CHICAGO — Pedro Mendes was coaching Hylte/Halmstad VBK in Sweden two years ago.
On Tuesday, the new Northwestern assistant coach was sitting in a conference room in the Big Ten Network office building as the public face for the volleyball program and answering questions about a lawsuit alleging hazing during the 2020-21 season.
Mendes was filling in for head coach Shane Davis at the second annual Big Ten Conference volleyball media days after the school issued a statement at 5:30 p.m. on Monday saying he would not attend the event.
Mendes, who was hired as a full-time assistant coach in February after serving as a volunteer coach for a year, couldn’t get into many details about the allegations since he wasn’t at the school when the alleged incidents occurred. However, he said that he hasn’t seen anything negative during his time with the Wildcats.
“I don’t think since I joined the team I have ever experienced or heard or seen any type of situation where I would consider myself or the players around me as hazing,” he said.
“The way we coach, at least, again, from my time here, it’s been a lot about respect, and we try to keep the standards pretty high, but we’re always trying to make sure that the athletes are feeling respected and…
