‘These are cries for help;’ Players allege Idaho women’s volleyball coach Chris Gonzalez regularly bullied them
It was the first time Chris Gonzalez left the women volleyball players he was coaching at the University of Idaho speechless.
It wouldn’t be the last time.
Gonzalez, hired only weeks earlier, was frustrated and then enraged with how a drill was proceeding in a practice in the spring of 2022, according to five people familiar with the incident. Finally, Gonzalez kicked a player out of the drill and took her place. When the drill still didn’t go as Gonzalez expected, he shoved a player over, knocking her to the ground, according to five people.
“He physically pushed a player,” said Travel Morris, an Idaho middle blocker who participated in the drill. “Like physically in a very, bullying way, he literally told her to move and then pushed her and she fell to the floor.
“He said, ‘Move!’ and just pushed her, like completely just pushed her over,” Morris said. “He pushed her quite aggressively.
“Everybody looked confused. As soon as it happened, everybody on the court looked at each other like, ‘Did he really just do that?’ We all just froze.”
The incident is part of a pattern of alleged abuse by Gonzalez, a former U.S. national team coach, outlined to the Southern California News Group by six Idaho players on the 2023 roster, three former players, and a university employee, who allege Gonzalez physically abused and bullied players, pressured injured players to play and train against the orders of the school’s sports medicine staff, regularly deprived players of food on road trips, body shamed players, made racially insensitive and inappropriate comments to players, and pressured sports medicine staff to share confidential information about players’ weight.
In interviews, letters, emails, formal complaints, confidential university documents and voice recordings of Gonzalez, athletic director Terry Gawlik, and other athletic department and university administration officials, the players offered multiple allegations against Gonzalez, a longtime fixture on the Southern California volleyball scene and once considered one of the college game’s rising coaching stars.
Among them, they say he has created an environment where he targets specific players for almost daily bullying and even physical abuse. They added that players suffered dozens of avoidable injuries from overtraining or because he ignored the instructions of doctors, trainers and a sports biomechanics expert. They also say he withheld food from the team to the point where all nine current and former players said they were constantly hungry and routinely played and practiced while feeling light-headed or dizzy, suffered tunnel vision, and often felt that they were on the verge of passing out or blacking out.
“Through many abusive behaviors, Coach Gonzales and his staff perpetuate a culture of harassment, bullying, and belittling,” a current Idaho starter wrote on behalf of her teammates in a formal complaint to the university obtained by SCNG.
Interviews, emails, letters, confidential university documents and recordings also show that players, their parents, and at least three university employees have repeatedly complained or raised concerns about Gonazelez’s coaching methods and alleged abusive behavior to Gawlik, university administration officials and the school’s Office of Civil Rights and Investigations. At least 13 players have complained to Gawlik or other university officials, according to player interviews, formal complaints and confidential university documents. Those complaints have routinely been ignored and dismissed by Gawlik and other university officials, all nine players allege.
Players “don’t feel safe playing for (Gonzalez) anymore” a starter told Gawlik, Chris Walsh, the senior associate athletic director for internal administration and wellness, and Blaine Eckles, the university’s dean of students, during an October meeting, according to a recording of the meeting.
“This is a pattern that isn’t something new,” said Marissa Drange, an outside hitter on the 2022 Idaho team.
It is a pattern that players coached by Gonzalez at other universities allege in interviews with SCNG and letters to Idaho officials, that extends back more than 20 years covering the majority if not the entirety of his college coaching career.
“Complaints levied against Christopher Gonzalez should not be dismissed as pouting or tempestuous outbursts thrown by teenagers and young adults, or overbearing, dissatisfied parents,” Chelsey R. Mason, who played for Gonzalez at Iowa, where she was a Big Ten All-Academic selection, wrote in a November 30, 2022, letter to Gawlik. “These are evidence of unprofessional, abusive, manipulative practices that have spanned Gonzalez’s career. These are illustrations of Christopher Gonzalez’s character.
“These are cries for help.”
Current and former Idaho players said they are especially frustrated by what they described as Gawlik’s refusal to take their concerns seriously and her seemingly unwavering defense of Gonzalez.
Gawlik “just wants to turn a blind eye to everything,” said Drange, who transferred to Trinity University in Texas after the 2022 season. “She doesn’t want to admit she made a bad hire.”
“Terry, she doesn’t care,” Morris said.
SCNG asked Gawlik for a response to the allegations against Gonzalez and statements by Idaho players that she and other university officials have been dismissive of the players’ complaints and concerns and have not take effective action against the coach.
