One more thought, re the club. Soccer coaches are mandatory reporters for abuse in Illinois. Every single coach who has coached with him over the years and remained silent should be called into question and I am saying this even though I like some of them and there are some good coaches on that list.
Fear and intimidation starting around U11. “If you want a college scholarship, you better follow our rules.” Coaches scream at kids from an early age which causes those not “strong enough” to quit the sport.
I could not agree more - the biggest disaster of all this is that it starts and ends at the door of the Red Stars. We need to have a long conversation about abuse in youth sports and the door just opened up for that. Hopefully some reporter digs deep - starting with how some of these coaches met their wives and then goes from there. Hopefully parents speak up and tell the stories that their players have told them and hopefully players are inspired to speak!
I actually think soccer is about the worst (maybe hockey too) because the parents can't hear the coaches. Mostly the soccer coaches are on the opposite sideline. Football and basketball the parents are usually sitting right behind the sideline, even baseball they are right there too. Might be time for soccer to implement AYSO rules where the parents and coaches are supposed to be on the same sideline. That was put in place specifically to combat the loony coaches.
Hockey is much worse. Also most of the abuse in youth sports takes place at practices when parents are not around.
Gotta think ECNL will investigate and I would not be surprised if Eclipse lose their ECNL badge altogether. Many posts on Twitter. Wow!
My hunch is Eclipse will be bought out within the next 1-2 months as long as the ECNL badge can be kept. I’m guessing the value has dropped over 50% in the last day too.
Why bought out? Frankly I think FCU should just grab them - they are already in NB and have enough resources to support teams (fields/money etc...). As far as I know - Eclipse does not have any OB resources (fields) yet so I think given the current news - that effort is likely being put on the back-burner. DR moves into the head coaching postion at Red Stars?
The fallout will be interesting as red stars and eclipse are so incestuous. Owners wife works for eclipse. Her sister works for red stars. Both organizations are sponsored by her employer.
I was told last night that Rory is out at Eclipse. No word from the club. My guess is that there may be something similar to what Red Stars issued - ECNL will do the same. If that does happen I hope to see parents convince a higher authority to investigate the ECNL. I mean with CL and RD so close to that operation - how can that not happen? Could be a pivitol moment for the nations top league - not just Red Stars and Eclipse.
He is, and has been removed from everything on the website, even other pages on their site where he might have been mentioned are down. The real answer for both Eclipse and Red Stars is when you see if his wife and sister-in-law disappear. As long as they are still there, he is still there.
Well it looks like no one is picking up the story so my bet is that he still makes $$ from the club and ECNL does nothing. Hope I am wrong but this really shows the state of affairs as far as leagues are concerned.
It is not just ecnl. IYSA should be getting involved since they have teams in IWSL. Clearly there have been Safesport violations and IWSL/IYSA/USYS claims to require Safesport so he should it be able to be involved at all.
I totally agree. But according to a recent tweet, RD may have a parent lawyer that maybe working to clean this up.
He can have all the lawyers he wants but if he is found to violate SafeSport he shouldn’t be allowed to have any involvement. Have these people not learned anything from all the recent examples of Safesport violations that organizations tried to pass the buck on?
Well, since one of his current coaches at Eclipse had a life ban from USSF that he got overturned, do you really think he can't get himself out of hot water? He will step back and let his minions run the show as is, and the players will be too afraid to do anything for fear of hurting their career. The best we can hope for is all the second/third/fourth teams realize they are just cash cows and leave for other local clubs, that will be they only way they feel anything.
Is ECNL part of USSF? I always thought it was self governed so maybe that is how they get around a ban. Also what was the ban for? With all the attention this story is getting anything will be under a microscope
I dont know anything about a coach with a lifetime ban, but here is how the Governance path works between everyone. ECNL is governed by USClubSoccer https://usclubsoccer.org/ecnl/ USClubSoccer is governed by US Soccer - https://usclubsoccer.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/US_Club_Soccer_Bylaws_-_2021-01-20.pdf ECNL Does not list a BOD, but here is the staff on their website - https://www.theecnl.com/staff-directory/ USClubSoccer Board of Directors - https://usclubsoccer.org/board-of-directors/
For those wondering, here is the list showing a USYS ban, does not say why, and I guess that means he can still coach US Club stuff, but it was right here in this thread, LOL. Right there on page 28, an indefinite ban for Risk Management. Does not sound like someone I want coaching my kid, or anyone's kid for that matter. Also, banned from all activities, can't even be a field marshall at their tournament or drive a car pool. Makes you wonder what he did? Went and found the report for October 2020, he is gone from the list. Tells you all you need to know about Eclipse power in US Youth Soccer circles. https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/6/darm_october_2020.pdf