USF Baseball Coaches Created Wildly Sexualized Culture: Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO — Three University of San Francisco baseball players are suing the university, the NCAA and two coaches, alleging a long-standing history of abuse by the coaches, including one instance last year in which the players said a coach dropped his pants and gyrated his hips to spin his genitals.

The class-action lawsuit accused the NCAA of facilitating the coaches’ behavior by failing to implement rules or imposing sanctions that would require member schools to take steps to prevent coach abuse and force school administrators to pay attention to complaints. It was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The University of San Francisco called the allegations "extremely concerning" and said they are "in direct opposition to USF's core values."

"We condemn the abusive and degrading behavior described in the lawsuit," the university told Patch in an email. "We are committed to our current and former student athletes, and we are committed to determining the facts in the case."

The university added that it will issue a more detailed response after it can thoroughly review the lawsuit.

The NCAA told Patch it has no comment.

Patch reached out to the coaches named in the lawsuit and will update when we hear back.

Players Describe An 'Intolerable Sexualized Environment'

The University of San Francisco, a Jesuit university, employed two baseball coaches for more than two decades despite knowing the coaches created an "intolerable sexualized environment" within the university's baseball team, the lawsuit said. This includes "persistent psychological abuse and repeated inappropriate sexual conduct."

"For 22 years and counting, Head Coach Nino Giarratano and Assistant Coach Troy Nakamura have wielded their power to psychologically abuse their players, destroying their spirits to the point where multiple players have become suicidal," the lawsuit alleged.

The players said the coaches created a culture where it was commonplace to see Nakamura, or "Coach Naks," naked on the field or in a window, swinging his genitals in a helicopter fashion as the team watched. In another instance in November, the players said Nakamura pretended to be at a buffet and had a player do a handstand. He then grabbed the player’s legs, split them open, and "pretended to eat spaghetti out of the player’s genital region," the players said.

A week or two later, Nakamura performed a skit in which he crawled out of the dugout completely naked on all fours, the lawsuit said. He then proceeded to move to a kneeling position in front of the players and swung his genitals around, according to the lawsuit.

"Plaintiffs and some other players looked away in disbelief, embarrassment, and disgust," the lawsuit said.

On a third occasion, a naked Nakamura stood on a table and swung his genitals in a helicopter motion and yelled “Hey [player’s name]," as the player fielded ground balls after practice.

“These are impressionable young men who tried to look up to their coaches as mentors and role models,” Elizabeth Fegan, founding partner of FeganScott and one of the attorneys representing the students, said in a statement.

Nakamura was also known to walk naked in front of players in hotel rooms, as well as participating in and encouraging a culture of extremely sexualized banter, according to the lawsuit. This included listing women's body parts or fluids he wanted to eat or drink, making sexual comments about women on campus, and miming sex acts before practice — an apparent attempt at relaxing the student-athletes — the suit said.

Fegan told Patch in a statement that it "isn’t right that it took a group of very courageous student-athletes to step up and tell their story to make their lives safer."

"When will the NCAA implement proper oversight so that students don’t have to be the ones on the front lines?”

Jonathan Selbin, a senior partner at Lieff Cabraser who serves as co-counsel for the lawsuit, called it every parent's nightmare.

"What's most vexing is that stories like this happen over and over again, making lawsuits like this one of the only ways to affect change," Selbin said.

Players Say They Faced Retaliation

Rather than condemning Nakamura's behavior, Giarratano normalized the behavior, the lawsuit said. What's more, the university and coaches knew the conduct was abnormal in the realm of elite, competitive baseball, and that they took steps to cover up the behaviors, the suit claims.

Players who did not outwardly condone or participate in the atmosphere faced extreme retaliation and psychological abuse, the lawsuit said.

"The Coach Defendants berated, belittled, and disparaged student-athletes; threatened to take away their playing time and their scholarships; and told the student-athletes (who otherwise met all NCAA and academic requirements) to leave USF and not come back," the lawsuit said. "The Coach Defendants tricked the student-athletes into signing forms to make it seem as though revocation of their scholarships was voluntary, when it was not."

Giarratano and Nakamura tried to get rid of players who didn't fit into the sexualized culture by implementing a system of emotional abuse, the lawsuit said. In one case, a student-athlete's parent reported misconduct to the school's athletic director. Shortly thereafter, the player, who was on a four-year scholarship, was repeatedly told not to return.

"John Doe 1 believes that not only did the AD not report his mother’s complaint, but she instead shared the complaint with Coach G and Coach Naks, because the abuse escalated and continued throughout the summer of 2021," the lawsuit said.

Nakamura told the student no one on the team believed in him and that he was “tearing up the fabric of the program and not protecting the culture," the lawsuit said. Nakamura then threatened to make sure the player did not have an "enjoyable experience” and would do so by "relentlessly threatening and berating" the player if he refused to transfer to another school, the suit claims. Giarratano also called the same player several times and said he would never play for the university again, and that he was “'toxic'” to the program, the lawsuit said. Giarratano called the player a “f------ p----” and called him selfish for keeping his scholarship rather than giving it to someone who fit into the culture, the suit said.

Some student-athletes became severely depressed, affecting their ability to study, the lawsuit alleged, and one student suffered stress and abuse, leading to five emergency room visits.

In January, the university told student-athletes in an email that Giarratano and Nakamura were suspended Dec. 17 with pay pending the results of an internal investigation after receiving complaints. As a result of that investigation, the university terminated Nakamura and reprimanded Giarratano for what it called "inappropriate behavior related to the reported incidents."

But investigators did not find evidence of a "widespread harmful culture within the baseball program," the university said. Rather, they found the coaches showed poor judgment and lack of supervision.

Procedures were being put implemented to ensure the baseball team players were in a "respectful, safe environment with proper oversight, direction, and mentoring by their coaches."

"The wellbeing of all students at USF is our highest priority," the university said.

Damages And Change Sought

The players are seeking damages from the NCAA, university and coaches for what they called "psychological abuse and repeated inappropriate sexual conduct." Additionally, they are seeking compensation for lost scholarship money, other out-of-pocket costs, and impairment of their baseball careers, including playing in the MLB.

Additionally, the players want the NCAA to implement and enforce rules and bylaws considered best practices.

That includes:

• Banning sexual harassment and sexual abuse of student-athletes by athletics department staff.
• Banning romantic or sexual relationships between athletics department staff and student-athletes.
• Requiring NCAA member institutions to immediately report any allegations of harassment or abuse of a student-athlete by athletics department staff.
• Requiring that all reports be independently investigated.
• Implementing public sanctions on member institutions and athletics department personnel where allegations are substantiated.
• Banning athletics department staff found to be in violation from further working or volunteering for any member institution.
• Mandating training.
• And protecting student-athletes from retaliation and coercion to leave their teams, enter the NCAA transfer portal, and/or forgo their scholarships without an independent ombudsman and advocate for the student-athletes.