Your Stories
When you tell your story
you become a voice for change
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: 10th grade
Sport Played: Basketball
Your Story: I had a coach throw her keys at me when I didn’t like how I was playing in practice. She then cornered me in the empty locker room with the captain of our team, who was 2 years older, screaming and swearing at me that I was an “f—-ing cry baby!”
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: Junior
Sport Played: Basketball
Your Story: He told me I was nothing. He said I was dumb — I’m not going to go anywhere in life. He’d use words that degrade LBTQ and us as girls with obscenities in practices and games. He personally called me a whore.
Gender: Male
Grade Level of Event: Varsity
Sport Played: Football
Your Story: The coach rode my classmates hard, but the upperclassman seemed unphased by it. Coach berated one player and then belittled him in front of the team for the entire two-hour practice because he came in last in a relay. He never came back to the team, others soon followed. I worried I would be next.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: 12 years of my childhood
Sport Played: gymnastics
Your Story: i was always skinny. my coach would find anything to tear me apart. she told me i looked anorexic, and that my body embarrassed her. constantly comparing me to the way my teammates looks and would make sure i hated everything about myself. she downloaded a weight watching app on my phone at age 11.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: Sophomore
Sport Played: Cross Country/Track
Your Story: I told my coach I was going into treatment for anorexia and had to leave the team. After treatment she agreed to let me do less mileage. At a meet the next season I didn’t do very well and at the finish line she yelled at me saying I needed to run more and eat healthier if I wanted to be fast.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: 8th
Sport Played: Soccer
Your Story: I was playing select soccer for a well known and “renowned” male coach. He coached boys high school and recently started coaching girls. He was beyond demeaning and used belittling language towards all of us as motivation. He coached with fear and the sport was no longer a safe place for me.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: College Division 1
Sport Played: Volleyball
Your Story: I was abused by my volleyball coach. I witness him bully and abuse select teammates. He also had an inappropriate relationship with one of the girls on the team which made everyone else extremely uncomfortable. I was exploited and teased in front of the team. He would be talk negatively about other people in power ahead of him and would act fake in front of them.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: Club level
Sport Played: Gymnastics
Your Story: My coach made us terrified of her and she had a scary temper. If you made any mistakes, it wasn’t a matter of technique, it was because you were stupid, lazy, or fat according to her. I developed an eating disorder and my hair fell out and I had no energy. She always made us train and compete on injuries against doctors orders. I haven’t had her as a coach for 8 years now and I’m still recovering.
Gender: Male
Grade Level of Event: Freshman in College Division 1
Sport Played: Football
Your Story: The abuse started slow and some early things I could shake off or convince myself it’s college football, then abuse became more blatant. How can an offensive lineman be abused? The Coach would spit and hit me over the head repeatedly, kick me when I was on the ground after a bad block and run the stairs of the stadium without water breaks. It even got to the point that this man would hit me from behind and knock me on the ground calling me names. I did a 1v1, no matter who won or lost, he would call me a loser, the most worthless player he has ever seen. The thing about this abuse is that I began to believe that this was all true and stopped caring. It drove me to do things that are unspeakable and made me believe that I should never play football again. I have the lasting effects from the horrible abuse suffered at the hands of this Coach. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety disorder, lifelong scars. As I start the healing journey I realized that football is important to me and have found a new home to play college football. I still have panic attacks doing 1v1 but the new Coaches understand my trauma and are willing to help me to be a better player. This has been a long journey to healing and I am still healing. I will not let this Coach define me. I will be the only one who defines me.
Gender: Female
Grade Level of Event: College – division II
Sport Played: Volleyball
Your Story: had doctors orders for no physical activity because I had 4 stress fractures in my back.. my coach made me speed walk 4 football field suicides knowing I wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity at all as a punishment all because two people didn’t reply to an email she sent.. she also didn’t have our university’s athletic trainer there because our coach was certified which allowed her to abuse her power over injured players bc we had no one to advocate for us.
Gender: Nonbinary
Grade Level of Event: Club (around 12/13)
Sport Played: Club (around 12/13)
Your Story: i have always been self-conscious, and unfortunately this particular coach’s technique was yelling and getting incredibly mad at his players. he always singled me out and refused to engage in small talk with me outside of practice like he did with my other teammates. i still don’t really remember any particular instances of things he said, which was like because it was traumatic and my brain was protecting me. i don’t play sports anymore.