Candace Wells, the mother of former Syracuse women’s basketball player April Jean, responded angrily to her daughter’s suspension in a letter sent to The Daily Orange yesterday.

Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki suspended Jean, a senior forward, sophomore forward Tierra Jackson, sophomore guard Marchele Campbell and freshman guard Tracy Harbut in late December for violating team academic policy. Jean and Jackson both left the team on Jan. 9. Wells accused Cieplicki of subjecting the suspended players to unfair workouts and isolating them from the rest of the team.

Wells joined Jackson’s mother, Colette Owens, and Campbell’s father, Michael, in voicing her concern over the way Cieplicki has handled the situation. All three have accused Cieplicki of failing to return phone calls and attempting to run the suspended players off of the team so he could bring in players that better fit his system.

Cieplicki has refused to respond to the parents’ allegations.

‘I too have tried to contact this man (Cieplicki) and he did not even have the common courtesy to return my call, nor did his assistant, Morgan Hall,’ Wells wrote in her letter to The D.O. ‘In fact, he called my daughter and told her not to have her mother call him again. Why is this man so afraid of speaking with the parents? I find that very unprofessional.’

While both Owens and Michael have attempted to contact Cieplicki since the suspensions, Wells said she contacted Cieplicki prior to the suspensions. At the time, she knew Jean and Cieplicki were having problems.

The NCAA suspended Jean for the fall semester for academic reasons. Wells said Jean took a very difficult class last spring and even with a tutor, failed the class. She

retook the class over the summer and received an A, Wells said. Jean never suspected she’d be suspended by the NCAA because she assumed the summer class would count. Less than three weeks before the preseason, Jean was informed that passing in the summer was not enough to save her from an NCAA suspension.

Even during her suspension, Jean practiced with the Orangewomen. It was during this time that Wells said Cieplicki treated Jean unfairly. Wells said Jean was ‘kicked out of practice for no apparent reason.’

‘Anything that I did that he didn’t agree with he’d send you home for,’ Jean said. ‘If you weren’t going by his rules or weren’t giving what he felt was 100 percent, he’d be more than happy to send you home. It’d happen to somebody about every other day.’

Then, Jean’s father bought Jean a plane ticket back to California for Winter Break. Cieplicki informed Jean that it was for the wrong date. Wells attempted to contact Cieplicki to find out what date the ticket should be purchased for, but her call was never returned. She also tried contacting Hall, who also never returned her call.

SU Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said that coaches should not be subjected to returning the calls of disgruntled parents only to be engaged in a shouting match. Wells said a shouting match was never her intent.

‘He called me when he first was hired to tell me she had failed a class,’ Wells said. ‘Why couldn’t he call me back now?’

Wells said Cieplicki accused Jean of repeatedly missing class, but both Wells and Jean refute this claim. Wells said Jean missed a child and family studies class twice while trying to drop it and a philosophy class when she was ill. Jean said both her coaches and the professors knew in advance about these absences. Wells said Jean was suspended for missing four of five child and family studies classes in a short period. Jean’s professor gave a written statement confirming that Jean had been in class, Wells said.

Jean brought written proof to Crouthamel that she had attended the class, but Crouthamel told her the situation was between her and Cieplicki. Crouthamel declined to discuss the details of the meeting, saying only that he was aware Jean had written proof of her attendance.

Cieplicki has refused to elaborate on the team’s academic policy. Crouthamel said the team’s policy is to attend class, but he refused to elaborate on the exact reasons for the players’ suspensions. Wells, though, had no problem giving her version of the academic policy.

‘I was told by a staff member of the University that Mr. Cieplicki had installed the policy at the beginning of the fall semester that if you missed class for ‘any reason’ at all you would be suspended,’ Wells said in her letter. ‘If this is the case, then you can’t get sick or have a problem or emergency or you will be suspended.’

Crouthamel, though, defended Cieplicki’s decision.

‘It’s my conviction that head coaches have the responsibility for setting the tone for their team by making expectations for the court, the classroom, the dormitory and the community,’ Crouthamel said. ‘The expectations are very clear with the understanding that if you violate them, there will be consequences. Now if that’s wrong, there needs to be some refocus.’

Wells not only believes that Jean’s suspension was unfair but also that the punishment was too severe. She said that the suspended players were often subjected to two, three-hour workout sessions per day, during which they were never allowed to touch a basketball. Wells also supported Michael Campbell’s claims that the players were often separated from the team, even during meals.

Both Jean and Jackson attended Wednesday’s SU upset victory over Rutgers, and the pair sat with former Syracuse head coach Marianna Freeman, an experience Jean called, ‘a breath of fresh air.’ Freeman was one of the reasons Jean transferred to SU.

While Jean’s career is over and Jackson will transfer, Cieplicki did say that Campbell and Harbut are coming closer to rejoining the Orangewomen. The two will not travel this weekend to Providence but did dress in full uniform for Wednesday night’s 59-57 win against Rutgers.

Though Wells is thankful that Crouthamel allowed Jean to keep her scholarship, she is deeply disappointed and hurt that this is the way her daughter’s career will come to an end. As it turns out, Jean will have only played one season for the Orangewomen after transferring prior to last season from Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

‘I met with coach and he never gave any indication that he wanted me to come back,’ Jean said. ‘That ultimately made my decision.’

Said Wells: ‘I believe my daughter was targeted. How do you go from the team’s (third) leading scorer to this?’

Published on January 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm