longan

Sports Writer

Three members of the Oklahoma State University women?s track team are leaving school, citing problems with head coach Catrina Acosta.

Additionally, a member of the men?s track team, Matt Thompson, accuses Acosta of improper behavior.

Janine Brown, Charlotte Coffey and Paula Gowing said they will not return to OSU. Coffey, Gowing and Thompson said they have told administrators of their concerns with Acosta.

All four are from England.

Acosta did not return repeated phone calls from the NewsPress seeking comment. Assistant coaches Clint and Kim Whitaker, who are married, deny the allegations.

Thompson, a sophomore, said much of his concern stems from one incident in late winter.

?My girlfriend had dropped me off at the track and (Acosta) and (Clint) and Kim were at the gate,? Thompson said. ?I walked up and started talking to them and (Acosta) said something like, ?Hey, cutie,? and reached around and grabbed me by the ass. She always calls me cutie. It took me by surprise so I didn?t say much or do much. I just went into the track office.?

Michelle Williams, Thompson?s girlfriend, supported Thompson?s version of the incident.

?She stopped him and pinched his butt and then looked at me and smiled at me like, ?Ha ha,?? Williams said. ?I just drove off after that.?

The Whitakers deny the incident took place.

In mid-May, Thompson said Acosta asked why he was avoiding her. The two were in a hotel lobby in Columbia, Mo., where the track teams were competing in the Big 12 Championships.

?I said the fact that she pinched my ass in front of my girlfriend,? Thompson said. ?She said the only reason she did that was to piss her off, to annoy my girlfriend. I said to her, ?Why would you want to do something like that?? She said, ?I was just messing around, having a joke.??

Thompson said there were other incidents that made him uncomfortable.

?It?s been sexual innuendoes, putting her arm around me, putting her arm linked with my arm, she has been suggesting stuff in front of her athletes,? Thompson said.

?I had just finished a workout ? and I was going for a warm down. She stopped me and started talking to me with her athletes. I said, ?Oh, I can?t stop because I?ve got to go for a run.? She said, ?I?ll go for a couple of laps with you.?

?I said to her that I didn?t think she would be able to keep up. She said, ?Oh, that?s not the kind of laps I was talking about.??

Thompson said he spoke to Rick Allen, associate athletics director for compliance at Oklahoma State. Allen confirmed the meeting.

?I would say that we have spoken with him,? Allen said. ?I wouldn?t want to comment any further than that.?

Coffey said she felt physically threatened by Acosta during a meeting in the coach?s office.

Acosta ?hadn?t been talking to me for about six weeks because I?d been injured,? Coffey said. ?She started screaming at me, basically saying she thought I was faking my injury and that she wanted to hit me. That is when (Kim Whitaker) intervened, ?This is getting out of control now.?

?I said, ?Yes, it is. I feel like I?m going to be hit.? I walked out of the office.?

Kim Whitaker said the incident never happened.

?That is not true and that is a complete lie and fabrication,? she said.

Clint Whitaker was dismissive.

?Any allegation that somebody might have said is most likely gossip,? he said. ?Coach Acosta, coach Kim and I are never apart. If someone said that Catrina beat them up, then we all three beat them up. We are never, ever separated, especially during business hours.?

Coffey also said Acosta?s behavior has led many of the foreign athletes to tell others from their home country not to attend OSU.

?She has destroyed some athletes? passion for the sport, which isn?t good,? said Gowing, who was Coffey?s roommate.

?I?m leaving because of the coach?s attitude,? said Brown, ?her attitude toward us (athletes).?

Harry Birdwell, who is waiting to be confirmed as the new athletics director, said he has been made aware of some concerns with Acosta but has not conducted a formal review.

?Only a concern, but I?m not going to comment on any specifics at this point because I have not had a chance to review,? Birdwell said.