Shaun Newman Podcast - #761 - Rustlers Basketball Pt. 2

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

On December 5th Lakeland College fired Chris King from his duties as coach of the women’s basketball program. Chris is a six-time ACAC Coach of the Year and a two-time CCAA Coach of the Year, not to mention they were on a 34 game unbeaten streak and a National Champ. I’m joined today by the two assistant coaches. Marissa Linquist played for the Rustlers between 2010-12 and has been an assistant coach since 2017. Tori Dugan played for the Rustlers from 2014-22 and has now been an assistant coach since 2023. Cornerstone Forum ‘25 https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/ Clothing Link: ⁠⁠⁠https://snp-8.creator-spring.com/listing/the-mashup-collection⁠⁠ Text Shaun 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Silver Gold Bull Links: Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text Grahame: [phone]

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Tale of the tape. They're both assistant coaches for the Lakeland Resslers women's basketball team. I'm talking Marissa Lindquist and Tori Dugan. So buckle up, here we go. Okay, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Marissa Lindquist. and Tori Dugan. So ladies,

thanks for hopping on. Yeah, thanks for having us. I kind of feel bad, folks. I blew up Tori's phone. She's in Australia right now. And it's probably like, I don't know, five in the morning there right now. And I'm like, all through the night,

I've been blowing up her phone. So appreciate you making time to do this. I know this is important to both of you. You've both been coaching with Chris. And I guess that's where I want to start. It's just a bit of your background. So people can get to know, who's on the podcast today.

Certainly, this is a follow-up to the interview I did with the three players from the beginning of the week. But Marissa, how about we start with yourself? You can just give a little bit of your background and as short or as long as you want to go. Yeah. So first, thanks for having us. I'm Marissa, and I am now an assistant coach here with Chris at Lakeland College. I've been here coaching with him since 2017.

So we're year 7, 8, something like that when you take COVID into consideration. And before that, I played for Chris for two years as well. So I've known him as a coach, seen his program, all that kind of stuff for the last 15 years here now. I guess I'm probably going to ask both to you this, but, you know, like coaching with somebody, also being national champs, that type of thing. What have you taken from being a player under Chris to being, you know, alongside him and coaching with him? yeah i've learned so much from my time with chris both as a player and now as a coach um it was really playing for chris that got me interested in coaching um and so it's been cool to like have had that

player coach relationship and now continue to learn from him as a coach see myself grow as a coach under his leadership see him grow as a coach um while i've been around and just now like have those aspirations to keep coaching myself because of the mentorship he's provided for me And Tori, yourself, maybe a little bit of your background and, you know, how the heck do you get from where you live now to, you know, I love Lloyd Minster. I really do. But at the same token, I'm like, you know, the girls earlier in the week pointed it out that it's not exactly the destination of choice. It's not this tropical location, although I love the area. And I think once you're here, I think a lot of people begin to love it.

How do you get here and just walk us through your time at Lakeland? Yeah, I won't go through everything, as it's a very long story, but I went through a recruiting company. I don't exist anymore, but yeah, Chris was actually the first coach to email me. And I didn't know where, I didn't even know colleges existed in Canada. And I was kind of just like, oh yeah, our first email, I'll just string him along. But I couldn't string him along because his recruiting methods, nothing short about standing. He convinced my family that I would have a sense of security,

and that was the biggest thing. I think when you're being recruited, especially internationally, and your parents are giving up their kid halfway around the world. You have to win over the parents, and my parents were won over quite easily from Chris. So I head over as a young 17-year-old from Australia, not knowing where the heck Lloyd is. I did not look up anything about it.

about it. I didn't know that it was in the middle of Canada, completely freezing. But, yeah, I headed over in 2014 and played for Chris. Oh, gosh, it would have been eight years with injuries and COVID. But yeah, I had the best experience. I did not have a college career that I was exactly imagining. I was not the most studious person. I failed school a couple of times and had a knee reconstruction, but throughout all those tough times, Chris was always there supporting me, making sure that I had the belief in myself that he saw, and I didn't see that in myself as much as what he saw. But yeah, I just wanted to keep pushing to be the best version of myself, not only for myself and my family, but for him, because he installed

that belief, and I learned a ton of discipline, accountability, and more importantly, how to be a good human. So yes, my career was very successful, but the valuable lessons that I took from learning from him to be a really great human was the most valuable thing. And when I went and had the opportunity to play professional basketball after I was done my college eligibility, I didn't have the best experience playing pro, and he made sure that I would always have a home-not-Lay clan. And I wanted to take those valuable lessons that I learned from him playing. and give those same lessons and experiences to kids coming through the program. So Chris, as Maris just mentioned, I wanted to continue to learn from him,

and he is nothing short of an outstanding role model. So I wanted to keep learning and grow as a coach through him. So, yeah, I've continued to do that, and it's the best decision that I've made. You know, ladies, like, since I did the, you know, like first when I heard the news, and then I had Sarah Susan and Andrian. And then that kind of exploded. And then they had, you know, I'm sitting in Calgary right now. If anyone's wondering where I am, you know, this isn't the regular studio.

And then the Post-it notes started going all over Lakelands. So if you're, you know, listening to this from across Canada or into the United States or elsewhere, for that matter. And you're wondering, what the heck are they talking about these Post-it notes? I don't know the full story, but I would love to hear a bit more about it. if you two could share anything. I mean, obviously, Tori isn't in country either right now. She's sitting in Australia. But from what I could see, there was post-it notes put all over Lakeland, basically saying,

hey, we'd like to have a voice and bring her coach back. It's kind of caught a little bit of wind, if you would, this story of how bizarre it continues to get. But before we get into maybe some of that, the number one question I got asked from the interview with the girls was what the heck happened at practice and you two being assistant coaches and I assume being there maybe we could just walk through that and bring people up to speed Tori do you want to start and I'll you start and I'll jump in after yeah um well we had played a exhibition game um was it the day before the 30th marissa yeah i was on a sunday sunday yeah

Yes. And upon our way home, the girls had forgotten their jersey bag. Now, obviously, the girls did state that in your podcast with them, Sean. But I want to make really clear that each year, girls make rules, expectations, goals for every year. Marissa and I did that as players, and that is something that is done without coaches. There is never any coach present when we or they now do that. that. And it's purely for disciplinary actions to take accountability for themselves. So due to this jersey bag being left behind, they knew that they were going to have disciplinary actions involved

due to their own doing and what they wanted to do. Now, Chris did say that that night, because we had a three-game exhibition trip and they got back at, or we got back at 1 a.m. the next morning, that everyone was to go home, recover, rest their bodies, which, I mean, everybody knows who do not go out and party. There was three individuals that went out that night and partied until 7, 8 a.m. in the morning told by people on the team that were kept awake that night. And so we had players who were visibly very upset by the actions of three individuals. who came in the next morning and had asked to meet with Chris.

Now, again, this was all the players doing. This was not Chris. This was all the players doing. So we had a little bit of a team meeting beforehand, and we headed to the gym and did some conditioning, which resulted in running lines. Due to, again, the player's own doing. It was a part of their goals, expectations,

and part of them taking accountability for their actions. And as the girls were running, there was one individual that was already clearly not up to it before she hit the floor, sorry, before we got to the floor when they were doing lines. Because she was one of the girls that had participated in activities the night before, which she was not meant to do. As, yeah, the running went on. As the girls mentioned, she had fell to the floor. there was absolutely no hitting off her head, nothing like that. She just went down and we tended to her right away, right away. I was at the other side of the gym helping a couple of our athletes who have torn ACLs

or recovering from ACL tears. Marissa was right in front. She attended to her right away. I then made my way over and Chris got the girls to stop what they were doing, go to the other end of the gym while we all tended to this individual. As that was happening, the girls ended up leaving the gym. A couple of minutes that was happening, she ended up standing up. We ended up getting her out of the gym, but during the time that we were tending to her,

we were giving her water, Gatorade, she was responsive the whole time talking to us. There was absolutely no need for us to call for any more help. We had the situation under control. And especially someone like Marissa and Chris, who are two people that I completely trust. Now, I'm only really in my second year of full coaching. They have dealt with way worse situations than this. So for them, and I didn't see any point that we had to call for extra help at all. I've also seen as a player people go through worse situations, way worse situations than that.

