Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
Several current and former members of the University of San Francisco men’s soccer team have been accused of sexual assault and misconduct dating back to 2003.
Per Priya Desai and Jenny Vrentas of Sports Illustrated, USF administrators have been made aware of “several” allegations involving the behavior of the men’s soccer team which the victims and their supporters said contributed to a “culture of rape and terror perpetuated” by the team.
One former student who spoke to Desai and Vrentas said she went to school administrators in 2003 to voice concern about members of the team “filming women without consent in intimate settings with their teammates.”
Another woman, a former USF student who was given the pseudonym Ashley to protect her privacy, told SI about waking up “naked in a shower of the communal bathroom in her dorm” at the school in March 2018:
“Her clothes were next to her, but her underwear was missing. She had the taste of semen in her mouth. Disoriented and groggy, she made her way back to her room to lie down and piece together the night before. There was the nightclub where she met two men, one a current and one a former USF men’s soccer player. She had been drinking but remembers going back with them to ‘the soccer house,’ where a group of players lived and regularly threw parties. From there things become hazy. Her last memory before she blacked out is of sitting on a couch with the two men who brought her there.”
According to Desai and Vrentas, one of the players from that night reached out to Ashley “several months later” via social media. She asked him what happened, and he agreed to tell her over Snapchat, “where messages disappear after they have been read.”
“Ashley says the player confirmed her worst fear: He had penetrated her vaginally while at the soccer house,” per SI. “Ashley told the player she had been blacked out, but she says he simply wrote, ‘I know you wanted it…’ Horrified, she blocked him from all social media and never spoke to him again.”
Desai and Vrentas spoke to current and former San Francisco students, whose accounts “point to a distinct culture of misconduct on the team that spanned three coaches, four athletic directors—though one, Scott Sidwell, was present for the majority of the time—and two school presidents.”
Other sexual assault and misconduct allegations have previously been made against the Dons men’s soccer team in addition to the accounts shared with Desai and Vrentas.
After creating a meme about the toxic culture of the men’s soccer team at USF, former student Will Midence, who graduated in 2019, made a post on Instagram that contained a series of images demanding the university investigate and hold accountable the men’s soccer program amid the accusations of sexual assault.
“Over the last four days what I thought would be a satirical meme has turned into an open letter and virtual protests to @usfca through my Instagram account demanding justice for the survivors of alleged sexual assault from the University of San Francisco’s men’s soccer team,” Midence wrote in the caption on the post.
The school commissioned an independent investigation in the wake of Midence’s post.
Per the results released by the investigators on Jan. 11, it was determined that 11 members of the men’s soccer team “engaged in sexual misconduct and disrespectful behavior toward women and/or LGBTQIA individuals over the past decade,” but such behavior “is not pervasive among members of the USF men’s soccer team.”
The report also stated, “consistent with its policies and procedures, USF responded to reported instances of sexual misconduct involving the soccer team and held accountable any soccer players and coaches found responsible for violating USF’s sexual misconduct policies.”
Desai and Vrentas noted they spoke to five women, including Ashley, who didn’t talk with the investigators hired by the school. Each of the women they talked with “shared personal accounts from that time period of sexual misconduct or harassment by a men’s soccer player.”
Former San Francisco soccer player Manny Padilla was suspended by his professional team, New Mexico United, in July 2020 when he was named in a Change.org petition as part of Midence’s advocacy.
Per official documents obtained by Gabriel Greschler of the San Francisco Examiner, Padilla was found to be in violation of the school’s sexual misconduct policy in 2015 after fellow USF student Julia Casciano accused him of forcing himself onto her “while requesting sex and groping her inside a dormitory room.”
Padilla remained on the Dons soccer team amid the school’s ruling. He was given probation and a deferred suspension, while attending mandated counseling and a no-contact order that forbade either him or Casciano from having any contact with each other.
Casciano appealed the initial sanctions, requesting that he be expelled from the university and accusing him of violating the no-contact order by having a third party approach her on his behalf.
Per Desai and Vrentas, former USF athletic director Scott Sidwell “continued to allow [Padilla] to be featured and promoted in their media” despite knowing the university had found him responsible for sexual misconduct.
Sidwell remained at San Francisco through the end of the 2018-19 basketball season before resigning to accept a position at Penn State’s athletic department.
New Mexico United eventually released Padilla on July 25, 2020, after the 2015 case came to light.
In response to requests from Desai and Vrentas for interviews with current and former administrators, a university spokesperson provided the following statement as part of a 15-page response to questions from the two reporters:
“USF takes all allegations of sexual assault very seriously, including the deeply troubling stories shared by survivors. We thank the individuals who have courageously come forward and shared information with USF’s Title IX team and with the independent investigators. We also understand and respect the decision of those who opt not to share their stories with investigators.”
Desai and Vrentas noted that “sentiment was repeated frequently throughout” the spokesperson’s replies, though “there was also a note of defiance” as the reply pointed to the school’s investigation findings that “the number of sexual misconduct incidents within the men’s soccer program over a decade does not represent a pervasive culture.”
The University of San Francisco hired Katrina Garry as its new deputy Title IX coordinator in April.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
