Anonymous College Athlete Feedback Site Seeks Coach Input, Sans Subpoenas
Davenport University is a private institution in Grand Rapids, Mich. , with an undergraduate enrollment below 6,000 students. The school maintains 27 varsity athletic programs that compete in the NCAA’s Division II, where they have mostly languished in national obscurity.
Yet a quick Google search leads to a place where the Davenport Panthers have drawn notice, though not for the reasons the school might hope. Scroll briefly and you shall happen upon a heaping—albeit neatly consolidated—pile of criticism portraying DU as an exceptionally awful place to play sports. More from Sportico.
com TPG Agrees to Buy Learfield in Deal Worth Roughly $2 Billion Sporticast: Is Your CEO Playing Too Much Golf? Sporticast: An NFL Partner's Curious Anti-NFL Legal Argument On 2aDays. com, an online platform where athletes can anonymously review college athletic programs, facilities and personnel, Davenport has received strikingly low marks from what appears to be a sizable pool of critics.
As of Monday, the university held a 1. 4 out of 5-star rating from 697 reviews, and only 11% of respondents said they would recommend it to prospective athletes. That distinguishes Davenport, by volume, as being among the most poorly-rated of the roughly 1,600 schools that have received some kind of review on the site.
A particular focus of Davenport’s virtual denunciation is Ronda Varnesdeel, the university’s associate director of athletics and former head softball coach, who has been at DU for more than 16 years. Dragging down the department’s overall scores are Varnesdeel’s individual ratings: 1. 2 stars and a 6% recommendations rate out of 403 reviews.
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