So I thought everything was handled perfectly. The girls were attended to. they left the gym, they were together discussing, obviously, their next point of action with their disciplinary piece. Obviously, as you can imagine, they were not happy with themselves with leaving the jersey bag and the stuff that had transpired the night before. But yeah, we got her out of the gym. She went to just outside of the team room. She was talking to her teammates. Her teammates were attending to her. Yeah, there was nothing that suggested that we needed to get

any kind of help from anybody else. The situation was under control through all of the coaches. No, I think you did a really good job of explaining everything. And yeah, like Tori said, it was the athletes always set those goals or those expectations for themselves at the beginning of the year. And it was all based off of things that they had predetermined were how they would handle different situations. Sorry, I got, sorry, it's my, Tori, that's my fault.

I keep muting you because there's a little bit of echo in your, your audio. I'm running it on this set. I'm doing a little. I'm like, I can see she's confused, folks, and forgive me for being an audio. One of the things on this side, folks, is like, when you start doing this as much as I've done, I can just hear a little thing. So I've been muted your mic, and I can tell that's confusing you. Sorry, Tori. Carry on. As a player, and I'm sure Marissa can attest to this as well, and I was a captain for three out of the five years of my playing eligibility. We, that's something that we do.

And there was a ton of things that we've done beforehand that we did not involve Chris. That was all player led as a player. That was way worse. And I mean, there's meetings during years where we've had to, we've discussed with Chris that maybe, oh, this is the way we go, this is the way we do it. And Chris has always had the duty of care for us to say, oh, that might be too harsh. think we do that. So, yeah, as a player, I totally, that is something that happens all of the time. And this was no, this was another ordinary situation. This wasn't something that was completely

out of the ordinary and went above and beyond. Yeah, it was the same as any other year. Well, ladies, then, let's fast forward then to, unless I'm skipping over anything, Let's fast forward to basically a week ago, you know, like things start to unravel, I would say, real fast. You know, you go from complaint made or I should say November 28th, I believe Chris is put on administrative leave and then, you know, essentially December 5th, I believe he's just removed and terminated. Maybe you can give a little bit of insight into what goes on. because you're the assistant coaches right like i'm like i assume you've been i just assume at this point you've been interviewed because if there's been an investigative process they've probably talked to the coaches that were there i assume but i i've also learned from the other players

that they didn't interview all the players so i guess like did they interview either of you in this process of determining what happened back then i can i can start um so we we were both interviewed my interview was quite quite short it was a felt very one-sided conversation in terms of the direction that it went in terms of just it felt very targeted or like there was a preconceived notion or answer that it was being looked for and then after that I received no follow-up information at any point I was away recruiting when Chris was placed on leave. But so I didn't hear anything. I got a phone call from Chris telling me.

But then after that, there wasn't any communication to me from the college athletics, anything like that, explaining how this impacted me, why this had happened, anything like that. I was pretty much just like kind of left in the dark. When you talk about, sorry, when you talk about getting interviewed and it being like one direction, What was the one direction they were pushing it that Chris was, I don't know, I don't know, something, obviously. Yeah, it was very much against the coaching staff that we had done something wrong, that we were at fault. Again, which none of it, we were.

It was very much like a story had been told and they weren't out to hear the other side of the story. If I may, because I feel like between what you're saying and what Tori's saying and probably what the girls, have said actually if I think about it. These like goals, these, what's the word I'm looking for? Kind of like standards was built by the team, correct? Not by the coaching staff? Correct. Something Chris always says is about how like the coaches are just there to help.

