Former Courage coach Riley mentioned 100s of times in report on abuses in women's soccer

By Juliet Macur, New York Times

For the longest time, Kaleigh Kurtz, a defender on the Carolina Courage professional women’s soccer team, was silent about her abuse.

She dared not come forward to say that Paul Riley, her then-coach at the Courage, had made her feel uncomfortable by saying suggestive things, including asking her about her sex life and describing what sexual positions he preferred.

Or relaying that Riley, in 2019, switched between flirting with her and then telling her she was chubby, once advising her to lose 14 pounds in 10 days if she wanted to keep her starting position, “because I love you.” His comments led to her developing an eating disorder, she said.

Despite her assessment that Riley turned her season into “hellfire,” Kurtz remained quiet so she wouldn’t be labeled a troublemaker and lose her job as an athlete in the National Women’s Soccer League. The league, in two lengthy investigative reports, has been found to be so dysfunctional that abusive coaches like Riley freely harassed and took advantage of players for years while management either missed or ignored signs that players were being abused.

This latest report, a 128-page joint effort organized by the league and its players union, was made public Wednesday at the same time as the start of a men’s World Cup semifinal between France and Morocco. It added yet more stinging information about how the league was mismanaged and how it mistreated its players. It described instances of sexual abuse, unwanted sexual advances by a general manager, emotional abuse, cronyism, racist remarks, the blurring of professional boundaries and retaliation against players who complained about their mistreatment.

Neither Riley nor Kurtz responded immediately to messages seeking comment.

The first investigative report was compiled on behalf of the U.S. Soccer Federation by Sally Q. Yates, a former deputy attorney general. It was made public in October and detailed some of the systematic abuse, including sexual and psychological abuse, that occurred in a league that lacked oversight, player protections and, in many ways, professionalism.

The reports together collected numerous accounts and evidence of a toxic culture with similarities to a long-standing environment of abuse found in the sport of gymnastics, where athletes felt so intimidated by their coaches that Larry Nassar, a U.S. national team doctor, was able to maneuver to abuse hundreds of girls and women. Coaches in the NWSL used their power over players to abuse them, the report said, knowing that they would remain silent because the players were so afraid of being replaced or somehow causing the unstable league to fold.

And even if the players had wanted to speak out, the NWSL didn’t provide players a safe, trusted place to report misconduct anyway, the league’s report concluded.

In Kurtz’s case, her abuse would less likely have happened if team and league executives had been transparent about Riley’s firing from the Portland Thorns in 2015 for sexual misconduct. That lack of transparency, the report said, let Riley prey on other players, including Kurtz, who only came forward to team management in 2021 after The Athletic published a story about Riley’s sexual misconduct while at the Thorns.

In Wednesday’s report, Kurtz said she agreed to be named because she trusted that the league would protect her, and she wanted to help other players.

Fear persists among players that coaches could ruin their careers if they speak up about abuse. Some players, according to the report, remained reluctant to come forward, including one retired player, according to the report, declining to participate in the investigation because of that fear.

The players who have come forward about abuse have already made a difference. The report said that in 2021, six of the league’s clubs “fired or accepted resignations of general managers or head coaches due to misconduct that had persisted for years.”

Among those ousted coaches are Riley, who has been accused of coercing one player into having sex with him, and Christy Holly, who, as the coach of Racing Louisville was accused of repeatedly pursuing and groping one player. Rory Dames was fired from the Chicago Red Stars and accused of harassment and other forms of abuse.

Neither Holly nor Dames responded immediately to messages seeking comment.

And yet another coach, former Kansas City Current coach Huw Williams, was mentioned in Wednesday’s report as creating “an environment of fear,” a previously unreported accusation.

According to Williams’ Twitter account, he now owns and runs GSI, a company that organizes youth soccer tournaments, camps and leagues in the Kansas City area. He did not respond to requests for an interview. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.