Emotional Abuse in College Sports

Summary

Up First from NPR: "Emotional Abuse in College Sports"

Date: March 15, 2026
Host: Ayesha Rascoe
Guests: Reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos

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Episode Overview

This episode of Up First’s "The Sunday Story" delves deeply into the largely under-reported issue of emotional abuse in college sports. Host Ayesha Rascoe is joined by reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos, whose year-long investigation uncovers the devastating impacts of emotionally abusive coaching, the institutional failures to address it, and recent legal cases that could change how such allegations are handled. The episode focuses on the tragic story of Julia Pernsteiner, a college runner who died by suicide after alleged abuse, followed by the legal fight of twins Marja and Marta Golic at the University of San Francisco.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Emotional Abuse Defined and its Patterns

• Emotional abuse in sports involves persistent behaviors by coaches such as verbal attacks, manipulation, and controlling tactics.
• Not simply about tough coaching—this is about ongoing actions that seriously impact young athletes’ mental health.
  • Julia Haney: "Emotional abuse can look different from coach to coach, but there are specific patterns, things like verbal attacks, manipulation and controlling behaviors." (02:39)
  • Elizabeth Santos: "We're not talking about one off moments where a coach, for example, loses their temper. We're talking about persistent behaviors that begin to impact student athletes mental well being and the stakes can be high." (02:51)

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Julia Pernsteiner’s Story – The Tragic Consequences

The Allegations and Institutional Inaction

• Pernsteiner, a D1 cross country runner at Jacksonville University, reported emotional abuse from her coach, Ronald Grigg. She reached out to her team, university officials, counseling services, outside organizations, and even the NCAA.
• Despite her efforts and multiple testimonials from other athletes, officials repeatedly told her that emotional abuse is not a crime—"no crime has been committed with that." (05:44)
• Pernsteiner died by suicide just weeks after her final report. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit (08:54), ultimately settled without admission of wrongdoing by the school.

Notable Quotes

• Julia Pernsteiner, via body cam:
  • "He’d be like, why do I keep you around? Because you’re not smart, you’re not fast... go kill yourself if you’re awful." (04:53)
• Campus officer:
  • "Emotionally abusiveness isn’t a crime." (05:33)
• Marta Golic (re: the culture): "That’s so fucked up." (05:46)
• A teammate describes the period after Julia’s death:
  • "My teammates weren’t doing well when they came back after break." (08:15)

The Pattern of Abuse

• This case isn’t unique: Reporters compiled over 100 allegations of emotional abuse in college sports since 2011 (09:39).

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The Golic Twins vs. University of San Francisco – Legal Precedent

Coming to the U.S. and the Changing Relationship with Coach Goodenbauer

• Background: Marta and Marja Golic, basketball phenoms from Croatia, were recruited by San Francisco’s head coach Molly Goodenbauer (14:01–14:38), who had previously promised their parents they’d be in "good hands." (15:03)
• The team had a culture of international athletes and high pressure (16:06).

The Allegations: Verbal Abuse and Degrading Treatment

• Both twins and teammates reported constant insults and threats by Goodenbauer, including threats to revoke scholarships for poor performance, which is against NCAA rules (25:46–26:33).
• Marta suffered a traumatic incident when denied bathroom breaks during practice, leading to public humiliation and lasting psychological effects (21:56–22:45).

Notable Quotes

• Marta Golic:
  • "She would call us idiots, stupid, worthless, low of the low. She would say, you look like a fucking toothpick. She called us pieces of shit." (17:13)
  • "At some points, even seeing [my sister] go through some of these things felt a little bit... it almost felt worse than me going through it." (18:20)
• Layla Herrera (teammate):
  • "I’ve seen her call us useless, stupid, incompetent... I’ve seen my teammates crying." (18:54)
  • "Every practice." (19:11)

Institutional Response

• The university’s internal investigation was deemed perfunctory, failing to interview most players.
• NCAA lacks an emotional abuse policy. SafeSport does not investigate emotional or most non-sexual misconduct (29:39–30:39; 33:35).
• Coaches often "pop up somewhere else" after complaints (33:58).

The Lawsuit and Its Impact

• Marta and Marja’s lawsuit claimed intentional infliction of emotional distress (36:08).
• Their secret recordings proved the threats; a psychiatrist confirmed the sisters developed psychiatric illness due to the coach’s treatment (27:05).
• A jury found in favor of Marja, awarding her $750,000; she sobbed with relief, feeling finally validated. Marta settled later (38:42–40:17).

Notable Quotes

• Attorney Randy Gaw:
  • "The power dynamic is also a critical component... Ms. Goodenbauer was a surrogate parent in many ways." (36:33)
  • "There’s resistance in the law to mental damages... some jurors just don’t think a purely mental injury is a real thing..." (37:24)
  • "The investigation was so perfunctory, nothing happened." (32:13)

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Aftermath and Reflections

Where Are They Now?

• Coach Goodenbauer: Remains head coach at USF, contract renewed through 2028. The university stands by her and their staff (40:21–40:56).
• Marja Golic: Graduated, now lives in NYC. Still deeply impacted. "It's definitely something that still impacts me to this day in ways I couldn't imagine." (41:37)
• Marta Golic: Finished at USF, played her final year at Tulane, thrived under Coach Lisa Stockton (42:06–44:18).

