Michigan ice hockey coach Mel Pearson fired after misconduct investigation
Michigan introduced Friday that males’s ice hockey coach Mel Pearson won’t return for the 2022-2023 season. After an investigation into Pearson’s remedy of gamers and workers, the college selected to half methods with him.
Pearson’s contract expired earlier this 12 months and he has been working as an at-will worker all through the investigation. After reviewing the outcomes of the investigation into this system, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel introduced that Pearson is out as coach.
“It has been decided that Mel Pearson won’t be returning as our ice hockey coach,” Manuel stated in a press release. “This choice has been fastidiously thought-about for a while. We welcome an impartial third-party assessment of our program’s local weather and tradition earlier than persevering with our analysis in keeping with campus management.
“Our student-athletes having a constructive and significant expertise is of the utmost significance, and a transparent expectation inside our division is that each one workers and workers are valued and supported. I deeply respect and worth the numerous people who got here ahead throughout this assessment.
“At the moment’s announcement displays the seriousness we have now heard and the values we maintain pricey in Michigan.”
Pearson was accused of telling gamers to falsify contact tracing data on COVID-19 types, deceptive recruits about how a lot scholarship cash they might obtain, berating and belittling gamers and workers, and failing to correctly handle allegations of inappropriate remedy of feminine workers by director of hockey operations Rick Bancroft, in accordance with a report by The Athletic.
Pearson additionally allegedly compelled former Michigan goalkeeper and captain Strauss Mann off the group after he raised considerations about this system’s tradition.
The pinnacle coach at Michigan for seven seasons, Pearson compiled an general document of 99-65-16. In 2022, the Wolverines reached the Frozen 4 below Pearson.