“As a general practice, the U of I takes every allegation seriously, investigates them, and responds as soon as possible,” Gawlik wrote in an email to SCNG. She had no further response.
University documents and interviews, however, show that Gawlik and other university officials have not replied to complaints by athletes in a timely manner, if at all.
Morris and Drange were two of eight players, including five starters, who signed a “grievance list” against Gonzalez after the 2022 season that they sent to Gawlik. The document detailed allegations of “nutrition issues,” “disregard for (player) safety,” “mental abuse,” and that Gonzalez relied on “fear & intimidation” to coach the team.
Drange was one of three players who asked to meet with Gawlik after the 2022 season. She refused to meet with the players as a group but met with some of them individually, according to eight current and former players.
“It took a lot of courage to come forward and, yeah, she just turned a blind eye,” Drange said of Gawlik, who in July was appointed to the NCAA Division I council, which is responsible for the day-to-day decision-making for Division I athletic programs.
“It was a gut punch. We felt like we weren’t being heard.
“She’s supposed to look out for female athletes and she was completely dismissive of what we had to say.”
During the 2023 season this past fall, a group of Idaho players submitted an eight-page complaint to university officials detailing more than 80 examples of “verbal/emotional abuse, physical abuse, intimidation and harassment.”
Gawlik, Walsh and Eckles, the university’s dean of students, met with three players on Oct. 30. Gawlik agreed to meet the players, according to an email she wrote to the athletes after she “was contacted by campus OCRI today and they mentioned some Volleyball Athletes spoke with them on some concerns,” although the players had asked to meet days earlier.
The players outlined their allegations, how Gonzalez had been dismissive during a recent meeting with team captains about their concerns, and how it was “terrifying” to talk to him, according to a recording of the Oct. 30 meeting.
“I know what’s going on,” Walsh told the players during the Oct 30 meeting. “We’re aware of some of the rough waters you guys have been in.”
But Eckles also told the players, “we’re not looking to get into the details of the whole allegations” citing a desire to keep any potential investigation “pristine.”
Eckles sent the players an email after the meeting later that day. “As a follow-up to our visit, I wanted to communicate a few take-aways from our visit,” Eckles wrote. “1. Your concerns are important and are heard. I want to assure you that they are and will be looked into for appropriate follow-up. 2. If you would like, I am happy to visit with the entire team (if you think that would be helpful) to reassure that retaliation is not appropriate.”
A case manager met with Idaho players Nov. 8, telling them she would follow up in the coming weeks but then did not contact the athletes again.
“She failed to get back to us,” a starter said. “It was a dead end. She talked to us and then we never heard from anybody.”
The players also said neither Eckles, Gawlick or Walsh followed up with them after the meeting. Walsh did travel with the team on a late-season road trip that Gonzalez missed because of a medical issue.
“Nobody got back to us,” a player said.
An Idaho player also reached out on behalf of the team to the university’s Office of Civil Rights and Investigation. On Oct. 24, Trent Taylor, an investigator for the office, confirmed in an email that the office had received the complaint and offered the athlete the opportunity to meet. A week later, on Oct. 31, Taylor emailed the player that an outside law firm, Thompson & Horton, LLP, would be investigating the allegations raised in the players’ complaint.
Yet an attorney for the firm didn’t meet with players until Dec. 13, nearly two months after Taylor first contacted the player. The attorney told the players during the meeting that the firm’s investigation would take at least 60 to 90 days to complete.
Although Eckles in the Oct. 30 meeting referred to “knowing that your season having just ended,” the Vandals still had five matches remaining.
Between Oct. 24, when Taylor first contacted the player, and the end of the season on Nov. 17, Gonzalez’s bullying “only got worse,” said a starter, a statement that five other players concurred with.
The combination of Gonzalez’s alleged daily abuse and bullying, and Gawlick and the university’s alleged indifference to their physical and mental safety, players said, has created an environment that led to the Vandals’ 1-27 2023 season and has created widespread depression among team members, where players feel increasingly isolated, and has seen a season-long uptick in player references to suicide at practices, on road trips and away from the court.
“A constant,” said Emma Patterson, a current Idaho middle blocker.
“People not wanting to go out, staying in their room all day, not wanting to cook food, not wanting to go to class, not wanting to engage with anyone or anything,” she continued. “Pretty scary, really scary.”
For the full story visit: www.ocregister.com