To put together herself for basketball observe, Marta Galic mentioned, she spent quite a lot of time in the lavatory. She would splash chilly water on her face, observe the Superman pose in the mirror and ensure to empty her bladder. “Practices felt like entering a war zone,” she mentioned.
Her frequent lavatory journeys began after one notably damaging observe throughout her freshman 12 months at the University of San Francisco (USF).
The group was doing a difficult and repetitive layup drill. “People were collapsing on the floor,” Galic mentioned. And she had to make use of the restroom. Galic mentioned she requested her coach, Molly Goodenbour, if she may step off the court docket 3 times with rising urgency, however that Goodenbour and an assistant coach advised her to finish the drill first. Eventually, she misplaced management of her bladder.
“My jersey, my pants … everything was visibly wet,” she mentioned.
Galic mentioned that she approached her coach once more, asking to go to the restroom to wash herself up, and that Goodenbour refused.
Marta Galic’s twin sister, Marija Galic, remembers that day vividly too, though Goodenbour would later say that she wasn’t conscious of the incident when it occurred and that gamers are allowed to go away the court docket to make use of the restroom.
It had been Marta and Marija Galic’s dream to play college ball in the U.S., however not lengthy after their arrival at the Bay Area college, they are saying their love of the sport was overshadowed by the psychological challenges of a contentious relationship with their coach.
Researchers have discovered that athletes expertise emotional abuse — a poisonous sample of verbal assaults, manipulation and/or controlling actions — greater than some other type of hurt. Yet, whereas colleges and sports organizations have clear protocols for bodily and sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment usually falls by means of the coverage cracks.
Among the dozens of athletes interviewed for this investigation, few achieved the accountability they sought. Marta and Marija’s story reveals the lasting marks of psychological trauma, but it surely additionally factors to a attainable path ahead for others navigating a system that has lengthy failed to reply.
Sold on a dream
In their household, fraternal twin sisters Marija and Marta are seen as “the yin and the yang” — Marta the analytical one and Marija the artistic one. Basketball — which they grew up enjoying on native courts in their hometown of Zagreb, Croatia — was their shared love.
As youngsters, they performed for the U20 (below age 20) Croatian nationwide group, and U.S. schools took discover, together with coach Molly Goodenbour from USF, whom Marta remembers assembly following a European championship recreation.
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USA TODAY Sports through Reuters
Goodenbour visited Croatia a number of occasions when she was recruiting Marija and Marta. According to Marta, they confirmed her round their hometown, bringing her to a seafood restaurant in the middle of the metropolis. They ventured to a mountain on the fringe of Zagreb, having fun with the surroundings and sharing conventional Croatian meals in a country, cabin-like restaurant. Marta mentioned in addition they hung out working by means of drills in an area gymnasium.
Over dinner in the household’s backyard one evening, Goodenbour advised the twins’ mom that her daughters could be in good arms at USF. “That was the decisive moment for my wife,” their father, Kristijan Galic, mentioned. “Everybody saw it in her face.” Marta and Marija additionally keep in mind this second.
And USF provided one other profit: Marta and Marija may attend collectively. Goodenbour had provided every a full journey for 5 years. That meant, in addition to the college protecting their schooling, Marta and Marija would have 5 years to play 4 seasons of Division I basketball.
Marta mentioned she was enthusiastic about enjoying in the U.S., if a bit nervous. The likelihood to play together with her sister for a coach that they had each constructed robust relationships with gave every the confidence that they had been selecting the proper college.
“ It seemed great, and there were just no signs that things were gonna go a completely different way,” Marta mentioned.
Freshman 12 months in San Francisco
USF is a non-public, Jesuit college. Its ladies’s basketball program competes in Division 1 of the NCAA, the highest degree of U.S. college sports. Marta, a guard, and Marija, a ahead, stand at 6 ‘0″. When they arrived in 2018, most of their teammates had been additionally freshmen and worldwide college students. It was Goodenbour’s third season as head coach.
Almost instantly, the twins mentioned, coach Goodenbour’s method in direction of them started to shift.
They mentioned they had been used to strict coaches, however this was completely different. Marta would later testify that Goodenbour referred to as her “lazy,” “worthless,” and a “piece of shit,” amongst different names.
