Doug Johnson - Sports Illustrated: Mountaineer Maven
Kerry Martin Jr Takes to Social Media to Address Mistreatment by Defensive Coordinator Vic Koenning
West Virginia safety Kerry Martin Jr. took to social media Tuesday afternoon ad is looking for a change, voicing his frustrations with the Mountaineer football program involving the treatment of players by defensive coordinator Vic Koenning.
Koenning allegedly called Martin “retarded” (Martin has mentally ill relatives), “had antagonized” former West Virginia safety Derrek Pitts for his religious beliefs along with pulling Martin aside for his views on religion and has made him feel like property following practice during 2019 fall camp with “everybody get in the house and upstairs to the meeting.”
Koenning has also allegedly brought politics into the team meetings. Most recently, according to Martin, during a virtual team meeting, in response to the recent social injustice protests, Koenning said: “if people did not want to get tear gassed, or push back by the police, then they shouldn’t be outside protesting.” Additionally, during the 2019 season, he was talking about how President Trump should “build the wall and keep Hispanics out of the country.”
This comes after members of the football team, along with head coach Neal Brown joined the protest in Morgantown following the murder of George Floyd my Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
To make matters worse, this was addressed with Neal Brown, according to Martin.
Martin did go onto say that “Coach Vic is not a bad person and he does mean well in many aspects.” However, he did add that the “heinous actions towards us overrule the good things he as done” also adding that he and his teammates are “uncomfortable being around him [Koenning]”.
"Martin added that he didn't want to bring negativity to the program but with everything going on and for him to still act this way and feel okay for with saying what he said is not okay. Enough is enough."
He later tweeted "I'm just bringing light to a bad situation... this is a personal issue and this has nothing to do with the program as a whole."
Mountaineer Maven reached out to the Athletic Department for comment but has yet to respond to the allegations made by Kerry Martin Jr.
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