Coaches play important and influential roles in the lives of children and young adults. Like doctors and priests, coaches exert power and control in our lives. Athletes spend their early years taking direction from coaches without question. They are taught that they need to conform and not to disrupt the team that has become their second family. This power dynamic makes young athletes vulnerable to grooming techniques often employed by abusers to create trust and secrecy.

In just the last decade, we have seen several instances of coaching abuse at all ages and levels of sport. For example, the Penn State child sex abuse scandal resulted in the 2012 conviction of Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State football team. Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, which resulted in a minimum 30-year sentence. The first alleged instance of his misconduct was in 1998.

More recently, brave athletes stepped forward to reveal sexual abuse by Larry Nassar at Michigan State University and Richard Strauss at Ohio State University. Nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting several hundred gymnasts and other female athletes as far back as 1992. Strauss, employed by Ohio State University’s Athletics Department, has been accused of abusing at least 177 male student-patients, including numerous male wrestlers.

Sadly, the pattern has shown that, all too often, it takes multiple complaints and multiple acts of misconduct before charges are brought against sexual predators. With the #MeToo movement, we hope this will change.

The attorneys at Sommers Schwartz have experience holding sexually abusive coaches and their employers accountable for their wrongdoing. Please contact us so we can obtain justice for you.