E-mails exchanged during the past week between members of the Athletic Department reveal intra-department communications regarding former women’s basketball coach Pokey Chatman’s sudden resignation Wednesday. They also revealed assistant coach Carla Berry’s reported involvement with allegations that Chatman behaved inappropriately with a former player.
Berry sent an e-mail Wednesday morning to now-interim head coach Bob Starkey discussing what she “had to do.”
“I had a rough night last night, but that’s the last time I’m going to take one for myself,” Berry wrote to Starkey just hours before Chatman announced her resignation. “I know I can’t dwell on what has [happened], what I had to do or Pokey. From this point forward I realize the kids are first and the order of other priorities.”
The Daily Reveille obtained the e-mails late Tuesday afternoon after filing a public records request Thursday.
Starkey sent an e-mail at 1:25 p.m. Tuesday – about 24 hours before Chatman’s resignation announcement – to Senior Associate Athletic Director Judy Southard indicating that there may be trouble within the women’s basketball program.
“Pokey has just called and requested that Joe and I meet her at her house. So I’m on my way,” Starkey wrote. “This has certainly been the most difficult day of my career, and I’ve got a feeling it’s about to get more difficult.”
Starkey later told the media Thursday at a press conference that the coaching staff had no substantial advance notice of Chatman’s resignation and learned of the departure “probably pretty much the same time the team did” Wednesday afternoon.
The Daily Reveille was not able to confirm if the “Joe” mentioned in Starkey’s e-mail is director of basketball operations Joe Carvalhido.
Attempts to reach Starkey, Berry and Southard late Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Senior Associate Athletic Director Herb Vincent said no members of the coaching staff or Athletic Department would comment on the e-mails.
“We believe the e-mails speak for the themselves,” Vincent said Tuesday night. “We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.”
Southard sent a series of e-mails and Blackberry messages Wednesday afternoon to Susan Donohoe, vice president for Division I women’s basketball.
“Things are breaking here,” Southard said at 1:24 p.m.
Southard wrote at 5:22 p.m. Wednesday that she was “still doing damage control.”
At 12:27 p.m. Thursday, Vincent e-mailed Southard a draft of Chatman’s second statement that said she would immediately resign. The reason Chatman’s original statement gave for her immediate resignation was that “speculation and false rumors” surpassed her expectations.
Athletic Director Skip Bertman then sent an e-mail with the subject “least harmful” to Chancellor Sean O’Keefe at 1:01 p.m. Thursday.
“All conditions are GO … release is going out shortly,” Bertman wrote to O’Keefe.
Five minutes later Vincent sent the press release to Bertman, O’Keefe and Southard.
“Pokey has spoken to the team, and we are now sending out the press release,” Vincent wrote. “Please be advised that the final version eliminated the word ‘false’ in ‘false rumors’ in Pokey’s quote.”
Vincent told The Daily Reveille that “false” and “rumors” used in conjunction would be “repetitive.” Vincent said Chatman called to ask that the word “false” be removed from the statement.
Starkey sent an update to Southard at 2:40 p.m. Thursday – hours before he first addressed the media as the interim head coach.
“Pokey addressed the team at 12:30 and actually did the right thing and did it well,” Starkey wrote. “For something that was as bad as it was it went as well as it could.”
Starkey wrote that some of the players “struggled in the first few minutes” but recovered to have a “very good practice” before Vincent spoke to them regarding how to handle media inquiries.
Starkey sent an additional e-mail to Southard at 8:43 p.m. Thursday with an apparent allusion to Berry.
“Carla has settled quite a bit,” Starkey wrote. “[We] will need to find a way to deal with it tomorrow.”
—–Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]