Former Grambling volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas: A 'calculated plan' to get her fired

Former Grambling State volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas has spoken publicly for the first time since she was fired July 5 amid an internal investigation.

In an interview with 247Sports, Lucas detailed what she believed to be the reason behind the series of events that led to her termination.

"When it first was announced that I got the job, there were previous athletes that I had coached that came together with student-athletes that were on the (Grambling State) volleyball team, and they, I would say, got together and had a plan (to get me fired)," she told 247Sports.

Lucas claimed a current member of the Grambling State team approached her to reveal the plot.

Before being hired at Grambling State, Lucas coached at Alcorn State from 2016-18 and at Arkansas-Pine Bluff from 2019-2021.

Lucas, the 2006 SWAC Defensive Player of the Year at GSU, also denied reports that she released every player on the team from their scholarship, claiming she received direction from vice president for intercollegiate athletics Trayvean Scott to do so.

Lucas said she pushed back on administration, choosing to keep several players who then left the team voluntarily.

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In its statement announcing her firing, the university said all current volleyball scholarships will be honored for the 2022-23 academic year, but it's unclear how many of the former players will be included.

Once the program was put under investigation, Lucas said she was not allowed to speak publicly about the situation. She hoped the university would defend the coach they brought in to turn the program around.

"I was looking for the university to make a statement and say that this did not happen," she said. "I was looking for (Scott), I was looking for my student information director (Taylor Jeanlewis), I was looking for anyone besides me to say this did not happen.

"Those things were not said."

Chelsey Lucas was hired as volleyball coach in February by Grambling State
Chelsey Lucas was hired as volleyball coach in February by Grambling State

Upon being fired, she asked university human relations to give her a reason why her contract was being terminated, which they would not do, according to Lucas.

"If I'd done anything wrong, if I had a violation, whatever, I had not been told," she said. "When I got called into HR, (I asked) 'What did I do wrong for me to be terminated?'"

Lucas said she was not interviewed during the investigation, which spearheaded by the law office of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith LLP at the request of Grambling. Lucas said she does not know what will come next, but she hopes she can continue to coach the sport she loves.

"I'm looking forward to moving on to something that I can continue to be an advocate for women's sports and volleyball," she said. "However that looks, that's what I want to do."

Alberto Camargo is a sports intern with the Knoxville-News Sentinel. Contact him at acamargo@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @albaretoe.

This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Ex-Grambling State volleyball coach: 'Calculated plan' got her fired