Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley said Wednesday that Penn State has no long-term plans for an interim assistant women's basketball coach hired earlier this year.
In a move approved by Assistant Athletic Director Jennifer James and Curley, Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland hired former Lady Lion and former Massachusetts women's basketball coach Joanie O'Brien on Feb. 24.
O'Brien was hired to fill in for assistant coach Keila Whittington while she recovered from back surgery.
"All we're doing is filling in until Keila can come back," Curley said. "I think [it's] a couple more weeks that she'll be employed."
Currently, O'Brien is facing a civil lawsuit alleging she physically and verbally abused her players while at UMass. The Hampden County Superior Court in Massachusetts confirmed a trial date of April 18, 2006, and said a lawsuit is still pending.
Despite the lawsuit, Curley said he has known O'Brien for "a long time" and had no problems approving her hire.
"I reviewed it, and I was comfort-able with the temporary situation," he said.
Neither O'Brien nor Portland was in the women's basketball offices yesterday when a call was placed.
In March, James said no background check had been run and possibly no reference check was done before hiring O'Brien. Yesterday, James said those checks are required only for employees hired for four months or more.
Penn State Policy HR-96, states that employment for all final candidates for "other-than-academic appointments" is contingent upon a background check by an outside vendor. O'Brien was hired as a fixed-term II employee, which falls under the umbrella of HR-96. When contacted, the Penn State human resources department could not comment specifically about the subject, citing confidentiality issues.
Curley said the hire was done properly.
"We hired her within the approved university guidelines, and we feel like we followed all the necessary HR responsibilities," he said yesterday.
In the pending civil suit, three teammates who played at UMass during the 1997-98 season initially filed the lawsuit, but two plaintiffs withdrew. One player, Nicole Vallieres, decided to pursue the lawsuit.
An amended complaint filed by Vallieres, her mother and her stepfather on May 31, 2001, states O'Brien "had a long-standing method, policy and
course of conduct of verbal and physical abuse of the players on the UMass varsity women's basketball team."
The complaint alleges that O'Brien used obscenities and partook in "violently striking and hitting players." One example cited in the complaint says another player showed Vallieres a welt on her body suffered after O'Brien had "[slapped] her more than one hour after a game."
In court documents, defense for O'Brien denies any such allegations.
Brian J. Woolf, the attorney representing Vallieres, and attorneys representing O'Brien did not immediately return messages yesterday.
At UMass, O'Brien was credited for reviving a lackluster program. In 11 years, she compiled a 159-159 record while leading her program to the NCAA Tournament twice and the Women's National Invitational Tournament once.
But after an initial lawsuit was filed in 1998, O'Brien's teams suffered through three straight losing seasons, and in 2002, UMass opted not to renew her contract.
