Kentucky fires Jomo Thompson, cheer team coaches after nudity, hazing investigation
Some University of Kentucky cheerleaders took part in hazing activities, alcohol use and public nudity, an internal investigation found, leading to the firing of four coaches of the nationally recognized team and the resignation of a high-level university attorney.
The firings came after a three-month internal investigation that found that the coaching staff failed to provide oversight of the team during off-campus events.
Head coach Jomo Thompson and assistant coaches Ben Head, Spencer Clan and Kelsey LaCroix were released by the university on Monday. T. Lynn Williamson, a university lawyer who also served for four decades as an administrative adviser to the cheerleading squad, retired as a result of the investigation, according to portions of the investigation that were made public.
The coaching staff “knew or reasonably should have known” about the team’s conduct and did not take sufficient steps to address the conduct after learning about it, a press release announcing the firings said.
“The University of Kentucky has built the nation’s premier collegiate cheerleading program. But regrettably, the integrity of the program has been compromised by inappropriate behavior by some squad members on off-campus trips and by lax oversight by the program’s coaches and advisor,” UK President Eli Capilouto said in an emailed statement.
“Some of this poor behavior may have been practiced and tolerated for some years,” Capilouto said.
After the university’s announcement Monday, several team members defended the program.
“This program has been nothing besides outstanding & produces outstanding people because of the guidance our coaches provided for us. I pray people don’t give in to lies that went too far,” cheerleader Allie Law said in a tweet Monday.
Members of the squad reportedly performed “basket tosses” — a gymnastics routine that requires throwing a person in the air — while either topless or bottomless and within view of some coaches at a team retreat at Lake Cumberland, the university’s internal investigation found.
Coaches failed to confiscate alcohol brought by students to the retreat, and coaches allowed cheerleading alumni to bring boats and alcohol to the same retreat, the release stated. Some squad members became so intoxicated that they required follow-up care, the investigation reports said.
At a separate cheerleading camp in Tennessee, some members of the team were directed by others to perform “lewd chants and wear outfits that did not include underwear,” according to the university release.
The investigation found no evidence of sexual assault or sexual misconduct. But portions of the investigation performed by members of the university’s Title IX office found that the coaching staff’s knowledge of the partially nude basket tosses — and lack of steps taken to prevent them — led investigators to conclude that the coaches allowed a “hostile environment.”
The probe also found two coaching staff members who ran gymnastics businesses employed members of the cheerleading squad. Williamson hired students and coaches to do work at his home, the university said. Those were potential conflicts of interest. The Office of Internal Audit is reviewing those and “other financial practices of the cheerleading squad.”
The findings were a blow to a team accustomed to earning raves nationally.
Cheerleader Riley Aguiar said on Twitter Monday, “This program is the epitome of professionalism. It’s not only made me a better athlete, but also a much better person. This greatly affects myself and my teammates who have worked our whole lives to get to this university/team. Please don’t feed into lies that are hurting us.”
Jaxson Noel, a former UK cheerleader who left the program after the fall 2019 semester, said nothing that happened was the coaches’ fault.
“The coaches never did anything but try to help us grow, make us better people and prepare us for the real world,” he told the Herald-Leader Monday. “We’re all human and college students at that.”
Thompson has been the team’s head coach since 2002, and Williamson has served as an adviser to the program since 1978. The assistant coaches were all former UK cheerleaders. Head served as the main assistant coach, while Clan and LaCroix filled in on an “as-needed basis,” according to investigative documents.
LaCroix also works as a pediatric nurse for UK HealthCare, however her dismissal from her coaching position does not affect her nursing job status, UK spokesman Jay Blanton said.
According to business records from Kentucky’s Secretary of State’s office, Thompson is also a co-owner of the Burl in Lexington’s Distillery District and is listed as a member/manager of Central Kentucky Elite, a gymnastics gym where assistant coach Head is listed as an employee.
Despite leading the team to repeated national success, Thompson was paid less than many prominent UK coaches. According to Blanton, Thompson made little more than $33,000 plus an additional $5,000 on one-time endorsement contracts. He received an additional $500 after the 2012 men’s basketball national championship.
As a nurse, LaCroix makes about $44,500, while Head earned $3,900 and Clan made $5,580 as part-time coaches.
The three-month cheer team investigation began in early February after a family member of a cheerleader came forward and alleged inappropriate behavior by squad members and poor oversight from coaches, the university release stated.
People around the program, including current and former cheerleaders, shared social media posts Monday blaming one parent for the investigation and claiming that the parent’s reports were false.
The investigation included interviews with 60 students, coaches and administrators. There are 54 cheerleaders on the team, and investigators interviewed all of them.
Cheerleader Jake Graham said he took issue with how the athletes were interviewed.
“They weren’t really questions; they were insinuations,” he said.
From the interviews, the investigators constructed a timeline of possible inappropriate acts that occurred at the cheerleading camp in Tennessee and at the team’s retreat to Lake Cumberland.
UCA Cheerleading camp drinking, song
The cheerleading camp was held in mid-July 2019 at Eastern Tennessee State University and was hosted by the Universal Cheerleaders Association. Team members told investigators that at the UCA camp, team members went through a sort of initiation, which involved the younger members of the team learning a lewd song or chant or having to perform it before the team’s older members.
According to a summary of the interviews, the song was written by members of the team in the 1970s and became a tradition among male and female cheerleaders. The sexually explicit song was described by some team members as the “midnight toast” and was sung at off-campus parties.