Like the best teams are the ones that are player led. And I think that's like part of what made Tori such a great leader was that she always did a good job of like helping show the team and helping set some of those goals and standards. And every leader is different and every team is different. But this year was no different in that all of those goals and standards, sorry, were set by the team themselves. And it's just our job as coaches to kind of like help where they ask. Tori, then you're around, I assume you're on, like Marissa's gone. Are you sitting on campus at this time?

Yes. Yeah. While Marissa was recruiting, yes, I was on campus. But, I mean, very, very similar story to Marissa. My interview was very long. Mine actually took the entire hour. But this is where I get, I don't understand. I'm baffled.

I'm at a loss for words with how this was handled. I was accused for a ton of stuff probably more than Chris. And the fact that I have received absolutely zero communication back from the investigator or the school. I, again, this is why I'm just, how is this happening? How is this possible? Because how could I be accused of stuff that's probably a lot more than what Chris had been accused for?

Because I will sit here and say, I probably was, I definitely was the most vocal during that day on the September 30th date. If anyone should be reprimanded, it should be me. And players have said that because they've said, coached even say much. Like Tori was the one that was bitterly disappointed. So, yeah, we, I got interviewed for the full time and it was, it was a, it was very targeted. There was not tell me your side of the story, what was your version of events. It was you did this. What do you have to say for yourself? Which I don't understand how I've checked Lake Clan's policies online. It needs to be an unbiased

investigation, both parties need to be heard. But just the way that this was handled by our school leaders has been appalling. Before this investigation was officially launched, myself, Chris and Marissa had gone to our athletic director to express our concern because we had heard things around the grapevine, but nobody understands what the heck this has done to our mental health. Nobody. Like we have been before Chris got terminated, this has been, I don't know, Marissa you can speak for yourself here, but it's been one of the worst years of my life. But it's been all-consuming. Take it away, Marissa. I'll need a little bit.

And I think where our frustration comes in is just how both how none of it makes sense and how there's been no communication to us who were involved, who were interviewed, and it just, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense, like Tori said, that we have questions that haven't been answered, and we've been trying to get answers, and there's nothing, there's nothing being said, nothing being shared. No. Um, I'll get back to it now. But, um, we have always been told by our, um, by our head of athletics or anyone at the top of the helmet athletics that the school, um, we have always been told by our head of athletics, that the school,

will always defend and fight for their staff. That is quote on quote. We have received the slight, actually, we've received no support, absolutely no support. The Marissa and I have sent emails to express our disappointment or where do we go from here. Not one person has responded.

Now, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong here, but if you supposedly support your stuff in any way, shape or form, you have to receive some kind of communication, and we've received absolutely nothing. So fast forward to the day that I was on campus and Chris was put on leave. We were meant to go leave for a road trip to Medicine Hat and Cairnport. The athletic director had asked to meet with Chris at 1pm.

The girls were meant to leave at around 3. I had gone to get us lunch and I'd walk back into the office. Chris came straight back in as soon as he saw me and said, I've been put on leave indefinitely right away. And excuse my language, but I yelled out, what the fuck, are you serious? Like we've received absolutely no communication on this matter and they're just suspending the coach. And right away, I was just like, absolutely not am I going to stand by this decision.

And as much I want to make this also really clear, we love our girls and we support them 110%. But with this situation, I'm standing by the guy that has given me so much, and our leader of the group. So I automatically was like, yeah, I'm not coaching. Athletic Director had come in and said to me, oh, so I guess you're out. And I said, absolutely. Like, there's no fucking weight I'm coaching. I knew Marissa would be on the same page.

But then I had to take a back step. and Chris had to leave the school immediately, just had to get his stuff and leave, couldn't see the girls, couldn't have any communication with the girls, which again makes absolutely no sense. I was investigated and asked about a ton of things that were appalling and false accusations. Why do I get to go to the school? Why do I get to coach? Why has there been no communication with me when over half of those questions were to do with what I did, not Chris?

