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Grambling State Volleyball Coach Out After Cutting Team

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July 7, 2022

Grambling State University fired volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas amid an investigation into the volleyball program, according to local news network KSLA.

The move comes three months after Lucas, a former Grambling State volleyball player who was hired as head coach in February, abruptly cut the entire team and revoked the players’ scholarships.

At the time, Trayvean Scott, the university’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics, supported the decision, saying, “Just as the transfer portal empowers student-athletes, our coaches are also empowered to make the decisions they deem necessary to advance their programs,” ESPN reported.

But in a statement this week, Scott said the university will uphold the scholarships of the 12 players Lucas cut, and they will remain on the team for the upcoming season.

“The success of student-athletes and their ability to matriculate at Grambling State University is the top priority,” Scott said.

Grambling State president Rick Gallot, who hired an outside firm to investigate Lucas’s actions, said, “It is the responsibility of this institution to make sure that student-athletes are afforded opportunities in a manner compliant with all regulatory organizations. That applies to athletics as much as it does to academics.”

The university will begin a national search for a new coach this week.

Susan H. Greenberg

Susan H. Greenberg is a senior editor at Inside Higher Ed. A career journalist and educator, she joined the publication in August 2021 after eight years in Vermont, where she freelanced and taught writing at Middlebury College and Champlain College. Prior to that, she spent 22 years writing and editing for Newsweek magazine, where she covered everything from international affairs to arts and culture. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and River Teeth, among others. She has taught English and journalism at Phillips Academy, where she served as an advisor to the student newspaper. She holds a B.A. in English from Brown University and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia. The mother of three nearly adult children, she is very much enjoying her newly empty nest.