A former DePaul University softball coach is accused of physical and verbal abuse of his players, and the university is being charged with not taking action to prevent it.
Former coach Eugene Lenti is charged by Jenny Conviser, a mental health doctor once used by the university, with verbally abusing players, according to TMZ Sports.
Coach Lenti had coached at DePaul for nearly 40 years and earned more than 1,000 career wins.
But sports psychologist Conviser, who worked for the school from 2005 to 2016, says that Lenti routinely called players names such as “f*cking whores,” and even physically abused them by punching them.
Conviser also claims she alerted the college to the abusive behavior, but the school did not act to put a stop to it.
The doctor alleges that instead of confronting and sanctioning Lenti for his behavior, they allowed him to retire quietly and without punishment.
Conviser does, though, allege that the school punished her by terminating her employment and bad-mouthing her afterward by labeling her a “befuddled and disgruntled vendor crassly using DePaul’s patients’ well-being as an excuse to extort money.”
The former employee’s lawyers, Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok, told TMZ that their client “had been trying to change the corrupt and conflicted culture at DePaul and its Athletics Department from the inside for years.”
“But leadership including Lenti’s sister put winning at all costs and the Blue Demon brand above the welfare of the student-athletes in their care, Conviser’s legal team added. “When the school — taking a page out of the church’s playbook of letting bad priests transfer to the next Parrish — permitted Lenti to move on to Auburn and the female student-athletes there. Dr. Conviser said enough is enough and blew the whistle.”
Meanwhile, after retiring from DePaul, Lenti joined Auburn’s softball staff in 2019 and is still listed as an assistant coach there.
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