Josh Keister kept quiet for nearly two years, waiting for the investigation to conclude into allegations that the former Missouri Western women's coach and assistant Joey Wells paid players during their time in St. Joseph.

The NCAA released its findings Wednesday, exonerating Keister and Wells of the major allegations despite Western's previous investigation that concluded "more probably than not" Keister and Wells paid at least a $1,000 to three former players. Cleared but not content, Keister is ready to say his piece.

"The school has made us out to be guilty from the start," he said Friday in a phone interview with the News-Press. "The school did not let the process play out. That's a rush to judgement."

Western imposed sanctions on itself last summer, vacating its wins and forfeiting a scholarship, among others, after wrapping its investigation.

Keister did admit to paying one former player $300 for working two camps after Keister left Missouri Western for an assistant position at TCU.

The NCAA determined that a minor, secondary violation and didn't punish either coach after failing to find sufficient evidence in the other two cases. Western was guilty of a major violation, using an ineligible player for two years.

Center Inga Buzoka apparently played professionally in Europe from 2000-2003 before coming to the United States to compete collegiately.

"All of the major (MIAA schools) recruited Inga. If people would've known she played professionally, it would have come out right when she played. No one knew," Keister said. "That stuff is hard to track. I'm not here blaming Brett Esely, but coaches don't determine eligibility."

Esely, Western's assistant athletic director, was the Griffons' compliance coordinator, who determines student-athlete eligibility, at the time of the violation. As for why Buzoka and another former player, Renata deAlmeida, leveled the other accusations at their coaches, Keister provided this explanation.

"Basically the motivation behind the players' allegations was they were not getting their fifth-year scholarship, and they were faced with going home to their countries," Keister said.

Buzoka is from Latvia, deAlmeida from Brazil.

"Both of their goals were to stay in the United States, and the only way they could do so is if they were on scholarship and stayed in school," Keister said. "They felt the coaches had deceived them on the fifth-year scholarship situation when in fact it was the athletic department that couldn't afford (to provide the additional scholarship money). (The players') backs were against the wall."

On Friday, the university continued to stand by its investigation.

"We provided all of the information that was available to us," said Dan Nicoson, the university's vice president of advancement who co-conducted Western's investigation. "Western did everything that was expected of it as an institution to fulfill its obligation to report on alleged activities for review by the NCAA."

He added, "I think (the more-probably-than-not language) was appropriate in the terms of the information we gathered. ... We followed the advice of council from the beginning, which directed the steps to be taken in the process. So we stand by what we reported."

That's not exactly the reaction Keister felt the situation warranted after the NCAA released its findings.

"I think Western was shocked by the results of the investigation and are now trying to figure a way to save face," Keister said. "I'm mostly bothered that the school, which had made the mistake, had accused myself and the coaching staff the entire time instead of coming out and saying, 'We made the mistake. These coaches didn't.'

"They need to own up to it."

Keister spent last season out of coaching after leaving TCU. He has applied for an assistant coaching position under Central Missouri coach Dave Slifer. Keister served as Slifer's assistant at Western before taking over the Griffons' program.

And Slifer has remained one of Keister's staunchest supporters throughout the past 22 months.

"I appreciate the support coach Slifer has given me since Day 1," Keister said. "He has always been a big supporter of mine. I have received a lot of support from people still around the program and friends. They stood by me the whole time and said we will wait for the report to come out."

Sports reporter R.J. Cooper can be reached at rjcooper@npgco.com