Two UC San Diego women’s rowing coaches are accused of providing prescription drugs to student-athletes and other unethical behavior, according to a statement released by the NCAA Division II Committee on Infractions on Tuesday.
The former coaches are accused of provided prescription drugs to students and knowingly allowing ineligible student-athletes to participate in rowing. Both coaches also lied about the incident when questioned by ethics officers, according to NCAA.
NCAA does not name the coaches in their statement, but the UCSD website shows that Pattie Pinkerton served as head coach during the time accused.
“The University of California, San Diego failed to monitor its women’s rowing program and two of the coaches acted unethically,” the NCAA statement read.
The former head coach allegedly provided a prescription anti-inflammatory drug to six student-athletes more than 20 times between 2010-2012. The NCAA also claims that the coach told student-athletes not to talk about the drugs provided, and also directed students where to obtain the anti-inflammatory on their own.
The statement also claims at least five women’s rowing student-athletes practiced, competed or traveled with the team while ineligible at the direction of Pinkerton. The former assistant coach was also allegedly aware of the misconduct.
Penalties for the coaches include public reprimand, a year of probation and a fine. In addition, Pinkerton is restricted from athletically related duties for three years if she is employed by a NCAA school. The unnamed assistant head coach would have to attend NCAA Regional Rules seminar if employed by an NCAA school.
The results from 2010-2012 for the women’s rowing team at UCSD will also be dropped, according to NCAA.
UCSD issued a statement Tuesday, saying they worked with the NCAA throughout the investigation and regret the violations.
"We have instituted additional checks and balances to ensure adherence to NCAA rules, and will be better as a result of the steps taken to ensure a situation of this nature does not occur again," the statement read. "Some of our changes include amending the reporting structure for spring sport supervision in order to enhance monitoring and ensure compliance, as well as adding bystander intervention education for our assistant coaches and student-athletes."
