LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Racing Louisville FC apologized to Erin Simon on Wednesday, two days after a report unveiled her allegations of sexual abuse by the club's former head coach, Christy Holly.
In a written statement, team President James O'Connor said for the first time that hiring Holly to lead the club in its inaugural season was a mistake.
"We commend Erin for her bravery in coming forward as part of U.S. Soccer's investigation," O'Connor said. "And while our former coach was terminated within 24 hours of us being alerted to the behavior, we know that wasn't enough and that we failed our locker room by creating a space where this behavior could occur."
A 179-page report released Monday by former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates found that U.S. Soccer executives, NWSL owners and officials at all levels of the game ignored or otherwise sought to suppress reports of abuse from players for a number of years.
The bombshell report alleges sexually inappropriate, potentially criminal, behavior on the part of Holly toward Simon, a defender who played for Holly at SkyBlue and joined Racing Louisville when the club selected her in the 2020 NWSL expansion draft.
"On April 21, 2021," it says, "the head coach of Racing Louisville, Christy Holly, requested that a player, Erin Simon, attend a game film session with him alone. She knew what to expect. When she arrived, she recalls Holly opened his laptop and began the game film. He told her he was going to touch her for 'every pass [she] (expletive) up.' He did. Simon reports that he pushed his hands down her pants and up her shirt. She tried to tightly cross her legs and push him away, laughing to avoid angering him. The video ended, and she left. When her teammate picked her up to drive home, Simon broke down crying."
Holly, the report alleges, also required Simon to come to his home to watch game video, then played pornography instead, masturbating in front of her before she left.
You can read O'Connor's full statement below:
Holly's hiring at Racing Louisville FC
Holly was let go by SkyBlue (now NY/NJ Gotham FC) in 2017 when concerns over his relationship with the team captain boiled over into locker room turmoil and other allegations of verbal and emotional abuse. At the time, however, team officials couched his departure as by mutual agreement, and were less than explicitly forthright about his time there when approached by Racing Louisville's then-president Brad Estes and O'Connor, then the executive vice president.
Yates' report outlined some of the communication between SkyBlue and Racing Louisville officials as part of Holly's hiring process, and emails concerning his conduct with players was discussed.
Racing Louisville FC coach Christy Holly during training on June 1, 2021.
As Racing Louisville leaders were vetting Holly, Mary Smoot, an executive officer for SkyBlue, had reservations, judging from email exchanges included in the report. But when her time to speak to Estes and O'Connor came about, they brought up his relationship with a player, and she remembered telling them that fans loved Holly, but players did not have a good experience with him. She then said they asked her no follow-up questions.
"To me," she told investigators, "it sounded like they made their minds up. It wasn't a long conversation. They didn't ask me if I would fire him."
Nor did Racing officials reach out to Holly's former players or staff at SkyBlue, according to the investigation.
Players described a coach who could be laughing one moment, furious the next, who would make statements or promises, then tell them he hadn't made them.
Of even more concern, he exerted influence over medical decisions.
"You didn't feel like you could speak up if you were injured," one SkyBlue player told investigators. One described being ostracized by the coach while she was injured and not playing, another said he got into her face when she said she needed an MRI, and felt intimidated into not getting it.
Pattern of abuse
Simon's association with Holly began at SkyBlue in 2016, where she was drafted after performing well in open tryouts. He gave her a chance early in her career, something Simon said made her felt like she “owed him,” according to Yates' report.
In late 2020 and early 2021, when Holly and Simon were both at SkyBlue, she said he asked her to begin using WhatsApp to message with him, because such messages are encrypted, and that he also sent photos using Snapchat, which automatically deleted.
She reported that his texts became more numerous. She would tell him she lost her phone, that she never got the messages, "I tried to deflect in every single way."
Simon said she believed that Holly may have had a part in her getting an opportunity to play for the NWSL's Houston Dash, and the text messages continued while she played for that team. When Racing Louisville took her in the expansion draft in November of 2020, Simon said she texted Holly that the treatment would have to stop, because he would soon be her coach.
