Former University of California-San Diego males’s rowing coach Geoff Bond faces accusations of directing verbal abuse to athletes with a minimum of one household saying their youngster died by suicide due to it.
Brian Lilly Jr., who was on the squad from 2019-2021, was 19 on the time when he died by suicide. His dad and mom and his good friend Parker Kinney advised the Associated Press in a narrative revealed Wednesday they believed it was the consequence from Bond’s alleged verbal abuse.
“This guy basically squashed Brian’s self-esteem, his threat to push Brian off the team. And I don’t need to have a sports psychologist in here to tell me how damaging that was,” Brian Lilly Sr. mentioned.
Brenda and Brian Lilly Sr. filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in opposition to Bond and the varsity, alleging the coach mistreated their son as a result of he challenged the coach’s choice to permit a rower to stay on the workforce regardless of allegations of sexual misconduct in opposition to the athlete. Brian’s dad and mom imagine Bond verbally abused their son, and it led to his January 2021 suicide.
“I felt like they were trying to sweep the whole sexual assault allegations under the rug and a decent amount of kids had legitimate concerns about this, being like, ‘This is pretty messed up,’” Kinney advised the AP. “A lot of kids didn’t speak out about it. Brian did speak out about it, so Geoff retaliated against him. Brian’s main concern was that this would harm the integrity of the team, which I agreed with.”
Bond’s protection workforce filed a movement to dismiss the Lillys’ case, saying the coach hadn’t seen Brian Lilly Jr. for 9 months previous to his dying and the coach reached out through the pandemic lockdown interval to see whether or not the rower would return to highschool in San Diego from the East Coast the place he had been dwelling.
Gary Champagne, who rowed for Bond at Cal as a freshman in 2002-03, defended the coach.
“I absolutely loved his style of coaching and feel it is a great fit for young college kids,” Champagne advised the AP.
The Lillys say their son by no means had a historical past of psychological sickness earlier than rowing on the faculty.
UC San Diego declined to remark to the AP, citing pending litigation. Bond departed the varsity on Jan. 13.
f you’re scuffling with suicidal ideas or are experiencing a psychological well being disaster and dwell in New York City, you’ll be able to name 1-888-NYC-WELL totally free and confidential disaster counseling. If you reside outdoors the 5 boroughs, you’ll be able to dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