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ZUMA Press through Reuters
Leilah Herrera, a participant who left the USF group in 2021, mentioned in a deposition video that the insults would fly each observe.
Herrera, who’s African American and Puerto Rican, additionally mentioned that then-associate coach Janell Jones made racially insensitive feedback towards her. Jones has not responded to requests for remark.
Molly Goodenbour has declined repeated requests for an interview. She argued in authorized filings that her feedback to the twins had been “solely about their basketball performance” and never private. She mentioned in trial testimony that she advised gamers their efficiency was lazy and referred to as them out once they stop in drills, however that she by no means referred to as them names.
When she was requested about the incident when Marta urinated on herself, Goodenbour mentioned that she felt actually dangerous that this could occur to one among her gamers.
Goodenbour arrived at USF in September 2016, taking on midseason from her former Stanford University teammate, Jennifer Azzi. Azzi’s group had made it to the first spherical of March Madness the season prior. But below Goodenbour, the group struggled to construct on this success, logging solely barely extra wins than losses in her first two seasons.
By the finish of her third season — Marta and Marija’s freshman 12 months — the group’s report was 7-24. Goodenbour’s lawyer later referred to this 12 months as being “very difficult and stressful” for the coach.
It was additionally tough for Marija and Marta.
“You’re fighting, you’re giving your best, you’re literally collapsing on the ground,” Marta mentioned. “And at the same time, you have someone hovering over your head saying, ‘You’re a f***ing idiot.’ It was miserable.”
Freshman 12 months efficiency opinions
At the finish of their freshman season, Marta and Marija walked into their efficiency opinions, every utilizing their cellphone to secretly report their assembly with Goodenbour and affiliate coach Jones.
Marta mentioned she was nervous that day and remembers her palms sweating. “ I felt confined in that room,” she mentioned. In the recording Marta manufactured from the assembly, Goodenbour tells Marta: “The next time you quit on something, I take your scholarship from you.”
The NCAA doesn’t enable a coach to remove a student-athlete’s scholarship for poor efficiency or damage. Marta mentioned she did not know that.
Marija’s assembly was just like her sister’s. In the recording Marija made, Goodenbour might be heard telling Marija that her teammates do not wish to be paired up together with her in drills, asking, “How do you deal with that? How do you look at yourself and say nobody wants me on their team?”
Marija and Marta filed a lawsuit in opposition to Goodenbour and USF in 2021, alleging that their coach was responsible for intentional infliction of emotional misery, that means that she supposed to harm them or had acted with reckless disregard for his or her well-being. The lawsuit additionally alleged that Goodenbour and USF had been negligent, that means the college and the teaching workers had an obligation to take care of the twins and had failed to take action.
Marija struggled together with her psychological well being all through her time at USF. “Suddenly I started getting these panic attacks. I’m having violent nightmares. I’m so depressed,” she recalled. These sorts of struggles had been a brand new expertise for her: “I never thought I was that kind of person, and nobody really prepares you for that.”
Her racing, anxious ideas received worse when she was round Goodenbour. Marija suffered two psychological well being crises — one throughout her sophomore 12 months, the different throughout her junior 12 months — in response to the authorized grievance.
“I was crying myself to sleep every night, and I would dread waking up in the morning,” Marija mentioned. She recalled that there have been occasions she wished she had been injured so she may keep away from practices.
A psychiatrist, who served as an knowledgeable witness for the twins in the trial, examined them and decided that that they had developed “physiological and psychological responses to the trauma,” together with Marta’s frequent journeys to the lavatory, in addition to “depressive symptoms,” together with Marija’s suicidal ideation. While the twins had comparable diagnoses, the psychiatrist discovered that Marta’s long-term prognosis was higher than her sister’s.
The report concluded: “Marija and Marta Galic’s psychiatric illness was caused by Coach Goodenbour’s treatment on the USF Women’s Basketball Team.”
Limits to accountability
If a student-athlete alleges emotional abuse, there are a number of individuals and establishments they’ll report it to: a trusted assistant coach or coach, athletic division management, a professor affiliated with their group, a campus Title IX workplace, college management.