Contrasting Coaching Styles

• Coach Lisa Stockton:
  • "There’s a difference between challenging someone... and being hard on them and being unfair. And I think you’ve got to know the difference in that." (42:47)
• Marta’s reflection on her new team:
  • "...night and day difference... To have great people around you, to have great leadership, to have people who care about you, who push you at the same time to be better, to improve, to achieve your potential." (43:57)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:21 – 08:54]: Julia Pernsteiner’s story and aftermath
• [12:17 – 13:43]: Introduction of the Golic twins and recruitment by USF
• [16:12 – 22:45]: Accounts of verbal abuse and bathroom incident at USF
• [23:39 – 26:33]: Secret recordings, threats to scholarships
• [27:53 – 29:03]: Impact on mental health, expert psychiatric opinion
• [30:39 – 33:35]: University investigations and institutional frameworks
• [36:08 – 40:17]: Details of lawsuit, trial, and verdict
• [41:02 – 44:18]: Where the sisters are today; positive impact of a supportive coach

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• "Emotionally abusiveness isn’t a crime." – Campus officer to Julia Pernsteiner ([05:33])
• "She would call us idiots, stupid, worthless..." – Marta Golic ([17:13])
• "At the end of my year, I have no idea what's happening, what they can or cannot do. And suddenly they're, you know, threatening to take away my scholarship." – Marta Golic ([25:21])
• "I was... literally on the edge... There was no point in continuing with life." – Marja Golic ([27:22])
• "Her sobbing with joy... she felt validated... yes, what happened to you was wrong. You were not overly sensitive." – Randy Gaw, describing Marja's reaction to the verdict ([39:06])
• "Tulane really showed me what it means and what big of a difference it makes to have great people around you..." – Marta Golic ([43:57])

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Final Reflections

This episode exposes the invisible wounds of emotional abuse in college sports, the vast power coaches wield over student-athletes, and the failures of both schools and national organizations to protect young people. Through the lens of Pernsteiner’s tragedy and the Golic twins’ legal victory, the reporting highlights the urgent need for consistent, effective safeguards—and for cultural and regulatory changes that value mental health alongside physical safety.

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Transcript

[Aisha Rascoe]

Aisha I'm Aisha Rascoe and this is the Sunday STORY from Up first where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story and just a heads up. Today's story includes mentions of sexual and emotional abuse, suicide and bullying and includes explicit language we know all too well the stories of the sexual abuse of college athletes.

[NPR Announcer]

A former U.S. olympic gymnastics team doctor pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in Michigan State court today.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Child sex abuse charges have now stained a legendary story of college football. The long running success story of Penn State in some cases, the violation of athletes by people who were supposed to care for them went on for years. Sometimes those with power to stop the abuse did little or nothing. How could this have happened to so many athletes and for so long? Today's story asks that same question, but we're talking about a different kind of abuse of power.

[Layla Herrera]

I've seen her call us useless, stupid, incompetent when we couldn't complete a drill at her level. I've seen my teammates crying.

[Aisha Rascoe]

When we come back, look at the complicated issue of emotional abuse in college sports.

[NPR Announcer]

Support for NPR and the following message come from Edward Jones. What does it mean to live a rich life? It means brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes and everything in between. With over 100 years of experience navigating the ups and downs of the market and of life, your Edward Jones financial advisor will be there to help you move ahead with confidence. Because with all you've done to find your rich, they'll do all they can to help you keep enjoying it. EDWARD jones, member, SIPC we're back with the Sunday story.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And joining us now are reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos. They've been investigating the issue of emotional abuse in college sports for the past year. Julia and Elizabeth, welcome to the podcast.

[Julia Haney]

It's great to be here.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Thanks for having us.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So Julia and Elizabeth, I think many of us are familiar with the stories of coaches who are really tough and demanding of their players. But your reporting is about something different. You've been looking into the issue of emotional abuse in college sports.

[Julia Haney]

That's right, Aisha. We found that emotional abuse can look different from coach to coach, but there are specific patterns, things like verbal attacks, manipulation and controlling behaviors.

[Elizabeth Santos]

That's just to name a few. And we're not talking about one off moments where a coach, for example, loses their temper. We're talking about persistent behaviors that begin to impact student athletes mental well being and the stakes can be high.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So what does that look like in

[Julia Haney]

practice to really explain that we want to tell you about Julia Pernsteiner, a student athlete in Jacksonville, Florida. We cannot get her story out of our heads.

[Elizabeth Santos]

She was a D1 cross country runner at Jacksonville University. Her friends, teammates, and those who are close with her describe her as determined and goofy. They say that she had a powerful, intuitive read on people.

[Julia Haney]

And in the fall of 2021, Pernsteiner started making a series of phone calls. She called everyone she could think of to report that her track coach was abusive.

[Elizabeth Santos]

The coach, Ronald Gregg, was the longtime head of the program.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I mean, you said she was calling everyone. Like, what do you mean by that? Everyone?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, in a legal complaint filed by her family, it's clear that Pernsteiner reached out to a lot of people about Griggs alleged behavior, including her college's Administra trainers and the Jacksonville University athletic department. Hernsteiner also called the university's counseling center, a local hospital, a law firm, a legal aid group, a women's center, local and national nonprofits, news organizations, and the ncaa. That's according to a local TV reporter who later went through Hernsteiner's call log. And an off duty officer for the sheriff's department even came to speak with her. He was working as a campus security officer at the time.

