One USC_Baseball pitcher still with the program called 2021 “the most toxic team I’ve ever been a part of.” The Trojans have started the 2022 season, but concern about coaches' conduct and allegations of mistreatment are still under investigation.
Tension had been building within USC’s baseball program long before Jamal O’Guinn swung and missed on a 3-2 pitch last May. For months before the Trojans’ final road trip of the season, to Utah, it bubbled beneath the surface, metastasizing during a campaign in which seven players had been suspended for violating pandemic protocols and the university had initiated two separate university investigations.
O’Guinn slammed his bat into the rack and cursed. He dropped his helmet at his feet, then stripped off his batting gloves, making his frustration clear to everyone, including Gill, who glared from across the dugout.But O’Guinn refused. He believed Gill was putting on a show for a USC administrator in attendance. He deemed the behavior “eyewash” — baseball slang for “phony.”Every grievance that piled up during USC’s frustrating season seemed to pour out from O’Guinn at once.
Others, however, were directly attributable to those same individuals, according to more than 20 people in and around the team. Their complaints are not uncommon for a struggling program faced with a difficult transition. But a steady stream of concerns from players, parents and members of the baseball community triggered multiple reviews and raised questions that linger into the current season.
Gill declined to comment when reached by The Times and deferred to the university statement. At USC, officials say there is confidence Gill has the program moving in the right direction after a challenging 2021 campaign in which the Trojans finished 25-26.USC swimming coach Jeremy Kipp has resigned amid a university investigation into multiple allegations of abusive treatment of swimmers in the program.
USC told The Times in response to questions in November that it was following protocol in allowing Gill to continue as coach while it completed its review. That investigation has now spanned more than seven months and included dozens of interviews with players, coaches, staffers and scouts. That investigation is ongoing, as USC baseball moves forward in 2022 with Gill at the helm. The Trojans have gotten off to a strong start, winning nine of their first 11 games this season during a stretch USC hopes will help put adversity of 2021 in the rearview mirror.
But an incident the previous summer raised questions within the baseball community about Gill’s top assistant, Ted Silva. When reached for comment, Silva, like Gill, referred The Times to a university spokesperson. Brown, now an assistant at San Diego State, declined to comment.The pandemic would soon present an unprecedented set of new problems for Gill and other college baseball coaches across the country.
Three other parents told The Times in an effort to help Gill navigate a difficult scholarship situation, they agreed to give back a percentage of their sons’ scholarship allotments ahead of the 2021 season with the promise they would be restored during subsequent seasons. None, at first, were forthright with USC coaches or administrators. Four of the seven had previously been cited for violating university COVID-19 policy, according to USC.New USC baseball coach Jason Gill is set to takeover a Trojan program that has not seen postseason play since 201`5.
The email cited USC’s need to take “certain protective measures to reduce the threat of harm your actions pose to the health and safety of the university community.” The ban from campus, she wrote, would remain in effect until the end of the semester on May 13 — the final weeks of the baseball season.
Dismayed with the process, the players’ families hired attorneys to challenge the university’s decision instead. The coach’s response, which was confirmed by four more players, was later relayed in interviews as of part of USC’s compliance inquiry. Players and others close to the program say Gill regularly waded into the gray area. Ten of the 12 players who spoke to The Times were resolute in their belief that USC’s voluntary lifts were not truly voluntary and that players would face reprisals if they didn’t attend.
“You could feel that [players] were beaten down,” one person close to the program said. “They just needed someone to communicate that they understood what they were going through.”A few days before the final series of the season, with USC already eliminated from postseason contention, Gill called a handful of players into his office individually. Among them were upperclassmen, preparing to travel for their final weekend, and young players who sacrificed scholarship money before the season.
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