Courtesy of Yale Athletics
In Nov. 2019, Yale women’s soccer coach Brendan Faherty left his position following impropriety allegations by two former University of New Haven athletes. Both played on the UNH women’s soccer team when Faherty was coach.
The allegations surfaced during an investigation by the News, which involved conversations with seven sources who played on Faherty’s team over the course of seven years. The News brought its findings to Yale officials, who shortly after wrote in a statement that Faherty was no longer employed by the University. According to current News Editor-in-Chief Mackenzie Hawkins, who conducted the investigation, it was never made clear to the News whether the coach stepped down or was fired.
The alleged impropriety consisted of two separate allegations. One allegation of sexual misconduct held that Faherty insisted a player sleep in his bed following a drunken drive home from a concert, and that he groped the player’s breast while she was in bed. Another player alleged a consensual sexual relationship with the coach, which she did not object to at the time, but which has since made her feel “exploited.”
“It devastated me … I became more isolated and depressed — I had a secret life I was unable to speak about,” the second player told the News during the investigation. “As a young woman barely into my twenties, this was horrible and pretty unhealthy.”
The women sourced and quoted by the News were granted anonymity for various reasons including fear of retribution, community ties, privacy concerns, job security concerns, fear of exposing a player’s identity and discomfort with the premise of the investigation.
The second player said she and Faherty engaged in a romantic relationship during her second UNH soccer season, which later turned into a sexual one, full of sexual interactions usually initiated by the coach. She said Faherty held control of the relationship because, as he told her, he had his job and reputation at stake.
“It was consensual in that it was not forced,” the player said to Hawkins during the investigation. “I do, however, remember feeling kind of frozen, like I couldn’t believe it was actually happening … He had been a trusted adult in my life and he was older than me, so it seemed surreal that he would even have an interest in me in that way.”
The player said Faherty was solely interested in sex once she left UNH. In those years, she tried to create distance between herself and the coach but was continuously pursued by him. Faherty sent her Facebook messages after she graduated, including inquiries into what she was wearing and a comment saying that jeans “show off your ass” in November of 2009.
Officials from UNH did not respond to requests to comment. Faherty also did not respond to a variety of requests for comment — about the allegations and about his Facebook messages. However, Faherty did attempt to repeatedly contact both players alleging impropriety once he became aware that the News was investigating. Faherty also did not respond to the News’ inquiries about these attempts for contact.
The second allegation against Faherty — of sexual misconduct — was made by another member of the team. The player said she had attended a concert in January 2009 with her coach and two teammates, and that she accepted an offer for a car ride back to New Haven from Faherty.
During the ride, she said Faherty was drunk and driving dangerously. The coach drove past the exit to UNH and dropped off the other two players at their off-campus housing. Faherty then told her he didn’t want to drive all the way back to UNH, instead demanding that the player stay the night in his home. Once at the house, he also rejected her request to sleep on the couch, she said, and she wound up in his bed, where she said he was “groping me underneath my shirt [and] commenting about my breasts.”
The player wanted to avoid any encounters with Faherty following the incident and thus did not file a complaint.
After the News published its investigation, Theodore Heiser and Suisman Shapiro, Faherty’s lawyers, released a statement denying the players’ allegations on behalf of the coach.
“Mr. Faherty is deeply disappointed in the allegations from more than ten years ago that have been made in the Yale Daily News and the actions taken by Yale University in response to the report,” Heiser and Shapiro wrote. “He denies having engaged in any non-consensual relationships. He further denies having any inappropriate sexual interaction or contact of any kind. Based upon the report, he is no longer employed at Yale.”
Also shortly after the News published, the University of New Haven also announced an independent investigation into the allegations in a statement to the UNH community.
“Be assured that the University, and I personally as a parent and educator, are committed to maintaining a working and learning environment in which everyone feels safe, respected and valued,” UNH President Steven Kaplan stated. “There is absolutely zero tolerance for anyone who jeopardizes the safety or sense of self-worth of students, faculty, staff or any other member of the University family.”
Faherty was the second Yale women’s soccer coach to leave the University under unusual circumstances after Rudy Meredith left for his role in the Varsity Blue admissions scandal, in which Meredith pleaded guilty for fraud and conspiracy charges.