[Julia Haney]

And it was actually the body camera footage that really stood out to us. That same local TV reporter, Samantha Mathers, posted the footage on YouTube. In this clip, which is a little scratchy, you can hear Julia Pernsteiner telling the officer how her coach was treating her.

[Layla Herrera]

You'd be like, why do I keep you around?

[Marta Golic]

Because you're not smart, you're not fast.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Why do I keep you around?

[Marta Golic]

And he kept saying that basically, like, mind fucking you, like, telling you, like, go kill yourself if you're awful, like.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And she says, one time I was talking with him and he said, he

[Marta Golic]

was like, I've never hit you, have I?

[Elizabeth Santos]

The officer asks, so has he. Has he physically touched you?

[Julia Haney]

No. He's a point.

[Layla Herrera]

Okay. No.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So Pern Steiner isn't saying that Greg physically touched her or physically hit her or anything, right?

[Julia Haney]

She says he humiliated and degraded her, but there was nothing the officer could do about that. Here he is again.

[Elizabeth Santos]

The bad thing is that in the state, in Duval county, state of Florida, emotionally abusiveness isn't a crime.

[Aisha Rascoe]

There's nothing criminal with.

[Elizabeth Santos]

No crime has been committed with that.

[Randy Gaw]

That's fucked.

[Marta Golic]

That's so fucked up.

[Julia Haney]

After some back and forth, the officer tells her, like I said, it's just

[Elizabeth Santos]

not a criminal statute to make people feel bad. The Question is whether the coach's alleged behavior went beyond that. Pernsteiner's teammates say he called her things like retarded, useless, and the slowest fucking runner in the world. Greg had actually cut Pernsteiner from the team a month before she spoke with this officer, according to the family's legal complaint.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So, I mean. I mean, that's going to raise the question, like, was this someone who was just, you know, upset that she'd been kicked off the team?

[Julia Haney]

Well, but she wasn't the only student athlete who claimed they'd been mistreated. In recordings that Pernsteiner made, she said she collected testimonials from 20 other athletes and they told her that they'd experienced similar verbal abuse and body shaming.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Right. They also alleged that he held scholarships over their heads and bullied women on the team. A volunteer assistant coach, Alexa Ibar, said she'd also been mistreated by Greg and told us that she had reported him to the athletic department. A track team alum also told us that Julia was encouraging teammates to submit complaints as well.

[Julia Haney]

But none of this made a difference. On the day that Julia Pernsteiner met with that officer after he left her that day, he wrote in his report, Julia made no criminal allegations and appeared in good physical health.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Let us pray. Weeks later, Julia Pernsteiner took her life in her dorm room. She was 23 years old. Her funeral was held near her hometown in Minnesota and posted on YouTube.

[Marta Golic]

O God, who have set a limit

[Elizabeth Santos]

to this present life so as to open up an entry into eternity. Her uncle read a poem he wrote with the refrain, run free, Julia, run free.

[Randy Gaw]

Run free, Julia, run free. I know you are with God in heaven now. You made it to the finish line.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I mean, that's beyond devastating, right? And I can't imagine what her family and teammates were going through.

[Julia Haney]

It was a really rough time for them. When we spoke to Sadie Morris, another runner, she said that the team was in shambles.

[Elizabeth Santos]

My teammates weren't doing well when they came back after break. She says she was still running well at practice, but others were struggling emotionally. According to Morris, Coach Greg was frustrated.

[Layla Herrera]

He was like, oh, so is your

[Elizabeth Santos]

teammates gonna use Julia's death as a

[Julia Haney]

get out of jail free card?

[Aisha Rascoe]

So what happened to the coach?

[Elizabeth Santos]

So Coach Grigg continued to coach for the rest of that season. After Pernsteiner died, he resigned the following summer. He hasn't responded to our calls or emails requesting an interview.

[Julia Haney]

Pernsteiner's family filed a wrongful death complaint against the university, and Greg in 2023, alleging, quote, he created a toxic atmosphere of humiliation and intimidation by belittling, disparaging, and ridiculing runners who did not meet his standards.

[Elizabeth Santos]

They also alleged that the school tolerated his behavior because Greg's teams were competitive. He was head coach of the team for two decades, and during that time, hundreds of student athletes went through his program.

[Julia Haney]

The Pernsteiner family ultimately settled, so they can't talk to us about the details. And in the settlement, there was no admission of wrongdoing by the university. We reached out to Jacksonville University for the story and didn't hear back.

[Elizabeth Santos]

But our reporting has found that the abuse Pernsteiner alleged is not an outlier. Her story is just one of over 100 emotional abuse allegations that we've compiled dating back to 2011. We can't tell you all of these stories, but there's one more, one that ended differently that we wanted to share. In this other case, the allegations were taken seriously by a jury in a

[Julia Haney]

trial, and the legal decision that followed could change how universities handle student athletes claims of emotional abuse.

[Marta Golic]

We wanted for other athletes to know that they're not alone, to know that it's possible to fight this, to know that schools should do better.

[Aisha Rascoe]

That story when we come back.

[NPR Announcer]

Support for NPR and the following message come from Edward Jones. What does it mean to live a rich life? Maybe it's full of brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes, and everything in between. And with over a hundred years of experience, your Edward Jones financial advisor can help. EDWARD Jones, Member, SIPC we're back with

[Aisha Rascoe]

the Sunday story, and reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos are talking about their reporting on emotional abuse college sports. So, Julia and Elizabeth, I understand that you're both working reporters now, but you started this story while you were both in grad school. So how did you come across it?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, I was on the hunt for a story, and I heard about a situation that I thought was highlighting a case of sexual abuse on a college sports team. But it turned out the issue was really one of emotional abuse. And that got me thinking that there was a story here, one about student athletes grappling for accountability.

