Against the Grain II
By Vaughn Wilson
I want to be clear: I celebrate FAMU Volleyball’s dominance since joining the SWAC. Winning four championships in five years is extraordinary. I am thrilled the conference selected FAMU to host the tournament, and it was truly inspiring to watch our team raise the trophy inside the Lawson Center.
But what I cannot celebrate is the irresponsible and unacceptable way Florida A&M University and FAMU Athletics continue to deprive our student-athletes, coaches, and staff of the full championship experience they deserve. Time after time, our coaches win despite facing enormous, avoidable challenges—constant leadership turnover, inadequate budgets, outdated facilities, no long-term improvement plan, and now three years without a clear, actionable strategy for NIL, which is a necessity at our level.
What I am looking for is leadership with vision—leadership that mirrors the structure and sophistication of the Power Four, scaled to what we can realistically achieve. Instead, we have watched year after year of missed opportunities: poor handling of media rights, underutilized advertising partnerships, and championship-caliber coaches forced to operate with bare-minimum resources while still being expected to win. Some great coaches have simply walked away to other opportunities, though they would love to be at FAMU.
And that’s before we even touch academics and compliance. We were told the 2022 fiasco—where mishandled academic issues nearly canceled the UNC game and led to an embarrassingly undermanned team against Jackson State—had been fixed. Yet the blunders continue. The systematic failure to support our coaches and student-athletes is completely unacceptable.
The university’s response to public criticism in 2022 was the announcement of 12 new athletics staff positions. So where are they? Who are they? Are there still 12? Or have we quietly slid back to the same skeletal staffing structure that created these problems in the first place?
If those permanent positions truly exist, then how did we end up with an APR below NCAA standards? How can a university celebrated for academic excellence not adequately support the roughly 300 student-athletes who represent FAMU every day as ambassadors on their fields, courts, and tracks?
When I see our baseball players performing field maintenance between doubleheaders—while the visiting team sits in the shade recovering—something is wrong. Yet coach Jamey Shouppe is still expected to deliver championships every year, which he has impressively done nearly every other season. He won’t say it publicly, but I will: it is flat-out disrespectful to treat a multi-conference champion and multi-time NCAA Tournament qualifier this way, especially given the state of the program before he arrived.
When I see coach Charlie Ward missing two major pieces he expected to build around this year, I have to ask: what is happening behind the scenes? The 7’4” interior presence he touted weeks before the season isn’t even on the roster. A guard expected to lead this team is also gone. The public sees the Rattlers struggling and points at Ward—yet where are the players he recruited to win with?
Last year, after winning the championship, I spoke with volleyball coach Gokhan Yilmaz. His dreams go far beyond winning the SWAC. He wants to advance in the NCAA Tournament—win a first-round match and eventually reach the Sweet 16. He wants to elevate FAMU Volleyball. His ambition was refreshing, like listening to a kid dreaming of a new toy. But he cannot achieve that vision without full support from the university. Right now, we act as if winning the SWAC is enough. While the conference title is something we cherish, our coaches want—and deserve—the infrastructure to aspire to more.
Michael Smith is not to blame. An interim can only stabilize the ship; he cannot rebuild it. By the time he stepped in, the budgets were already set. My concerns are directed at the permanent leadership that has repeatedly left behind unresolved issues and passed the problems on to the next person.
I’ve said it repeatedly: FAMU Athletics needs a real, enforceable strategic plan—one that remains in place even if leadership changes. Only then can we elevate the vision, efficiency, and long-term success of FAMU Athletics.
Until that happens, we will continue celebrating championships won through struggle instead of championships won through support. And that should never be acceptable at Florida A&M University.
