Former Auburn softball player Alexa Nemeth said she felt threatened when the team was "quarantined" for three hours on March 30 and senior women's administrator Meredith Jenkins told players they were risking arrest if they did not delete text messages showing an inappropriate relationship between a player and then-associate head coach Corey Myers.
In the first on-camera interview since her Title IX sexual discrimination complaint alleging "coach Clint Myers knowingly let his son Corey Myers have relations and pursue relations with multiple members of the team," and the 14-page letter from her attorney to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Auburn president Steven Leath and athletic director Jay Jacobs became public in a report from ESPN on Saturday, Nemeth told AL.com she met with athletics administrators prior to the end of the 2017 season to discuss issues inside the program.
An Auburn spokeswoman told ESPN the school's internal investigation began last September after players filed anonymous ethics complaints about the alleged behavior of Corey Myers.
On April 27, Jacobs told AL.com he had no knowledge of any investigation into Corey Myers, who resigned on March 30, citing family reasons.
Auburn, which has not responded to any of AL.com's public records requests related to Corey Myers and the softball program, has retained the Birmingham law firm Lightfoot, Franklin & White to assist with a comprehensive review of the softball program to determine "if any unresolved issues remain." Whether the focus of that review is on the alleged actions of Clint and Corey Myers, athletic administrators or both, is unclear.
Below are excerpts from Nemeth's interview with AL.com on Wednesday:
AL.com: Walk us through the March 30 meeting. Players go to meet with coach Clint Myers, show him the text messages between a player and Corey Myers, what happens next?
Nemeth: "We were quarantined in a room for three hours and we weren't allowed to exit except for going to the restroom. Eventually, Clint and Meredith came down and they informed us that Corey had resigned. Ten Meredith started telling the players in a very threatening manner that the text messages they obtained were 'through illegal means,' which looking back on it and looking up the laws, they actually were obtained by legal means. So she was threatening the players with really no legal background and telling them that they could face jail time."
AL.com: Is Meredith Jenkins saying on what grounds this would happen?
Nemeth: "She basically just said that it was off of someone else's phone. It was obtained illegally so you're going to face jail time. There was no specific laws cited."
AL.com: Did you feel threatened?
Nemeth: "Most definitely. I know I was sitting there and I was, Woah she's really coming on strong; almost making it seem like they were at fault for what they did instead of the people in positions of authority who didn't do their job. She also made other members of the team cry because they were so scared about facing jail time."
AL.com: How did your feelings about being an Auburn softball player change?
Nemeth: It took a complete 180 because I used to hold Clint on this very high pedestal from everything that he said at camps about 'greatness is a way of life' and everything that he preached. In this meeting and in the few weeks after you start finding out that he knew about these inappropriate relations, didn't do anything to stop it. That he isn't as good of a man as he advertises. It had been a slow deterioration but after that, it flipped. I was extremely disgusted by the administration about how they handled it in relation to us girls because they didn't do anything to benefit us players.
AL.com: Before filing a sexual discrimination complaint with Auburn's Title IX office, did you speak to anyone in athletics or the university?
Nemeth: "Yes, I went and I talked to Jay Jacobs and Meredith Jenkins at the beginning of the week of the (NCAA) Regionals about my concerns about the mental harassment of the coaching staff and about the violations of Title IX."
AL.com: What did Jay and Meredith say to you?
Nemeth: "They just nodded their heads and didn't really write anything down and (said) that the administration is there for the athlete and they'll do everything in their best interest to try to help us."
AL.com: Walk us through the Title IX process and your meeting with Kelley Taylor.
Nemeth: "I filed a complaint and Kelley Taylor was extremely receptive with my complaint and I do believe she's really trying to help us softball players get this whole situation resolved for our benefit. She was very receptive, took detailed notes over and hour-and-a-half meeting. Every single time I've sent her any information she's communicated back extremely well. She did mention to me that a few other players have talked to her but it's been an extremely hard time to obtain information."
AL.com: What do you want to see happen from all this?
Nemeth: "I would like to see the rest of the softball staff that allowed these actions to go on to be not with the program anymore. I would also like to see the officials at the very top of the administration who knew about it from several players, to face repercussions for what they did. I would also like to see that this doesn't happen to any other team or any other program because I don't believe that any woman should ever have to go through what we did that season. I would also like see counseling for all the players involved, specialized counseling, not just the regular sports psychologist because I think it's very important to help the bridges that may have been severed and also to help them understand the situation better."
AL.com: You would also like to rejoin the program?
Nemeth: "Yes."
AL.com: Have you heard from any of your former teammates since these stories came out?
Nemeth: "No. ... I just hope that they're doing OK and that this hasn't been too hard on them because I'm really sorry that we all had to go through all this."