[Julia Haney]

And when Julia came to me with the story, I thought it was pretty powerful, so we decided to report it out together.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So we've heard about the case of Julia Pernsteiner, and you alluded to a different case, one that could change how allegations of emotional abuse of college athletes are handled. Can you tell me about that?

[Julia Haney]

Yeah. But before we jump into that, it's important to know that researchers say emotional abuse in sports is more common than physical or sexual abuse. And, you know, most of the student athletes we spoke to who reported it, they didn't get the outcome they were looking for.

[Elizabeth Santos]

But every great sports story has a tenacious underdog, or in this case, two. And that's where our story starts with Marja and Marta Golic, who filed a lawsuit back in 2021 against their head coach and the University of San Francisco, or usf.

[Julia Haney]

Marja and Marta are from Croatia. They told us they started playing basketball when they were little on their neighborhood court. They both loved the game, but as people, they're very different. Here's Marta.

[Marta Golic]

Our family, and people who know us very well often kind of describe us as yin and the yang.

[Julia Haney]

Marta's the analytical one. She describes her sister Maria as the creative one.

[Marta Golic]

She was always more artsy, creative type. We're different, but very complimentary, I'd say. I mean, she's always the person I turn to, and we always has a different perspective that kind of complements mine.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And they knew how to play to each other's strengths on and off the court. They even played for the Croatian national team.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So it sounds like they were serious players. I mean, and enough to catch the eye of coaches in the U.S. yeah.

[Julia Haney]

So once they were in high school, U.S. colleges started recruiting them. For Marta, she says it came down to Columbia and usf, but Columbia was only interested in her and not her sister. The University of San Francisco offered them both full rides for five years.

[Marta Golic]

I wanted to go with her. You're moving across the world to have someone, especially your closest person, go with you and share the same experience. So that definitely was a huge factor for me.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And they had become close with the new USF head coach, Molly Goodenbauer.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay, so, you know, tell me a little bit more about Coach Goodenbauer.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, Goodenbauer is from Iowa. She played basketball at Stanford for the legendary coach Tara VanDerveer. She won two national championships.

[Marta Golic]

Stanford's got four three pointers today, and

[Elizabeth Santos]

Molly Gutenbauer's got them all.

[Julia Haney]

And when she was a player, Gudenbauer was a guard just like Marta. And in 2016, she took over the USF head coach job from a former Stanford teammate.

[Elizabeth Santos]

During the recruitment process, Marja and Marta recall Goodenbauer flying to Croatia multiple times to visit them.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So it sounds like Gutenbauer was really making a big effort to recruit the twins.

[Julia Haney]

She definitely was. Here's Marta again.

[Marta Golic]

We took her around Croatia, around town. We showed her everything, obviously, like, shared meals together really made this connection between visits.

[Elizabeth Santos]

The twins say that they were in regular touch. They both remember one moment in particular from one of Goodenbauer's visits.

[Marta Golic]

What stayed with me is really kind of the sentence she shared at the. At the end of one of her trips. And I remember my mom was there and my parents were there, and she, you know, promised my mom, and she told us, like, she would take care of us, and, you know, your kids are in good hands.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I know, like, as a parent myself, that's what you want to hear a coach say, right? Tell me more about the University of San Francisco.

[Elizabeth Santos]

USF is a Catholic school. It's small, progressive, and right in the center of the city. Its motto is Change the World from Here, and you can see that printed on banners all over the hillside campus.

[Julia Haney]

It's a D1 school, so its teams play at the highest level of college sports. Mari and Marta arrived in September 2018. It was Goodenbauer's third year as head coach.

[Marta Golic]

It seemed great, and there were just no signs that things were gonna go a completely different way than they did.

[Elizabeth Santos]

The team was young, lots of freshmen, and most of them were international students.

[Julia Haney]

But the twins said Coach Goodenbauer seemed different almost immediately on the court.

[Marta Golic]

And after our arrival, she became this totally different person that I knew so far.

[Aisha Rascoe]

What did they say was different about Coach Gudenbauer?

[Julia Haney]

Well, they were used to strict coaches, ones with high expectations, ones who would yell at them, and they knew how to work hard. But when we spoke with Marja, she said Goodenbauer's tone was off.

[Layla Herrera]

I've never really had anyone that, like, mean and, like, personal.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And when we spoke with Marta, she agreed.

[Marta Golic]

Yeah, the way she started treating players, the way she started treating us, the way she started talking to us, the language she started using, the tone.

[Elizabeth Santos]

What kinds of things would she say to you here? Marta paused for a minute, and when she opened her mouth to speak again, the words she says her coach used all came pouring out.

[Marta Golic]

She would call us idiots, stupid, worthless, low of the low. She would say, you look like a fucking toothpick. She called us pieces of shit. You're a fucking idiot. You're stupid, lazy, worthless.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Had you ever had coaches who used that kind of language before?

[Marta Golic]

No, never, Never. And I've played basketball for years before I came to usf and never had really anything like it.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So here you have Maria and Marta in a new country, at a new school, on a new team, with a coach that they Say they don't know anymore.

