Interim North Carolina Courage coach vows to listen after Paul Riley’s firing
During his first interview since the North Carolina Courage named him its interim head coach amid the fallout of an abuse scandal that has roiled the National Women’s Soccer League, Sean Nahas acknowledged the considerable work ahead to rebuild trust and address players’ trauma.
“The fact that they’re out here playing is a win enough in itself for me,” Nahas said Saturday, nine days after the Courage fired Paul Riley, its former coach, after players he coached in previous jobs accused him of coercing them into sexual relationships.
Those players, Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, detailed their accusations in a report in The Athletic, and claimed Riley lured them into sexual relationships when he coached them between 2010 and 2015. The Courage fired Riley after The Athletic published its report but the team’s primary owner, Steve Malik, has yet to answer to what he knew of Riley’s past.
Malik released a lengthy statement last week but neither he nor any other executive with the club has spoken publicly since Riley’s firing. After the NWSL postponed all of its games last weekend, the Courage resumed play on Wednesday but the team didn’t make Nahas available to reporters until Saturday, the day before the Courage’s match at the Houston Dash.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s been tough the last week or so,” Nahas said. “I’ll be honest with you, I still haven’t processed it. My full time and attention, along with the staff and the club, has been for the players, and so I really haven’t had time, nor do I know when I’ll have time, to really process it.
“And when I say process it, really wonder what the heck, or the heck did we get here.”
Riley became the third NWSL coach to be fired or resign this season as a result of misconduct allegations. The Washington Spirit fired Richie Burke on Sept. 28 after an NWSL investigation confirmed allegations of emotional and verbal abuse that The Washington Post had earlier reported. In July, Farid Benstiti resigned as head coach of the OL Reign in Tacoma, Washington, and he has since been accused of verbally abusing players.
The day after the Courage fired Riley amid the sexual abuse allegations, Lisa Baird resigned as the commissioner of the NWSL. The league is facing scrutiny for how it handled accusations against Riley in 2014 and ‘15, when the NWSL investigated those allegations but allowed Riley to continue coaching.
The NWSL Players Association earlier this week released a list of eight demands and called for the “systemic transformation” of the league. Among those demands are a call for cooperation with a widespread investigation into abusive conduct throughout the league, and that players have a voice in choosing the NWSL’s next commissioner.
“The reckoning has already begun,” the league’s players association said in a statement. “We will not be silent. We will be relentless in our pursuit of a league that deserves the players in it.”
Nahas, who’d been an assistant coach with the Courage before taking over for Riley, said the team has provided players with trauma psychologists “that they have access to, whenever they need it.” Nahas was “a bit emotional,” he said, upon addressing the team after its first game back.
“I wasn’t sure what type of response I was going to get — we would get — from the players because of everything that’s happened,” he said. “But I told them how much I loved them and how unbelievably proud I was of them, and how proud the club was of them, how proud they should be of each other, and using it as a foundation to start something new.”
The focus now, he said, is on listening.
“Letting them have their say,” Nahas said. “Letting them feel that they — we’re not telling them, we’re asking them. Asking them, ‘What do you guys need? What would make you guys most comfortable?’
“ ... I think it’s important that we listen. We’re not going through it. They are.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Interim North Carolina Courage coach vows to listen after Paul Riley’s firing."
