Then-coach Christy Holly Forced sexual intercourse on player

• Christy Holley forced a player to have sex when she was an NWSL coach, according to a new report.
• An independent investigation details Holly’s inappropriate behavior toward Louisville Rush linebacker Erin Simon.
• Holly allegedly groped Simon during filming sessions, sent unwanted sexts and forced her to touch his penis.

A former National Women’s Soccer League coach forced unwanted sex on one of his players during his time at the front of the bench, an independent investigation into “systemic abuse” in the NWSL revealed Monday.

The year-long investigation – commissioned by US Soccer and led by former United States Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates – found that former Racing Louisville FC coach Christy Holly initiated and continued a campaign of pressure to have a one-sided sexual relationship with Erin Simon. defender for the club. When Simone took steps to distance herself from Holly, she retaliated with verbal and emotional abuse that was noticed by others around the franchise.

Simon claims Holly spammed her with sexually explicit text messages, hit Simon during film sessions on the club’s premises and — at least once — masturbated in her presence without her consent and then forced her to touch his penis. . Corroborating evidence from several witnesses in and around the club seemingly corroborates Simon’s claims.

Racing Louisville FC management fired Holly “for cause” in 2021 after his behavior toward Simon came to light within the organization. However, the club did not release any further information about the nature of their inaugural coach’s wrongdoing, with the Executive Vice President at the time saying, “I’ll take the lawyer’s line” rather than voluntarily divulge details.

Holley was one of three NWSL coaches who were the main subjects of Yates’ report. Paul Riley — the Portland Thorns coach who later took over the North Carolina Courage — was accused of luring players into his bed and forcing them to kiss each other, among other forms of misconduct. Longtime Chicago Red Stars manager Rory Dames has been accused of verbal and emotional abuse, as well as inappropriate relationships with players.

None of the three aforementioned individuals are still licensed to coach in the United States, U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone confirmed after the investigation’s findings were released Monday afternoon. But Yates stressed in her report that “Riley, Dames and Holly are not the only coaches who abused players.”

“By the end of the 2021 season, five of the League’s 10 teams had parted ways with their managers following player complaints,” the 319-page document says. “In many cases, some of the misconduct in question was not behind closed doors – it was on the sidelines at games, filmed at training sessions and, in some cases, already the subject of public reports.”

The culture of abuse in the NWSL is so pervasive, in fact, that Yates told Insider she couldn’t look into other coaches or officials who are credibly accused of misconduct because it was “important that this investigation not go on forever.”

“We put enough into the report and did enough research to be able to demonstrate the systemic nature of the abuse here,” Yates said. “It’s been almost a year since the day we were detained. And in order for there to be transparency and accountability and for us to be able to implement the changes that need to happen, this investigation had to end.

“Because of the scope and the difficulty of collecting evidence that is old enough, even in relation to three of these coaches, it was a huge undertaking,” he added.

A separate joint investigation between the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association remains ongoing.