UNLV investigating coach-player altercation

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 12:14 p.m.

UNLV senior associate athletics director Jerry Koloskie is investigating a charge by women's basketball player Amy Wunderlich that an assistant coach kicked and scratched Wunderlich during a practice this week.

Wunderlich, a 6-0 senior forward, alleged that assistant coach Lisa Rathbun ripped her jersey, scratched her on the face and kicked her while she was on the ground after the two battled for a loose ball during practice Wednesday.

Lady Rebels head coach Regina Miller has asked Rathbun to stay away from the team while she and Koloskie look into the incident.

"At this point in time, the only thing I can say is Miss Wunderlich brought to my attention an incident between her and one of our staff members," Koloskie said. "It's a personnel issue and I'm actually a little disappointed that we would choose to take that public."

Koloskie said the decision to keep Rathbun away from the team was Miller's decision.

"That's always the head coach's decision," he said. "It's just a cooling-down type of thing because I think both parties wanted to separate for a few days; that's the best thing to do at this point."

Koloskie said he and Miller will take statements from the players who witnessed the incident before deciding how to deal with the situation.

"We're looking into it and until we have a reasonable amount of time with Coach Miller's schedule ... to sit down and figure out exactly what took place and make a reasonable, honest decision on behalf of both parties involved, we're not going to do anything," Koloskie said.

Wunderlich did not start in the Lady Rebels' 72-69 overtime win over Southern Methodist at Lied Gymnasium Thursday night. She came off the bench and scored two points and had four rebounds in 17 minutes.

Rathbun, who was not on the bench for Thursday's game, is a first-year assistant coach at UNLV. A former player at Brigham Young University, Rathbun was an assistant coach in charge of recruiting at Cleveland State before joining Miller's staff before this season.