"I've got until January 1," she said he responded, responding to his official start date as coach.
But the abuse only got worse. He invited her to his home to watch game film, and showed her pornography instead. He told her he wanted to have a threesome with her and another player. When she tried to leave, she said the coach began masturbating in front of her, and grabbed her wrist and forced her to touch him. She eventually freed herself and ran out of the residence.
Taylor Starr, who served as the team chaplain for Racing Louisville in the club's inaugural season, said in an interview Tuesday with WDRB News that Simon told her over coffee that she'd been sexually abused by Holly.
Taylor Starr. Oct. 4, 2022. (WDRB Photo)
"She didn't understand how any of that would play out," Starr said. "How does this get protected?"
It all culminated in that April 21 film session, after which, Simon said she avoided Holly. When he confronted her, she said she told him that the advances had to stop. But at that point, Simon told investigators that Holly became verbally abusive to her. He ripped into her in front of the team, refused to slap hands with her when she came off the pitch and wouldn't tell her whether she would be in the starting lineup or not.
"He would just berate her," Starr said. "And when that shift happened ... from just her performance as an athlete to just the way she carried herself, so much insecurity came over her.
"You could just see this darkness that was over her."
In her own statement Tuesday, Simon told ESPN, through a spokesperson, "There are too many athletes who still suffer in silence because they are scared that no one will help them or hear them," Simon said in a statement through a spokesperson. "I know because that is how I felt. Through many difficult days, my faith alone sustained me and kept me going. I want to do everything in my power to ensure that no other player must experience what I did. This report allows our voices to finally be heard and is the first step toward achieving the respectful workplace we all deserve. It is my sincere hope that the pain we have all experienced and the change we have all brought about will be for the good of our league and this game we all deeply love."
Racing Louisville FC defender Erin Simon works against a defender in a 0-0 draw with Kansas City on May 15, 2021 in Lynn Family Stadium.
The incidents in Louisville and others form the framework for a damning picture of women's soccer leadership not only in Louisville but around the U.S., which allowed coaches facing accusations of abuse to move from job to job, while being less than forthcoming about abuse once they discovered it.
Louisville fired Holly on Aug. 31 of last year, announcing he had been terminated for cause but refusing to discuss the circumstances of his dismissal, citing a non-disclosure agreement it had signed with the coach.
After Holly's termination, at 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 21, the report relates a Racing Louisville meeting led by O'Connor with players, staff, then-president Brad Estes and human resources officials present. There, players were told Holly had been fired for an inappropriate relationship with a player. They said the behavior was unacceptable and promised changes, told them that the player wished to remain anonymous and asked the team to keep the information "within our locker room."
At a news conference the next day O'Connor, when asked if any of Holly's alleged conduct could be considered illegal, said, "It's a great question. I don't know whether I'd say illegal. That's a subject of viewpoint, if you like, depending on who's asking and different people. I'll plead the fifth. I'll take the attorney line on that. ... On a personal level, would I love to be able to tell you all? Yes I would. But unfortunately, not just in this business, but in most industries, when you have things like this you can't."
In her report, Yates was critical of Louisville and other NWSL franchises for not assisting more in her investigation, writing, "Racing Louisville FC refused to produce documents concerning Christy Holly and would not permit witnesses (or even former employees) to answer questions regarding Holly's tenure, citing non-disclosure agreements."
But in Wednesday's statement, O'Connor said he'd cooperate with the ongoing NWSL/NWSLPA joint investigation.
Related Stories:
- Former Racing Louisville FC chaplain recalls 'burden' of reporting head coach's sexual abuse allegations
- CRAWFORD | Report reveals shortcomings in Racing response to Holly abuse complaints
- Racing Louisville FC fans react to sexual abuse allegations against former coach
- Allegations against former Racing Louisville FC coach headline bombshell sexual abuse report
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