[Julia Haney]

Yeah, it was definitely overwhelming for them.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And in our reporting, we've noticed a pattern in the stories we've heard. Often athletes have said it took time to recognize issues with their coaches behavior. Many say that the turning point was watching a teammate face the same treatment that they had. And for Marta and Maria, it was like each was holding up a mirror to the other.

[Marta Golic]

Like it was, you know, double the effect. Because, you know, just to me, at some points, like even seeing her go through some of these things felt a little bit. It almost felt worse than me going through it.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, what about their teammates?

[Julia Haney]

Yeah. Later on, during the Twins litigation against USF and Goodenbauer, their teammates were asked how the coaches spoke to them on the court.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Here's one of those players, Layla Herrera, speaking in a deposition video.

[Layla Herrera]

I've seen her call us useless, stupid, incompetent when we couldn't complete a drill at her level. I've seen my teammates crying. So just to name a few, how

[Randy Gaw]

frequently would she say those types of things to your teammates?

[Layla Herrera]

Every practice.

[Randy Gaw]

How many times per practice?

[Layla Herrera]

3 or 4.

[Julia Haney]

The man asking the questions here is the Twins lawyer, Randy Gaw. Herrera, who is African American and Puerto Rican, also said that the assistant coach, Janelle Jones, made racially insensitive comments towards her.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And so what does Goodenbauer say about all this?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, Goodenbauer argued in legal filings that her comments to the Twins were, quote, solely about their basketball performance and not personal. She said in her trial testimony that she told players they were lazy and that she called them out when they quit in drills, but that she never called them names.

[Julia Haney]

And she said that she gave them positive feedback. For example, she sent Marta texts encouraging her and reminding her of her potential early in her freshman year.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Coach Goodenbauer has declined our repeated requests for an interview and assistant coach Jones has not responded.

[Aisha Rascoe]

D1 sports can be intense and really high pressure. Do you think that contributed to the environment that the Twins allege existed?

[Elizabeth Santos]

I mean, we don't really know what Goodenbauer's motivation was, but yes, it's true that this was a high pressure environment and she might have been under specific pressures. NCAA coaches face extreme pressure to win and like anybody else, their jobs are tied to their performance. Gudenbauer's lawyer referred to Maria and Marta's freshman year as being, quote, very difficult and stressful for their coach.

[Julia Haney]

And just before GoodenBauer took over, USF was doing great. The team had made it to the first round in March Madness. But after becoming head coach, Goodenbauer's team struggled in the first two seasons. They had only slightly more wins than losses. In the third season, which was Marta's and Maria's freshman year, the team's record was seven wins and 24 losses. Marta says it was really tough.

[Marta Golic]

You're fighting, you're giving your best. You're literally collapsing on the ground. You're trying to stand up, you're trying to go through the drill, and at the same time, you have someone hovering over your head saying, you're a fucking idiot. It was miserable.

[Elizabeth Santos]

The twins lawsuit cites a specific incident that they say crossed a line during a practice in their freshman year. Marta says that she asked to use the restroom three times with increasing urgency during a drill.

[Julia Haney]

She said Coach Goodenbauer told her no and that an assistant coach also said, quote, not if Coach Goodenbauer said no. Marta told us the same story in

[Marta Golic]

an interview, running to the point where not only I could not, like, seriously control my legs anymore. Like, as I really needed to go use the restroom, I could not control my bladder anymore. And I just urinated on myself. And my whole. My jersey, my pants, everything was. Everything was visibly wet. And I remember, like, in that state, I was so. I don't even have the words to describe. Like, I felt so embarrassed, so ashamed. Low.

[Julia Haney]

And she says she went back to Gunnenbauer a fourth time.

[Marta Golic]

I approached her at that half court. She was standing on the left side. I so vividly remember. And I'm like, coach, I literally urinated on myself. I have to go to the bathroom. Her response? No, you can go whenever you finish the drill.

[Julia Haney]

Marta says she completed the drill before going to the restroom and cleaning herself up.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay. How did Goodenbauer respond to that allegation?

[Elizabeth Santos]

In her testimony, Goodenbauer said that she wasn't aware of this incident when it happened. She stated that players are free to leave the court whenever they need to use the restroom. And she said she felt really badly that this would happen to one of her players. But after this incident, Marta says she would use the bathroom multiple times before practice. Worried about being humiliated again, she used this time to prepare herself, splashing cold

[Marta Golic]

water, doing the Superman pose, like anything you can, to kind of prepare myself to face those next couple of hours.

[Julia Haney]

She says practices felt like entering a war zone.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And then it was time for the players performance reviews. In March of their freshman year, the twins decided to secretly record their meetings with Coach Goodenbauer and assistant coach Janelle Jones using their cell phones.

[Julia Haney]

In these recordings, you can hear Goodenbauer threatening to take away their scholarships.

[Elizabeth Santos]

In Maria's recording, Goodenbauer can be heard telling her repeatedly that she does not want to coach her, that Maria is going to be miserable, and that she will lose her scholarship if she messes up because it was secretly recorded. The tape quality here is poor.

[Randy Gaw]

The next time you put on a drill, you're not going to have a scholarship anymore.

[Layla Herrera]

Okay, I understand.

[Julia Haney]

And later on in that meeting.

[Randy Gaw]

But when you're the person in the room that knows their teammates don't really want to be on their team in a drill or in a. I mean, gosh, how do you deal with that? You look at yourself and say, nobody wants me on their team.

