Coach Ann Marie Gilbert, who took the Virginia Union University Lady Panthers to the NCAA Division II championship game in 2017 before leaving last April for the University of Detroit Mercy, has run into major problems.

Her program at the Division I Michigan university has been shut down after 14 of her players and their parents accused Coach Gilbert of “emotional, mental and physical abuse.”

In a letter obtained by the Detroit Free Press and published Jan. 21, the players and parents accused Coach Gilbert of creating an environment “so toxic and draining that players have made comments in the locker room about having suicidal thoughts as well as purposely injuring themselves” to avoid having to deal with her alleged “belittling and emotional abuse.”

The letter alleged that Coach Gilbert demanded players hide injuries and illness, including COVID-19 symptoms, on game days and accused her of violating NCAA rules by disregarding limits on the number of hours student-athletes can practice and train.

The letter was sent to Robert Vowels, athletic director at University of Detroit Mercy.

While Coach Gilbert declined to comment to the newspaper, Mr. Vowels released a statement regarding the accusations and said the team’s season has been canceled.

“The health and well-being of our student-athletes is our athletic department’s top priority,” Mr. Vowels’ statement read. “We have talked with all players and members of our women’s basketball program about their concerns. We take them very seriously and will continue to review them closely.

“As we have prioritized the needs of our student-athletes during this challenging academic year, we have decided to suspend the 2020-21 women’s basketball season.”

According to the Detroit Free Press article, the parents, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said they real- ized the extent of the problem only after a recent Zoom video call by parents of the players.

“Everybody had their own little (problems) but thought it was isolated,” one of the parents said. “It makes it tough under COVID when there’s no interaction between parents – you don’t see each other at games, there’s just no connection there. Last weekend, everybody got on a Zoom and told their stories. It started real slow, and then somebody told a story and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ And then someone else did. It’s like, ‘Oh, she’s just evil. She’s bad to everybody.’ ”

Team members spoke with Mr. Vowels about their concerns on Jan. 19, and showed up to find Coach Gilbert at practice on Jan. 20. According to the Detroit Free Press, the players told Mr. Vowel they would not play if Coach Gilbert was coaching.

Coach Gilbert resigned from VUU in mid-April after posting a 135-18 record over five seasons with the Lady Panthers. She led the Lady Panthers to three CIAA titles during that time, and the team was prepared to compete in its fifth straight NCAA Tournament before the event was canceled because of COVID-19. She took the Lady Panthers to the NCAA national title game in 2017.

She left the highly successful program at VUU for one that was struggling. The University of Detroit Mercy Titans were 9-80 during the last three seasons before Coach Gilbert took over. As of last week, the Titans were 1-13 overall and 1-9 in the Horizon League in Coach Gilbert’s first season.

Prior to her time to VUU, Coach Gil- bert was head coach at Eastern Michigan University, a Division I team, from 2007 to 2012. The program went 94-64 and won the Mid-American Conference in her final year. She resigned following the 2012 season and was given a two-year show-cause by the NCAA for multiple violations of excess practice time and recruiting issues.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Coach Gilbert sat out for three years until her show-cause expired, and then was hired by VUU.