Having too many coaches. That’s the reason for a series of penalties handed down by the NCAA to the Nebraska women’s gymnastics team in a Tuesday morning report.
NCAA findings show former head coach Dan Kendig arranged for a volunteer coach to be paid for floor exercise choreography and for floor exercise music. According to the NCAA report, Kindig and the volunteer coach coordinated to submit invoices to the university from a fictitious company.
The NCAA report found the total value of impermissible compensation and benefits was approximately $33,600.
The volunteer coach under Kendig from the 2014-15 school year to 2017-18 was Russell Warfield. Kendig resigned in October 2018.
A negotiated resolution process was used where Nebraska, Kendig, and NCAA enforcement staff agreed on the violations and penalties. Those penalties include:
- Two years of probation.
- A fine of $5,000 plus 1% of the women’s gymnastics budget.
- A three-year show-cause order for the former head coach. During the first year of that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply. He must be suspended from the first 40% of contests during the first year of the show-cause period. If he is employed by a member school during the three-year period, the former head coach must attend one NCAA Regional Rules Seminar once at his own expense and must have enhanced monitoring and rules education.
- A two-year show-cause order for the former volunteer coach. During the first year of that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply. If he is employed by a member school during the two-year period, the former volunteer coach must attend one NCAA Regional Rules Seminar once at his own expense and must have enhanced monitoring and rules education.
- A reduction of one countable women’s gymnastics coach, served during the 2018-19 academic year.
No penalties were assessed against scholarships since none of the violations involved recruiting.
“The University of Nebraska has received communication from the NCAA Committee on Infractions detailing a resolution to the case involving our women’s gymnastics program. We appreciate the cooperation and dialogue we have had with the NCAA during this process. Our focus now is on the future of our women’s gymnastics program under the direction of Head Coach Heather Brink.”
Brink took over as the interim head coach in Kindig’s absence and had the interim tag removed in February 2019.