[Julia Haney]

Goodenbauer continues, you can go somewhere else

[Randy Gaw]

now and have an opportunity to have a fresh start, but you have a lot of baggage right now that it's going to be really difficult for you to overcome. I can honestly say I don't want to coach you. I don't.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I'm sure that was very hard to hear from Aria. What about Marta's meeting? Was it similar?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Yeah, Gudenbauer made similar statements to Marta. Marta says that she was really nervous going in. She remembers her palms sweating.

[Marta Golic]

I felt like, confined in that room. And, you know, them kind of attacking me, was me kind of alone versus them. And at that time, I'm this, you know, foreigner, freshmen. At the end of my year, I have no idea what's happening, what they. What they can or cannot do. And suddenly they're, you know, threatening to take away my scholarship.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Here's Goodenbauer in this meeting.

[Randy Gaw]

The next time you quit on something, I take your scholarship from you.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And assistant Coach Jones jumps in, too. You're gonna lose your scholarship, and then

[Randy Gaw]

you will be back in Croatia because

[Marta Golic]

you're not going to be no. 1.

[Elizabeth Santos]

There's not another school that's going to

[Randy Gaw]

pick you up here in the United

[Elizabeth Santos]

States because they're going to call us and they're going to say, why did you guys kick Marta off the team?

[Randy Gaw]

Because you don't have any stats.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And we're going to say, because she quits.

[Marta Golic]

I believed them. I mean, I thought it was all true. I thought that's what she was able to do. And, you know, she was kind of the person in control of my future.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, I mean, I don't know much about sports, so I would think that, too. Like, it seems like coaches do have a lot of power.

[Julia Haney]

Sure. They do. But here's the thing. The NCAA does not allow a coach to take away a scholarship for poor performance or injury. Marta says she didn't know that by

[Elizabeth Santos]

the end of her freshman year. Marta says that she wanted to graduate as soon as possible. She wanted to get out of this environment.

[Julia Haney]

And meanwhile, Maria told us that starting her freshman year, she was experiencing feelings she had never known before usf. She says she began to have racing, anxious thoughts that got worse when she was around Gudenbauer.

[Layla Herrera]

Suddenly, I started getting these panic attacks. I'm having violent nightmares. I'm like, I'm so depressed. I've never thought I was that kind of person, and nobody really prepares you for that.

[Julia Haney]

She said she started to wish that she would not wake up.

[Layla Herrera]

I was, like, literally on the edge. I felt like there was no point in continuing with life.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Maria suffered two mental health crises, according to the legal complaint. The first in the fall of her sophomore year, when she reported Goodenbauer's treatment of her to a USF trainer who walked her over to the school's counseling and psychological services for an evaluation. Marja received therapy there after that.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Did getting therapy help her? Was she able to cope with the stress? You know, after she got the therapy,

[Julia Haney]

Marja says there was a brief period where it felt like she was gaining Goodenbauer's approval. But that didn't last long, and she

[Elizabeth Santos]

had a second crisis in January of her junior year. At this point, she says she had begun to feel numb. Her father sent an email to an athletic trainer stating that Maria had told him she did not want to live anymore. The trainer immediately got in touch with Marja and helped her call the counseling center again.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And Maria is saying that the reason for these crises was the way Goodenbauer was coaching her.

[Julia Haney]

It's never any one thing. But there was a psychiatrist who served as an expert witness for the twins in the trial. She examined them and determined that they both suffered a, quote, psychiatric illness. And this psychiatrist wrote in her report for the trial, quote, marja and Marta Galic's psychiatric illness was caused by Coach Goodenbauer's treatment on the USF women's basketball team.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay, so let's zoom out for a minute. You've said emotional abuse in college sports is common. So are there procedures in place to protect students? Like, where do they turn to for help?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, when a student athlete experiences emotional abuse, they might report to any number of institutions.

[Julia Haney]

Yeah. Aisha, think of these places that a student might report to as concentric circles at the center, you have the team's coaching staff and other support staff, then the athletic department, then the university.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Outside of all of that, you have a sports national governing body. This is something like USA Basketball. Then you have the NCAA and SafeSport, which is an organization that investigates allegations of abuse in sports. And finally you have the legal system. We've also seen students report through channels designed for victims of safety, sexual abuse and gender discrimination. For example, a campus Title IX office.

[Julia Haney]

And during their time at usf, Mari and Marta knocked on many doors.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Yeah, they reported to university staff, an assistant coach, athletic trainers, a school psychologist and athletic department leadership. So did their father.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So how did the school respond?

[Julia Haney]

USF's head of NCAA compliance reached out to the Twins to speak about their experiences on the team. Marja met with him and HR leader Diane Nelson. Marja told them that she was being bullied and that Gutenbauer and Jones had said that they would make her life miserable if she returned the following year.

[Elizabeth Santos]

And here we want to add that the NCAA does not have an emotional abuse policy to cover the over 500,000 student athletes who compete each year. A representative there said that schools are the ones primarily responsible for student athletes safety. The NCAA declined our multiple requests for an interview and referred us to their mental health best practices webpage.

[Julia Haney]

USF investigated Maria's claims. Nelson from HR led that investigation, but she didn't interview any student athletes on the team. Other than Maria, the only other two people she spoke with were Gudenbauer and Jones. Goodenbauer said in a deposition that in her meeting with Nelson, she was not made aware of any bullying allegations. Here's the Twins attorney, Randy Gaw.

