Former Vandal athletes rally in support for UI volleyball team

Marvin Wadlow Jr. remembers sitting in the front seat of a 15-passenger van while his track coach Mike Keller drove. 

The 1981 Vandal track and field team was traveling to Boise for a meet. The 13 other athletes in the back of the van were asleep. He looked out the window and admired the view. The blue sky. The mountains and valleys. This was why he chose to go to school in Idaho. 

His coach looked over at him and said, “Marvin, you are so blessed. You are so blessed to go to school here.” 

Wadlow didn’t realize at the time what the impact and meaning of that simple sentence was. He was just a twenty-something-year-old trying to win, trying to earn a degree. But fast forward to 2024, Wadlow came to terms with the influence that anecdote has had on his life. Forty years after his time as a triple jumper at the University of Idaho, Wadlow read the news about the Vandal volleyball team. He saw the headlines and his heart shattered. 

Wadlow read the Dec. 30 Orange County Register article that detailed the alleged abuse current Vandals were falling victim to at the hands of volleyball Head Coach Chris Gonzalez.  

Wadlow ran next to future Olympians and Idaho Athletic Hall of Famers. His 1981 track team would go down in the history books. Those same Olympians, Hall of Famers, and track pioneers –about 250 athletes – united with Wadlow to write a letter to President Scott Green and Athletic Director Terry Gawlik about the current Vandal volleyball team (see letter on page 13). 

Wadlow said that none of those 250 team members could stand idly by and watch an injustice occur. They wanted to speak up. They wanted the volleyball team to feel the support from fellow Vandals across the country and around the world. Wadlow said those supporting the letter come from as far away as Jamaica, Ghana, and South Africa. He emphasized that support from the players reaches farther and wider than they could imagine. 

Wadlow, whose son was a California all-state volleyball player who is currently looking to pursue a semi-professional career in Italy, has been immersed in the volleyball world for decades. He remembers seeing the Vandals’ losing record grow worse and worse – record. He watched the players’ heads hang low, with no joy or confidence to show. 

“The article came out and I just cried. No wonder they were losing,” Wadlow said. “I read it and I just wept.” 

Wadlow said there were times he hated practice, times he loathed his coach, and times he fought with his teammates. However, because of the foundational layer of trust, comradery and respect Keller implemented, his team still thrived. 

“There were emotional times. We were verbally combative, even physically sometimes. But even the people I didn’t like, we still loved each other,” Wadlow said. 

Wadlow said his heart breaks for the current volleyball players. He said that times are going to be difficult when one is a college athlete, but it should never devolve into abuse. Wadlow repeated that everyone in his life questioned why he chose to go to school in Idaho. They questioned why he would choose a school so culturally different from his life in California. His dad was the biggest skeptic of them all. 

But Wadlow recalled one specific track meet in the Kibbie Dome. Reporters surrounded the track. The dome was filled with flashing lights. Wadlow stood in front of a camera and gave an interview. He paused the interview and turned to give a young fan an autograph. When Wadlow looked up from the paper he signed, he saw his dad lying down in the stands. His dad, who was diagnosed with colon cancer, was slowly dying. 

“After that meet, I remember my dad saying, ‘I was wrong. They treat you like a king. You made the right choice,’” Wadlow said. 

Wadlow never regretted his choice to attend UI. Moscow became his hometown. His teammates became his family. It is almost unfathomable for Wadlow to see the exact opposite experience playing for the current volleyball team, even though they attend the same school and live in the same town he did, he said.  

“I feel horrible for the girls that are mentally crushed. They have to carry that burden of coming forward, of being scared. All the pressure is on them, not him (Gonzalez). This is their memory of being a Vandal,” Wadlow said. “It makes me weep for them.” 

Wadlow, alongside 250 other athletes Keller coached, came together and unanimously decided to be outspoken supporters of the volleyball team. He called for Chris Gonzalez to be fired, saying, “Go experience grace but do it somewhere else. Don’t taint these young people’s experiences.” 

“We are 250 Vandals strong. We stand with them. No matter what happened. We stand with them,” Wadlow said fighting back tears. “We honor them. We respect them. We come to their defense.” 

Joanna Hayes can be reached at [email protected]