‘They Told Me I Was Worthless’: Former Players Speak Out After UMBC Softball Coaching Scandal

“I wasn’t suicidal, but I felt like I was.”

The words former collegiate softball player Mallory Fletcher said hit like a gut punch.

“They told me I was worthless,” Fletcher said in a phone call with Softball On SI. “They told me no one ever wanted me. I have strong parents, and they were telling me one thing, and then I had these coaches that I had to see every day, and they were telling me these things.”

Fletcher began her collegiate career in 2022 at Georgia State, playing for head coach Angie Nicholson and assistant coach Rick Nicholson. She transferred to Presbyterian College after that and spent three years with the Blue Hose, where she earned All-Big South Honorable Mention as a senior and learned that what she experienced at GSU was far from normal.

After leaving Georgia State in 2024, Angie and Rick Nicholson were hired by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in August 2025. On Monday, a report from Edward Lee of The Baltimore Sun said both had been fired after just 18 games.

Parents confirmed to Lee that Rick was fired on Tuesday and Angie was dismissed on Sunday evening. Rick has been accused of inappropriate conduct after he allegedly brushed the chest of two players while attempting to swat away insects on two separate occasions.

The parents, who requested anonymity, told Lee that the second play objected to the contact and was scolded by Rick Nicholson. He then walked into the dugout and threatened to cut the player, which an observer overheard and reported.

Threatening to cut players is nothing new for the Nicholsons. A former Georgia State player, who requested anonymity, told Softball On SI she was cut during the regular season. She arrived at practice and was told to pack her stuff and go home; she was no longer needed.

That story was also confirmed by the other two other players who spoke with Softball On SI.

UMBC has canceled its last six games and has canceled three more against Bryant that were scheduled for Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29. Those games will not be made up.

Sources: UMBC has canceled its upcoming series with Bryant. The Retrievers have now canceled 9 straight contests. https://t.co/yruo6DqaEu
— Maren Angus-Coombs (@Maren_Angus) March 26, 2026

Softball On SI reached out to UMBC for comment multiple times and did not receive a response.

The report was not surprising for Fletcher or the other five sources Softball On SI spoke with. Three of those sources were former players, employees, and parents who requested anonymity because they feared they might face retaliation.

For an entire season, Fletcher endured Rick commenting on her body and her conservative lifestyle.

“I wasn’t provocative enough,” Fletcher said. “I wasn’t showing enough skin. He made a statement once that I’m too scared to show my belly.”

Fletcher didn’t understand why a coach would comment on how she looked, but it made her so uncomfortable that she ordered clothes a size too big, so “they weren’t so tight on my butt.”

Because of her mental health, Fletcher’s mother, April, tried to attend every game and would book a room at the team hotel on every road trip. In a phone interview, she recalled a trip when the team didn’t book enough rooms for the student-athletes.

“One night, there was a full hotel,” April told Softball On SI. “I had a room, but they were short one room for the softball team, so they were going to be girls that were going to have to sleep on the floor that night. I gave up my room so that they could have that room for the softball team.”

That wasn’t the only time the Fletchers helped the team. Both of them remembered a time when the coaches withheld meals from the team after a bad loss. Per NCAA legislation, universities require that all student-athletes receive “unlimited meals and snacks in conjunction with their athletics participation." Instead of receiving money from the coach, Mallory paid for her teammates to eat with her personal credit card.

Another former GSU student-athlete, Sophie Mooney, also spoke with Softball On SI about the Nicholsons’ abusive culture when she recalled playing through an injury during the 2021 season that should’ve sidelined her for at least four weeks.

"I pulled a ligament in my hand and was given two games to rest," Mooney said. "Angie said I had to play, so the trainer had to work with me on ways to wrap my wrist, but every attempt to swing ended in tears until they put me in a wrist brace that didn’t allow my left hand to move, so I had to reconstruct my swing to be able to hit without my bottom hand moving. The shock still hurt me every swing, but the brace made it bearable."

The former player also mentioned the lack of meals and being forced to eat at a gas station instead of attending a postgame crawfish boil in Lafayette, La.

"They always berated us and said we sucked during practices and after each loss, and expressed how they couldn’t wait for when their recruits and daughters to be on the team because we just weren’t good," Mooney added. "They took us to Arby's after games because they never planned our meals, and after the second time of eating Arby's in one weekend, the majority of the team asked if we could get food at the Love's gas station instead, which afterward we were lectured on how ungrateful we were for not wanting Arby's."

The final straw for Mooney was when Angie said she (expletive) sucked.

"I went in relief for a game and allowed one run in 4.0 innings against Florida, and after the game, I learned from my teammates that Angie had said loud enough for the whole dugout to hear, 'Sophie can't go in, she f****** sucks. That's when I decided I was going to transfer.

"The culture they created was already so bad, but after hearing she made that comment about me while I was already having to play injured, I mentally checked out."

The season ended, Mooney went in the portal, transferred to North Georgia, and cut contact with both coaches.

"When they saw how well my season at the University of North Georgia was going, they tried to tell everyone that I was “one of their players”. Rick texted and wished me luck before the National Championship game, but I never replied. I didn't want the luck he was offering."

After the Nicholsons left Georgia State, a source who worked in the GSU athletic department learned about the former coaches' actions behind the scenes. They also agreed to speak with Softball On SI on anonymity.

“I found out how much slimy stuff they were doing,” they said in a phone interview. “They went over the budget, and in those charges, they were giving the team credit card to their kids to get their nails done and just buy whatever they wanted while they were taking the team to Arby’s.”

A husband-wife coaching duo has been fired following an investigation into inappropriate conduct allegations, just 18 games into their first season with the program.

This is a developing story.

More: https://t.co/nIPRXIVrka
— Softball OnSI (@SoftballOnSI) March 23, 2026

The Nicholsons have three daughters. The youngest daughter, Peyton, appeared in 45 games for GSU in 2024. She is now listed as a junior outfielder at New Mexico State. The other two, Taylor and Kenzie, are graduate students and seniors at UMBC.

The former employee also spoke about the actions of the coaches once their contracts were not renewed after the 2024 season.

“They took all the equipment and sold it,” they stated. “So whenever the new staff went in there, they didn't have anything.  They had taken everything and sold it. The girls didn't even have their own bats.”

Each of the sources who spoke with Softball On SI admitted to suppressing memories of their time with GSU, but felt like now was the time to speak their truth. In a way, they want to prevent others from experiencing anything similar.

Softball On SI made multiple attempts to reach out to Georgia State, Angie, and Rick Nicholson for comment, and did not receive a response.