[Randy Gaw]

Did Ms. Nelson ask you any questions about whether you had made any inappropriate comments to any of your players?

No, she simply had me describe my practices.

[Elizabeth Santos]

It's not clear whether Nelson asked Goodenbauer about the threats to take the Twins scholarships. Gutenbauer testified that she was never asked about this. At the end of her investigation, Nelson concluded that Gutenbauer had not broken any USF policies. Nelson has not responded to our request for comment. USF wrote in a statement that the university acknowledges the, quote, seriousness of the issue, but quote, disputes the allegations.

[Julia Haney]

Here's the Twins lawyer again. Randy Gaw, speaking in an oral argument from last August.

[Randy Gaw]

Coach Jones admitted that the scholarship threat was made. And Ms. Nelson admitted under testimony that a threat to take away a scholarship would be improper. And yet she exonerates them and like writes the false statement that there was no evidence of the Scholarship threat whatsoever. The investigation was so perfunctory, nothing happened.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay, so the twins lawyer is saying the investigation was not very thorough. But again, the university is kind of policing itself, right? Like, instead of bringing in someone independent to review the twins allegations.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, yes, but it's complicated. We spoke with a lawyer who's represented student athletes in two dozen similar cases, and he says because of the inherent conflict of interest, the right way to do it is to hire someone outside of the university, an external, independent investigator. But even in transparent, independent investigations, the university still sets the rules for what is within and outside the scope of an investigation. And universities want to avoid liability exposure.

[Aisha Rascoe]

But what about that independent nonprofit, SafeSport, the organization specifically tasked with looking into abusive coaching?

[Julia Haney]

Yeah. So SafeSport was created by Congress in 2017 after Larry Nassar's abusive athletes was exposed.

[Elizabeth Santos]

But SafeSport was primarily founded to prevent sexual abuse. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, it doesn't investigate emotional and physical misconduct allegations. Marta says she'd never even heard of SafeSport.

[Julia Haney]

So basically, there are many organizations who might investigate. But it's a patchwork system with many holes. Often, even coaches who are pushed out of their programs just end up popping up somewhere else.

[Aisha Rascoe]

That must be pretty frustrating or even painful to students who allege abuse.

[Julia Haney]

Yeah. And to that point, let's go back to Coach Goodenbauer. She had been accused of similar abusive behavior at previous programs, including at Chico State and UC Irvine.

[Elizabeth Santos]

At Irvine, Goodenbauer received a suspension and an email from the athletic department noting that her, quote, insensitive and abusive remarks towards players was a pattern.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So with all of that on her record, how did she end up getting the head coach job at usf?

[Elizabeth Santos]

That's a great question, Aisha. We know the hiring process was pretty expedited. Just 11 days. And we know from a deposition of the school's athletic director that Gudenbauer was not asked about those accusations of verbal abuse because those questions had not been asked of other candidates. Chico State's athletic director did tell USF's athletic director that Goodenbauer was a good and stern coach.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So despite some controversy, Goodenbauer is head coach at usf, and it seems like the school has her back. So where does that leave Marta and Maria?

[Julia Haney]

Well, the last option is to file a lawsuit, and that's what the twins did.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Maria Amarta's father is a lawyer in Croatia, and a mutual friend introduced him to another lawyer in San Francisco, Randy Gaw, who we heard from earlier.

[Julia Haney]

Gaw's Firm does business litigation, but they take on some personal injury cases as well. He says he's been working on this one effectively pro bono for years.

[Randy Gaw]

We do some, you know, kind of personal injury cases on the side, and, you know, this was one of them because we felt like we can make a difference.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So you said that Maria and Marta filed their case in 2021. What did they allege?

[Elizabeth Santos]

They alleged that Gutenbauer was liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress, meaning that she had intended to hurt them or had acted with reckless disregard for their well being. In short, that her actions had crossed a line.

[Julia Haney]

The lawsuit also alleged that Goodenbauer and USF were negligent, meaning the school and the coaching staff had a duty to care for them and failed to do so.

[Randy Gaw]

The power dynamic is also a critical component of this contextual analysis. If a random person off the street said the things or did the things to Marta and Maria, there would be no case because that person has no relationship, no power over them. Right. And we in society should have rules basically, like, you can't just sue for random conduct like that. Like, it's not expected to have an impact on you. But Ms. Goodenbauer was a surrogate parent in many ways.

[Julia Haney]

Gaw told us that the legal system has some catching up to do when it comes to emotional abuse. He says there's resistance in the law to mental damages and that judges and jurors are skeptical of plaintiffs who claim they were emotionally damaged.

[Randy Gaw]

So really, you're dealing with a resistance to that in a lot of jurors, or not a lot of jurors, but at least some jurors who just don't think that a purely mental injury is like a real thing, or at least it's a thing that's not as harmful as a physical injury.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So in some ways he's saying it was an uphill battle.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Exactly. GA never expected this case would go to trial. Typically, cases like this are settled out of court. For Marta and Maria, this was also about justice. They said they went through all of this so that other athletes wouldn't have to experience what they did. The trial went on for 10 days, and on the 11th day in July of 2023, the jury reached a verdict.

[Aisha Rascoe]

What did it find?

[Julia Haney]

It found that Gudenbauer's behavior was outrageous towards Marta and that she had either intended to cause Marta harm or had acted with reckless disregard for Marta's well being. But the jury found that these actions had failed to cause Marta severe emotional distress.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay, so they're saying that Goodenbauer crossed the line, but Marta ended up mostly okay. So what about Maria?

