Report: Ex-NWSL Coach Rory Dames Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Youth Players

Former Red Stars coach Rory Dames was accused by former youth players of sexual, verbal and emotional misconduct in the 1990s and 2000s in an exhaustive report published Tuesday by the Washington Post's Molly Hensley-Clancy.

Among the allegations reported are that Dames cultivated an inappropriate relationship with a player who was 14; more than a dozen former youth players saying he was verbally and emotionally abusive toward them as teenagers; and allegations of physical abuse, including a girl saying in a 1998 police report that Dames pinched her when she refused to give him a massage and a boy who said Dames punched him in the stomach.

Dames resigned in mid-November, hours before multiple allegations of emotional and verbal abuse were published about him. His resignation also came less than 48 hours after leading the Red Stars into the NWSL championship, where they lost to the Spirit.

That investigation, which was also conducted by the Washington Post, detailed Dames's behavior, which allegedly ranged from verbal abuse during team activities to off-the-field expectations that went beyond the boundaries of a normal player-coach relationship.

Per that October Post report, Dames had asked players to spend significant time at lunches and dinners with him that he said were mandatory, joked that an Asian player should be smarter than how she was playing, and, on one instance, benched a player after she introduced him to her boyfriend. 

On Tuesday, the Post reported on a 1998 police report that said Dames was investigated after a former player complained he had touched her inappropriately on her upper thigh when she was a minor. In the report, other players at Dames’s club, Eclipse Select, said he had made sexual jokes at their expense. One player, per the report, said Dames would “talk about foreplay and ‘blowjobs’ and often referred to male climax as ‘snowing.’” Dames was 25 at the time of the police report. 

Megan Rapinoe, a star of the U.S. women's national team and on the NWSL's OL Reign, said in a tweet that Tuesday's reporting showed “yet another monster operating in plain sight for decades.”

Rapinoe added: “To all the little girls who have turned into women who have suffered verbal, emotional, sexual and physical abuse under Rory you have been failed to deeply. You are brave beyond belief.”

Christen Press, a star on the USWNT and a member of Angel City FC, said in a previously filed formal complaint about Dames, which was obtained in the fall by the Post, “I was terrified of what Rory would do and say if he found out this was something I’d said. And then I was made to feel by U.S. Soccer that I was in the wrong, there was nothing to report, and that this was acceptable.” Press had played for Dames for four seasons with Chicago.

In Tuesday's report, players had told police they were concerned with how frequently Dames spent time with girls outside of soccer. In the police report, obtained by the Post, there were also allegations of “degrading” and sexual comments by Dames, including an incident during a practice when he told a player “she had a nice ‘a--’ and he wanted to sleep with her.”

Dames, 48, was one of four NWSL coaches last year dismissed over misconduct allegations. A fifth, former Racing Louisville FC coach Christy Holly, was fired "for cause" with no additional details given. All were men. 

Former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird also resigned last year after sidestepping pleas to reopen an investigation against former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley, who was accused of sexual misconduct.

Dames's lawyer, Susan Bogart, said in Tuesday's report the allegations against Dames of sexual harassment and grooming were false, adding that the allegations against him in the 1998 police report were “unfounded.” To the Post, she noted the decisions by the prosecutor and the social worker as evidence that Dames had not acted abusively toward players in '98. Bogart said that after the investigation, there were no formal allegations of sexual misconduct “by three entities specifically charged with and uniquely trained to investigate such cases.”

Dames had been with the Red Stars organization since 2011, joining the club before the NWSL's 2013 launch. At the time of his initial resignation, the club said in a statement, “we continually evaluate our team and front office environment," but did not allude specifically to the Washington Post's report.

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