MU Title IX Office involved with investigation of softball coach Ehren Earleywine

The investigation into Missouri softball coach Ehren Earleywine is no longer strictly an athletic department matter.

The university’s Title IX Office is also part of the investigation, which remains ongoing, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Star. That office handles complaints regarding sex-based discrimination.

Christian Basi, the associate director for the MU News Bureau, said the university is barred by privacy guidelines from discussing Title IX cases and could not confirm the investigation.

Mizzou athletic director Mack Rhoades, who appeared Monday night at the Junior Service League of Independence, did not acknowledge that MU’s Title IX Office was investigating Earleywine but said he sympathized with those frustrated by the length of the two-month investigation.

“Right now, the piece of the investigation is out of our hands, and we can’t provide a timeline,” Rhoades told The Star on Monday. “Like everybody, we’re hoping sooner rather than later.

“We understand that it’s hard for everybody. It’s hard for, first and foremost, our student-athletes, it’s hard for Coach Earleywine, our assistant coaches, the athletic department, our fans, the public — but it is ongoing.”

The investigation centers on complaints that Earleywine has verbally abused players, using profanity and sexist and disrespectful language on numerous occasions.

“We were careful to understand whether this was heat-of-the-moment stuff, whether this was more recent rather than years past. We took all of that into consideration,” Rhoades said. “That’s probably as much as I can say right now.”

Rhoades’ department confirmed May 7 that it was investigating Earleywine after receiving complaints “from both inside and outside” the softball program. Earlier that day, Mizzou’s softball team called a protest before the penultimate game of the regular season against South Carolina.

An email from current members of the softball team regarding Earleywine’s treatment of the team during a road-heavy, early-season portion of the schedule was among the initial complaints that triggered the investigation.

Additional complaints surfaced, a source told The Star, and Rhoades said his department couldn’t simply ignore them.

“That’s in fairness to Coach Earleywine and in fairness to the people that brought complaints to us,” Rhoades said. “We take it serious, and we understand it impacts lives. We’re not just going to gloss over and not look into it.

“Somebody asked, ‘What’s the agenda?’ The only agenda here is the truth. At the end of the day, that’s all we’re after — again, for the best of Coach Earleywine and for our softball program.”

Asked whether a decision has been made about Earleywine’s future, Rhoades said: “No, not at all. I’m not sure that you can until you receive all the answers, facts, etc.”

Rhoades disagreed with the characterization by the softball team’s unity council that interviews conducted with players during the investigation were “interrogations” designed to intimidate and manipulate.

“We’ve certainly heard the opposite of that as well from some student-athletes,” he said, declining to offer specifics.

Rhoades told The Star on Monday that he met with Earleywine last spring after a rude email exchange with Missouri State coach Holly Hesse came to light, encouraging him to comport himself differently.

“We didn’t put him on any type of formal contract,” Rhoades said. “We just talked about the future and what the expectations would be in how he represented the university and our softball program. Ehren was respectful, and he understood, so I felt like, moving forward, we were certainly on the same page.”

Earleywine, who is a native of Jefferson City and calls being Missouri’s head coach his dream job, said before the Tigers’ NCAA regional in Columbia he had reevaluated his coaching style. But it may be too late to save his job.

The Tigers are 453-152 in Earleywine’s 10 seasons, including an NCAA regional appearance each season. They have won eight regional titles under Earleywine.

Rhoades did not attend Saturday’s regional final, a 9-0 victory against Nebraska, because it conflicted with a high school graduation party for his youngest daughter. But Rhoades said he was glad Earleywine called for an end to the protest May 13 in a text message sent to several media outlets, including The Star.

“He was addressing a select few, and I was happy that he did that, certainly,” Rhoades said.

Earleywine called for his players to refocus on softball one day after the unity council — identified as senior shortstop Sami Fagan, junior left fielder Natalie Fleming, sophomore infielder Paige Bange, freshman infielder Jolie Duffner and freshman first baseman Rylee Pierce — renewed its protest of the university investigation and released a letter it sent to Rhoades.

The letter was dated April 7, which is shortly after the investigation commenced, including mandatory interviews with each softball player by members of Missouri’s administration.

No. 15 seed Missouri, 42-14, breezed through regional play last weekend, winning all three of its games by run-rule shutouts. The Tigers play at No. 2 seed Michigan, 49-5, in a best-of-three super regional Saturday and Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Mizzou plays Michigan at 2 p.m. Saturday, with the game carried by ESPN. The second game is slated for 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN, and the third game, if needed, will be played at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU.

The Wolverines beat the Tigers 13-0 in five innings March 3 in the Judi Garman Tournament in Fullerton, Calif.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 1:39 PM with the headline "MU Title IX Office involved with investigation of softball coach Ehren Earleywine."