And they’ve a spread of choices past their college, together with their sport’s nationwide governing physique (for instance USA Basketball), the NCAA and SafeSport, a company that investigates allegations of abuse in sports.
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Getty Images
But student-athletes face limits in their seek for accountability.
The NCAA doesn’t have an emotional abuse coverage to cowl the 550,000 student-athletes who compete every year. An NCAA consultant mentioned that colleges have major accountability for student-athletes’ security. The NCAA declined a number of requests for an interview and as an alternative pointed to its mental health best practices webpage.
SafeSport, which Congress created following the exposure of Larry Nassar’s abuse, for the most half doesn’t examine emotional and bodily misconduct allegations. Instead, it routes these allegations to nationwide governing our bodies, organizations which will lack sources or coaching to completely examine. Marta mentioned she had by no means heard of SafeSport.
During their time at USF, Marija and Marta reported their coach’s conduct to college workers: an assistant coach, athletic trainers, a college psychologist and athletic division management. So did their father. He despatched a number of involved emails about his daughters’ remedy to Joan McDermott, USF’s athletic director at the time.
USF investigated Marija’s claims that Goodenbour had been bullying her. Then-assistant vp of human sources, Diane Nelson (now affiliate VP), led that investigation, interviewing solely Marija, Goodenbour and Jones. Goodenbour mentioned in a deposition that in her interview, Nelson didn’t make her conscious of any bullying allegations. “She simply had me describe my practices,” Goodenbour mentioned.
Nelson closed the investigation in December 2019, concluding that Goodenbour had not damaged any USF insurance policies.
Nelson didn’t reply to requests for remark. In a February assertion, USF wrote, “While we acknowledge the seriousness of the issue, we dispute the allegations.”
Sports legal professional Martin Greenberg — who has represented student-athletes in two dozen comparable instances — mentioned that the finest observe for an investigation right into a student-athlete’s allegation of abuse is for the college to rent an exterior, unbiased investigator. Greenberg pointed to an inherent battle of curiosity when universities examine their very own workers.
No single unbiased, resourced establishment has the authority to deal with and examine emotional abuse allegations in opposition to college coaches — and so specialists say accountability might be elusive.
A symptom of this patchwork system is that coaches who’re pushed out of 1 program can generally simply transfer to a different.
Goodenbour was accused of comparable conduct at earlier packages, together with at California State University, Chico and at the University of California, Irvine. At Irvine, she obtained a suspension in 2012 in an e mail from the athletic director, who famous that her “insensitive and abusive remarks” in direction of gamers was a sample.
The Chico State allegations had been lined by the Chico Enterprise-Record, which reported in 2006 that gamers accused Goodenbour of degrading them and directing obscenities at them. The outlet additionally reported that the college’s investigation discovered no wrongdoing, and that Goodenbour mentioned her teaching fashion required “a period of adjustment for all players.”
When the USF hiring committee interviewed Goodenbour for the head coach place, its members didn’t ask about allegations of abusive conduct. Joan McDermott, the former athletic director at USF and a member of that committee, mentioned in a deposition that this was as a result of these questions had not been requested of different candidates.
McDermott mentioned that Chico State’s athletic director advised her Goodenbour was a superb and stern coach. The hiring committee doesn’t seem to have contacted UC Irvine.
Former USF head coach, Azzi introduced her resignation on September 15, 2016. USF provided Goodenbour the place lower than two weeks later, on September 27.
The verdict
The twins’ lawyer, Randy Gaw, mentioned the energy dynamic between a student-athlete and their coach was a key issue in his authorized argument.
“If a random person off the street said the things or did the things to Marta and Marija, there would be no case because that person has no relationship, no power over them,” he mentioned.
“You can’t just sue for random conduct like that. It’s not expected to have an impact on you. But Ms. Goodenbour was a surrogate parent in many ways.”
The trial went on for 10 days and on the eleventh day, in July of 2023, the jury reached a verdict.
The determination was break up.
In order to show intentional infliction of emotional misery, the twins needed to present that Goodenbour’s conduct was outrageous and that that they had every suffered extreme emotional misery because of it.
On this primary level, the jury dominated in favor of each Marta and Marija, discovering that Goodenbour had both supposed to trigger the twins hurt or had acted with reckless disregard for his or her well-being.
