Fired Grambling Volleyball Coach Who Cut Entire Roster Says She Was Set Up by Her Team

Former Grambling State University head volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas has made recent headlines for her controversial decision to cut her entire team right out the gate, resulting in the termination of her newly-appointed role. 

Now she’s speaking out amid an internal investigation since her July 5 firing to clear her name, claiming that she was actually set up by the team themselves. 

“We had some happy people that was celebrating and congratulating me — but we also had some other ones that just had a plan to make sure I didn’t get the job or make sure that I get fired,” she shared in a Friday interview with 247Sports’ Carl Reed. “Regardless of whatever happened, and this is before anybody ever got released from the team, there was a calculated plan to get me fired.”

Lucas went on to detail that the only reason she found out about the plan was because a current volleyball player approached her and came clean. 

She alleges that a student-athlete she had previously coached was the mastermind behind the scheme to get her removed because of “past personal issues,” and that she never had 19 players to cut to begin with. 

“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] volleyball team, and they, I would say, got together and had a plan [to get me fired]” she asserted.

That’s not all.

According to Lucas, she was also pressured by the Grambling Director of Athletics himself, Dr. Trayveon Scott, to “get rid of them all” because they wanted a win.

“I met with 14 girls on the day that we had our end-of-the-year meetings,” she claimed. “On April the 4, I met with them. There were girls that I gave them reasons of why you will no longer be a part of the Grambling [volleyball] program, and there were student-athletes that I asked — that I asked — I want you to be a part of this program. This is your decision. I want you to come in and help me build a winning program here.”

She alleges that parents and third parties added fuel to the fire.

Additionally, she felt she was wronged by the university’s investigation since she was never even interviewed nor given a reason for her termination. 

“For them to treat me as if I’m nothing and I’m asking — over and over — where is this investigation? What is going on? Give me reasons. [Scott] cannot deny that. I have asked over and over again. And then you terminate me — all of a sudden — that you find something.”