[Elizabeth Santos]

Well, the jury sided with Marja, finding that Goodenbauer was liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress and that Marja had suffered severe emotional distress. It also found that Gutenbauer and USF were grossly negligent. It awarded Marria $250,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

[Randy Gaw]

What I do remember is when the jury verdict was read afterwards, her sobbing with joy, you know, because she felt validated that she told her story. And a group of impartial people decided that, yes, what happened to you was wrong. You were not overly sensitive.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And did the university accept the ruling, or did they appeal it?

[Julia Haney]

So they filed a motion asking a judge to override the jury's decision. And the judge actually did take away Marja's punitive damages award. But Marja appealed, and late last summer, a panel of appellate judges restored her award, giving her the full amount.

[Elizabeth Santos]

That same panel also granted a retrial for Marta's case after GAW argued that critical evidence was tossed out, which would have impacted the jury's decision. This included allegations that Gudenbauer was emotionally abusive in previous programs. Marta was granted a retrial for her negligence claim, but actually reached a settlement with USF late last month.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And what about Gutenbauer? Like, where is she today?

[Julia Haney]

Last year, USF renewed Goodenbauer's contract through the 2028 season. She's still coaching there today.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Half court shot brought to you by USF head coach Molly Good. A university representative wrote to us in a statement that while the school respects the legal process, it does not agree with all of the outcomes. The representative wrote, quote, the university and our employees have acted in good faith and in accordance with their responsibilities. We continue to stand by the coaches and staff of the women's basketball program.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Oh, okay. And what about Marta and Mario? What happened to them?

[Elizabeth Santos]

So even before they decided to sue, while they were still at usf, the twins paths had already begun to diverge.

[Julia Haney]

Maria didn't play another game for USF after her second visit to the campus counseling center her junior year. Meanwhile, Marta was still playing, and she was playing well.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Marja graduated the next year from USF in 2022 with a degree in architecture. Today, she lives in New York City, where she recently got her MFA in interior design. But the last time we talked to her, she still sounded very much in pain.

[Layla Herrera]

It's definitely something that still impacts me to this day in ways that I couldn't imagine.

[Julia Haney]

She was visibly shaking as she spoke to us on our video call, but said it was important for her to tell her story.

[Layla Herrera]

I want people to know that it's not just the time you spend there with the coach is just. It's so many more years after that and your life changes completely.

[Julia Haney]

Maria says she can't pick up a basketball anymore.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Marta stayed with the USF team, graduating in three years, summa cum laude with a degree in finance. After that, she transferred her eligibility to Tulane in Louisiana. She said it was hard to leave her sister behind.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, tell me about Marta's experience at Tulane.

[Julia Haney]

At Tulane, Marta was elected captain of the basketball team, and she thrived under her new coach.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Lisa Stockton had coached there for 30 years, and her teams appeared in postseason tournaments 21 times. Stockton was inducted into the Conference USA hall of fame in 2023, and here's what she told us about her coaching philosophy.

[I]

There's a difference between challenging someone and pushing them to be successful and being hard on them and being unfair. And I think you've got to know the difference in that.

[Julia Haney]

Stockton retired in 2024. She said that most coaches who are still working would likely be hesitant to speak with us.

[I]

I've been a players coach, but I think right now it's a really tough time to be a coach. And I don't know if that matters in your story, but, you know, when you talk about. Are coaches worried about certain things? Yeah. I mean, it's really hard to do this job where you're pushing people beyond what they think. You know their limits, and you're trying to make them better.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I get that. I mean, it does sound really hard.

[Julia Haney]

And now we're in a world where college athletes can be compensated for their play, where some have large social media followings and where they can transfer to a new school pretty easily.

[I]

It's a power dynamic that's really changed, that's difficult to function with the way it is now.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Stockton says this can make it harder to build a positive team culture. But for Marta, Tulane was a great fit.

[Marta Golic]

It was night and day difference, really. Tulane really showed me what it means and what big of a difference it makes to have great people around you, to have great leadership, to have people who care about you, who push you at the same time to be better, to improve, to achieve your potential.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Marta told us that her sister watched all of her Tulane games and that for Maria, it was like seeing a version of herself out there on the court still able to enjoy playing the game that had required so much personal sacrifice.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Elizabeth and Julia, thank you so much for your reporting and shining a light on this subject that I didn't know much about, and I think that a lot of people probably haven't really thought about.

[Julia Haney]

You're welcome, Aisha.

[Elizabeth Santos]

Yeah, thanks for having us.

[Aisha Rascoe]

That was reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos. This episode of the Sunday Story was produced by Angel Andrew Mambo. Jenny Schmidt edited this episode. Fact checking by Katie Doggart. The engineer was Jimmy Keeley. The Sunday Story team includes Justine Yan and Liana Simstrom. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. A special thanks to the audio program and investigative reporting program at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism as well, well as Shereen Marisol Meraji, who runs the audio program at the school and provided production help with this story. Funding for this story was also supported by the Carter Center's Mental Health Parody Collaborative and the Fund for Investigative Journalism. I'm Aisha Roscoe and Up first is Back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

[Julia Haney]

Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon prime members can listen to upfirst sponsor free through Amazon Music or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get UpFirst +@ +npr.org.

[Aisha Rascoe]

that's +npr.org.