But it discovered that Goodenbour’s actions had solely precipitated Marija extreme emotional misery.
It additionally discovered Goodenbour and USF grossly negligent towards Marija and awarded her $250,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.
Gaw mentioned he remembers Marija’s pleasure when the verdict was learn, “She felt validated,” he mentioned. “She told her story and a group of impartial people decided that ‘Yes, what happened to you was wrong. You were not overly sensitive.'”
USF filed a movement to override the jury’s determination, and a choose agreed, rescinding Marija’s punitive damages monetary award — however Marija appealed. And, final summer season, a panel of appellate judges restored her award to the full quantity.
That similar panel additionally granted a re-trial in Marta’s case after Gaw argued that vital proof was tossed out that might have affected the jury’s determination, together with allegations that Goodenbour was emotionally abusive in earlier packages.
Marta reached a settlement with USF and Goodenbour final month.
USF wrote in a latest assertion to NPR, “We respect the legal process and the outcome of the settlement. While we disagree on several issues, we do not disagree on the importance and priority of the well-being of our student-athletes and everyone in the university community.”
Goodenbour and now-associate head coach Jones are nonetheless teaching at USF. Last spring, the college renewed Goodenbour’s contract by means of the 2028 season. In its February assertion, USF wrote, “We continue to stand by the coaches and staff of the women’s basketball program.”
Beyond USF
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USA TODAY Sports through Reuters
The twins’ paths had already begun to diverge once they had been at USF.
After Marija’s second go to to the campus counseling middle her junior 12 months, she didn’t return to the group. She graduated the subsequent 12 months, in 2022, with a level in structure.
Today she lives in New York City, the place she not too long ago earned an MFA in inside design. She mentioned she will be able to’t deliver herself to choose up a basketball anymore.
“I want people to know that it’s not just the time you spend there with the coach,” she mentioned, “It’s so many more years after that, and your life changes completely.”
Marta graduated from USF in three years, summa cum laude with a level in finance.
“I came here to play basketball. I came here all the way to get this education. I didn’t want to quit. I didn’t want to prove her right,” she mentioned, referring to Goodenbour. When she graduated from USF, Marta transferred her eligibility to Tulane University in Louisiana, the place she performed for coach Lisa Stockton whereas getting her MBA.
Stockton coached at Tulane for 30 years. Her groups appeared in postseason tournaments 21 occasions. She was inducted into the Conference USA Hall of Fame in 2023.
“There’s a difference between challenging someone and pushing them to be successful and being hard on them and being unfair,” Stockton mentioned in a cellphone interview. “And I think you’ve got to know the difference.”
Stockton retired in 2024. She mentioned that the majority working coaches would doubtless be hesitant to talk out about the complexities of college teaching.
“Right now it’s a really tough time to be a coach,” she mentioned. “It’s really hard to do this job, where you’re pushing people beyond what they think their limits are and you’re trying to make them better.”
NCAA athletes have been gaining energy — some earn earnings for his or her play. Others have amassed giant social media followings and outstanding model offers. And they’ll switch to new colleges comparatively simply. Stockton mentioned this may have an effect on group tradition and the relationship between an athlete and their coach. “It’s a power dynamic that’s really changed,” she mentioned, noting that this shift has made teaching harder.
Under coach Stockton, Marta rediscovered her pleasure for the sport and emerged as a group chief, serving as a captain. In her second season, she began in all 32 video games, main the group in three-pointers.
“It was night and day,” she mentioned. “Tulane really showed me what big of a difference it makes to have great people around you.”
Marta mentioned her sister watched all of her Tulane video games from San Francisco, as she completed her closing 12 months at USF. For Marija, it was like seeing a model of herself out on the court docket, nonetheless in a position to take pleasure in enjoying the recreation that had required a lot private sacrifice.
This story was reported with assist from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and the Mental Health Parity Collaborative.
The Mental Health Parity Collaborative is a bunch of newsrooms which might be protecting tales on psychological well being care entry and inequities in the United States. The companions on this mission embody the Carter Center and newsrooms in choose states throughout the nation.
If you’ve a narrative to share about emotional abuse in a college athletic program, you possibly can attain reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos at [email protected].
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