Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck defends program, calls mistreatment claims ‘baseless’

Minnesota Golden Gophers head soccer coach P.J. Fleck responded to latest claims of mistreatment from former gamers and others, calling them “baseless allegations.”

Fleck mentioned, by way of ESPN, {that a} report from Entrance Workplace Sports activities had “been seemed into a number of instances since 2017,” and there was nothing to substantiate any wrongdoing. 

The report consists of claims from former gamers of Fleck saying the coach ignored constructive drug checks and different guidelines for gamers who collected “sufficient goodwill by a factors system referred to as the Fleck Financial institution.”

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Head coach P.J. Fleck of the Minnesota Golden Gophers speaks at Large Ten soccer media days at Lucas Oil Stadium July 27, 2023, in Indianapolis. (Michael Hickey/Getty Photographs)

The Fleck Financial institution would observe group service by the gamers, which included visiting to the College of Minnesota Medical Middle alongside the pinnacle coach and monitoring examine habits. 

Fleck allegedly additionally had punishments that included extreme exercises, and the time period “cult” was introduced up by the previous gamers when characterizing Fleck’s program. 

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Fleck’s “Row The Boat” tradition, which is a philosophy he mentioned in a 2021 e book with the identical title, is what the previous gamers in comparison with a “cult.”

“Our program tradition is confirmed to work on and off the sector, and it’s all the time achieved in a first-class method,” Fleck mentioned, by way of ESPN. “There are tons of testimonials from previous, present and future Gophers.”

Head coach P.J. Fleck of the Minnesota Golden Gophers watches the workforce heat up earlier than a sport towards the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium Nov. 5, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. (Steven Branscombe/Getty Photographs)

Fleck famous that Minnesota has six totally different channels by which gamers can report mistreatment, which incorporates Mark Coyle, the varsity’s athletic director. Coyle advised Entrance Workplace Sports activities no claims ever got here throughout his desk relating to the soccer program. 

As for the Fleck Financial institution, the six-year Minnesota head coach mentioned it was an analogy he used throughout his first two seasons with this system in 2017 and 2018. It was to indicate participant funding within the workforce on and off the sector. 

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“There was no foreign money ever exchanged,” Fleck defined. “There was no cash that ever existed. It was an analogy merely to clarify funding for all times, a life lesson of funding, merely that. Nobody ever acquired out of any kind of punishment for that.

“You’re who you might be, and also you’re working a really, very open, clear program. Our college is aware of that, our athletic division, our athletic director know that, and so they expertise it each single day.”

Head coach P. J. Fleck of the Minnesota Golden Gophers will get able to take the sector towards the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium Nov. 26, 2022, in Madison, Wis. (John Fisher/Getty Photographs)

Fleck believes the claims towards Minnesota come from a former staffer who “clearly has a private vendetta towards myself and our soccer program.”

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With the Northwestern University hazing scandal entrance and heart in faculty soccer, claims like these aren’t being taken calmly be colleges throughout the nation.