And yeah, he left. We called the girls in the team room where myself and the athletic director had a very vague talk with the girls. We couldn't say anything. We would advise to not say a single thing. What would have happened is those girls would have got on the bus with no coach, no communication, and to say, hey, go, we'll find you a coach. And when you get there, you'll find this out. So these girls away from their families, away from their emotional support system,

are going to get to Medicine Hat, which is, what, three and a half hours away, and be blindsided and have absolutely no coach. I couldn't live with myself if I was to send a team of 14 girls three and a half hours away on a road trip for two nights with no emotional support, which, yeah, Chris couldn't have obviously any communication and all the girls wanted to do was call Chris. That's all they wanted to do was go talk to Chris and see Chris. They had a team meeting which they decided that they were not going to play. They were going to stand in solidarity with Chris, which I think speaks volumes itself.

How do you not see that an entire team is standing by their head coach and not wanting to play when this is going on? And from that point onward, there was zero communication from any of the Lakeland leaders, including athletics. The only thing I would add to that is Madison Hat from Lloyd, it's probably closer to six hours on a bus. right like especially even at this time of year it's not exactly the most picturesque drive we're going to tease about lloyd minster we can tease about driving through oyan and a few other places sorry o'an marissa would you would you um add anything to that uh certainly i from like they remove chris do they do they go hey would you mind coaching like is there any communication like this or are they just like feed them to the wolves way they go so at the point when he's put on

leave, there's nothing. I'm away recruiting still at this point. I'm getting update from Tori via text and phone call, but I'm as much in the dark as anybody else. So that was the Thursday that they were supposed to leave. This was the day he was placed on leave. I don't remember the 28th, maybe of November, something like that. And so at that point, there was no communication. Since then, when he was fired last Thursday, December 5th, I believe, is the date. The only communication after I sent an email basically saying like how can we haven't received any information anything like that I got an email from the athletic director and it was we would like you to coach we would like you to take over the team on an interim basis um to which at the time I hadn't responded

haven't responded still because they haven't provided me with any information um and I'm kind of unsure how I can be investigated and then asked to take over a team so again communication lines of things just don't quite add up. Don't make sense. There's been nothing communicated to me since that email. And it was apparently told to the team last night that I had declined to the offer to coach, which, again, I hadn't said anything to the athletic director. So I'm not sure how they determined that I was declining to coach when there was no communication.

Same as from their side, no communication. Well, it's interesting. It feels like a common thread in this is maybe a lack of communication, among other things, but certainly it seems like in talking to the players, they had a lack of anything given to them about what the situation was going on. And certainly from what I'm getting out of you two ladies is a similar theme happening. Oh, 100%. Yeah, and again, we have been told that we will be fought for no matter what the situation is.

We'll always have our backs had or whatever that may be. and it's so disappointing, especially from the relationships that we've made over the time that we've been there. We've stuck our nose out and just given, I'm going to make this really clear to everyone. Marissa and I get paid nothing for this. We get paid a little bit. But last year for the entire eight months of coaching, we didn't even get paid enough to cover one month's rent for the entire year. You get paid very, very little assistant coaching. We would joke about that, but we do this. because we love it and we love the program and it's a program that has given us so much. And so to see the relationships that we've made over that course of time and those people

not communicate or have any kind of want to do the right thing, I used to, I would go and recommend anybody to go to Lakeland because it's given me so much, it's given the people around me so much. But now with this happening, true colours show when stuff like this happens. And I wouldn't recommend Lakeland to anybody now. And it's hard to see some of the same people who have been there since Chris started and since we've been there. And absolutely nothing be done. I don't want to get into this too much. But over the time that I've been there, there has been a ton of things that have been complained about or that have been brought up to leaders. And this is what they do.

Slide it under the rug. Nothing gets said. They want to just play hush-hush, clear it up and not talk about it. This is stuff that is serious that has been affecting a ton of people in a very bad way. And yet this is something that they fire a coach about. It makes absolutely no sense. Again, I don't want to get into the situations here. but there has been a ton of stuff over the years that have been way worse and nothing has been done.