Team members were separated by gender , and younger team members had to repeat the song before older team members. New male team members were required to wear an outfit that lacked underwear, and lights in the room were sometimes turned off during the chant to “intimidate,” multiple team members told investigators. Failure to repeat the song correctly resulted in the new team members losing an article of clothing, although members of the team said that shirts and shorts were never removed.
Noel said the song “was never serious.”
“It was only for fun to bring us together,” he said. “The coaches aren’t dumb and know we are going to party, but they always told us that if we needed them, we could count on them. They are honestly the best leaders and coaches I’ve ever had across every sport I’ve ever played.”
Although alcohol was prohibited on the trip, team members reportedly bought and drank alcohol during the initiation process, the investigation stated. There was no indication that any team member was forced to drink.
Coaches and advisers denied knowing about the process, and no team member presented evidence that coaches knew of it, according to investigation reports. But the coaches did not take “sufficient steps” to enforce the prohibition of alcohol.
Team retreat at Lake Cumberland a focus
In mid-August 2019, the team traveled to Jabez for its annual retreat on Lake Cumberland. The purpose of the retreat is for the team to learn university rules and get to know one another better. According to an investigation summary, the team was told that no alcohol was allowed before leaving for the lake.
Team members reportedly snuck alcohol in bags to the retreat and drank liquor, poured into Gatorade bottles in their cabins and on a dock at the camp. According to the investigation, two team members who drank too much and became too intoxicated missed dinner one night and were later put in alcohol counseling.
UK cheerleading alumni participated in a “decades-long” practice of bringing boats to the lake for team members to do water sports. According to the investigation, coaches were aware that alumni brought alcohol on the boats, but head coach Thompson told the team that the drinks were for the alumni only.
Cheer team members told investigators that squad members drank aboard the boats while most of the coaching staff was on the dock. Beer, alcoholic seltzer, shots and a variety of mixed drinks were available, team members said.
“The older cheerleaders were getting in the cooler,” an interview summary stated, while another stated that assistant coach Ben Head was seen “drinking and drinking in front of them.” Another student said that Williamson was also present and saw team members drinking. Students were instructed to throw away alcohol containers before returning to the dock.
“Head Coach Thompson is very adamant about not seeing alcohol at retreat — doesn’t want to see it, doesn’t want there to be any,” one interview summary stated.
Three cheerleaders also told investigators that they had seen nudity on the boats, but no others confirmed witnessing it.
The investigation found that Thompson, the other coaches and Williamson knew alumni brought alcohol on the boats and did not do enough to ensure the cheer team did not drink. Thompson did not take “sufficient steps” to supervise the team while on the boat and Williamson and the other coaches also took no steps to supervise.
Also at the retreat, team members performed a “cheerleader tradition” of doing partially nude basket tosses — with newer cheerleaders being thrown in the lake.
“During the investigation, it came to light that some team members voluntarily, or through peer pressure, did the basket-toss stunt either topless (females) or bottomless (males),” investigative documents stated. The entire team did not participate.
Two team members told investigators that they participated in the tosses, and 11 said they had observed the stunt during their time on the team. Seven said they’d never seen or done one but had heard other team members talk about it.
At least 15 team members said they believed coaches were watching the basket tosses occur, and a summary of the interviews stated that coaches “try not to observe them” and know “it’s going on.”
One coach—LaCroix—told investigators that she was aware of the nude basket tosses, that they do happen in front of coaches and that she could never remember a coach telling team members to stop. An investigative summary said that Clan and Head said they were aware of the basket tosses, but did not know they were done in any state of undress.
Other team members told investigators that coaches weren’t supposed to see it, but when they did, the team got into trouble.
Noel admitted that the team did what was described in the report, but he said none of it was forced upon participants.
“None of it was ever harmful and even the ‘hazing and nudity’ was not required and any nudity that did happen wasn’t forced or expected,” he said. “Like most college students, we did what we could to keep the alcohol and stuff away from coaches. And when they did find out, we ran until we learned our lesson.”
Noel also said what the team did was meant to bond them.
“It was never harmful,” said Noel, who was a freshman at the time. “We were all just bonding and getting closer, and if you weren’t comfortable with it, you didn’t have to be involved. I’m sure a few felt like they had too, but they didn’t. And that’s on them, not the coaches.”
When asked by investigators about the basket tosses, Williamson said he’d seen it once at a 2017 or 2018 retreat, but could not recall when exactly. He said he was walking toward the dock, without wearing glasses and was preparing to swim.
When he saw the topless basket toss, he was at first unsure about what he was seeing. He was then “shocked” and left the dock area without saying anything because he “wanted to believe it did not happen.”
The investigation found that coaches knew or reasonably should have known about the incidents.
Potential financial conflicts
Investigators also found potential financial conflicts of interest; however, those alleged conflicts are being evaluated in a separate investigation.
The investigation stated that cheerleaders sometimes worked for Cheer Expert, a traveling cheer business owned by Clan. Cheerleaders may have assumed that they should work for Clan’s business to obtain a UK tryout, and there was possible alleged misconduct during Cheer Expert travel, the investigative report said without going into much detail.
Head owns a separate gym where cheerleaders were allegedly paid to help clean and perform cheer routines for potential clients. The UK logo and relationship to current UK cheerleaders were used as marketing for the gym, the investigation summary stated without detailing which gym.
A Randy Head is also listed on the Secretary of State’s business documents for the Central Elite Kentucky gym where Thompson was listed as a member/manager.
Williamson told investigators that he also paid cheerleaders to do work around his house, mainly lawn care, and he paid $15 per hour for the work.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 10:22 AM.