![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/02ea77a0-09d2-479f-afaf-daabdbaea914-large16x9_AriWidemanWebsite.png\"\/)
<\/p>\nBAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 California State University, Bakersfield women’s head basketball coach, Ari Wideman, has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to Jennifer Self, Senior Director of Strategic Communications at CSUB.<\/p>\n
The cause for the placement was not announced.<\/p>\n
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New CSUB women’s basketball head coach, Ari Wideman. Credit: CSUB athletics<\/p>\n
Self said Ray Alvardo, associate head coach, will serve as acting head coach for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
Wideman was hired in May 2024 as the program’s first black female head coach<\/a>, following the announcement to not renew the contract<\/a> of long-tenured head coach Greg McCall in March 2024.<\/p>\n Men’s basketball head coach Rod Barnes stepped away from the program in September 2025<\/a>. He spent 14 seasons with the Roadrunners.<\/p>\n Director of Athletics Kyle Conder departed from CSUB that same month<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several coaching changes took place in the swimming and diving program, most recently when Director Eric Bugby a<\/a>nnounced his resignation in October 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n RELATED: Attorney claims CSUB failed to act on sexual harassment reports in softball team lawsuit<\/a> In October 2025, two former CSUB softball players filed a lawsuit against CSUB<\/a>, claiming Olivarez and Davenport created a “sexually charged environment” because they “openly discussed their sex lives with the team” between 2022 and 2025.<\/p>\n RELATED: CSUB’s former athletic director files lawsuit claiming whistleblower violations<\/a> This story is developing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 California State University, Bakersfield women’s head basketball coach, Ari Wideman, has been placed on paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-522026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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In March 2025, CSUB softball player Violet Salazar came forward with allegations of abuse against her softball coaches in a TikTok video<\/a>. She accused Assistant Coach James Davenport of sexual assault, claiming he grabbed her body after showering, leaving a bruise. CSUB softball head coach Letty Olivarez and Davenport were suspended by the university. Davenport was no longer employed by the university as of October 2025.<\/p>\n
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These coaching changes took place just before or after, for years, following former CSUB assistant men’s basketball coach Kevin Mays arres in early September for allegedly trafficking a woman across three state<\/a>s<\/a>.<\/p>\n