They've just put it under a blanket and not want anyone to talk about it. I guess before I let, hey, I appreciate you both coming on and doing this. Tori, I really appreciate you waking up in the middle of the night to come do this. But I don't want to cut it off short either. So, you know, like if there's anything else you want, whether it be Chris King, Lakeland College, Lakeland College, a leadership maybe, maybe the players, the team itself, or Lloyd Minster, or all the above, the floor is yours. Just, you know, like, Marissa, Tori, I don't want to skip over things, but you've been, you know, when I think about it, I'm like, okay, I get the story. You know, like, I guess I should ask about this post-it notes and what the team's trying to do.

But it seems like right now it's pretty quiet. Like, it's eerily quiet from, from Lakeland standpoint. Yeah, I think there's been a lot of people, whether it's the team, the community, alumni, other supporters that have very much tried to make their voices heard, tried to get answers on the situation, tried to reach out to Lakelands leadership team, to get information, to get clarity, to get answers, to get anything. And there's been very little, very little shared, very little response from anyone. And so to kind of like touch on that post-it note situation as you you talked about.

The girls decided to make their voice heard and posted. How many I don't know? I'm going to put it at over a thousand sticky notes around the school saying we want our coach back, hear our voices, different statements like that to help draw attention to the situation, to help have their voices be heard. So that was kind of where that piece went. My favorite post-it note was no king, no ring. I thought that was rather clever.

Tori, any final thoughts, you know, and if we've skipped over anything, ladies, I want to make sure that I give you plenty of time. We have time, but I just want to make sure that, you know, if you got anything that needs to be said, fire away. Yeah, I just want to encourage everybody to keep pushing and keep having their voice heard. Lakeland have made it very evident that they probably will not hire Chris back with the lack of communication but you need to hear our voices especially the girls. The girls need to keep making sure that their voices are heard. Again, this is a very, it's just a really silly situation. It makes absolutely no sense. I mean, Lakeland, first of all, do better. Wake up and attend to these poor girls. You have completely disrupted their lives in the middle of finals. And they have no idea the impact that this has made on their mental health and also the

uproar of the community. I would encourage everybody to keep their voice, be heard, don't stop, and keep pushing. Because what Lakeline wants to do is just, again, put it under a rug, wait it out until this is all done. I don't think they understand the severity of this. but it also is a true testament not just in the support around Lloyd and the girls, around the league and Canada wide. It's a true testament to the character and the true human that Chris is and the amount of impact that he's had on thousands of lives. I just don't understand how you can unsee that.

And yeah, keep pushing, keep being loud. And I hope that this gives some light into the situation. but from a Lakeland standpoint, I'm obviously very disappointed, but we are not going to stop until we get answers and until justice is served. So keep having a voice, keep being loud, and don't back down. Marissa, any final thoughts? I think just the biggest thing is that, like, none of us would have been at Lakeland,

like the girl said, none of us would have come to Lakeland if it wasn't for Chris. And he built so much both for the team at the school, but also everything in the community has been a result of him and his doing. And so I think my biggest thing would just be like, I don't think anybody understands that this is more than just a group of 12 athletes or 14 athletes in one year. This is going to have a ripple effect into the community at a large. And you can see that just by the alumni you're hearing from, the community you're hearing from, the athletes you're hearing from, all of that.

Well, ladies, I appreciate you coming on and doing this. and all the best down in Australia, Tori, and Marissa here, sadly, the cold north. But I appreciate you both hopping on and doing this kind of not short notice, but certainly we're jumping around some different time zones and different cities and everything else. So I appreciate you both hopping on and doing this. And hopefully, you know, some communication starts to open up between not only yourselves, but the school and everything in between. Thank you.

Thanks for having us. And thank you for letting us and the girls in particular having a voice. Yes, thank you. We appreciate it.