Idaho volleyball head coach Chris Gonzalez resigned under pressure on Friday after a university commissioned investigation that confirmed dozens of allegations of abuse and bullying by Gonzalez first detailed in a Southern California News Group report last December.
While current and former Idaho players welcomed Gonzalez removal, saying it was long overdue, they expressed outrage in interviews with SCNG over the university’s decision to shut down the investigation without addressing how university officials ignored repeated complaints about Gonzalez behavior since the opening weeks of the 2022 season.
“With his resignation, the investigation stops, and no further action will be taken,” the university said in a statement to SCNG.
“At least he’s not going to be able to harm any other athletes in the future,” said Marissa Drange, a former Idaho player. “But think the university should have continued to pursue the investigation. It just kind of a cop out to say oh, he resigned.”
While the university said Gonzalez resigned “prior to the conclusion of the university’s investigative process,” attorneys hired by the university had forwarded dozens of findings to school officials that confirmed SCNG reporting of Gonzalez’s routine abusive behavior.
The move comes two months after Gonzalez was placed on leave after a preliminary report by the university’s Office of Civil Rights and Investigations (OCRI) found “sufficient evidence” that Gonzalez committed sex-based harassment, retaliated against Vandals players and violated other university policies, the Southern California News Group has learned.
The OCRI also found “sufficient evidence” that Gonzalez, the Southern California native and former U.S. national team coach, discriminated against players based on national origin and violated three other university policies, according to the OCRI’s 42-page report. The OCRI found insufficient evidence that Gonzalez sexually discriminated against female assistant coaches.
Idaho athletics director Terry Gawlik has been the subject of harsh criticism for how she has handled repeated credible complaints alleging abusive behavior by Gonzalez since October 2022. Several current and former players, as well as parents and Idaho alumni, have called on Gawlik to be fired.
The OCRI investigation has focused on only a part of the allegations by current and former Idaho players, their parents and university employees that Gonzalez has been abusive toward players on an almost daily basis.
Idaho hired the law firm Thompson & Horton to investigate the culture of the school’s volleyball program under Gonzalez in response to a 9,000-word SCNG investigation in December that detailed allegations that the coach routinely physically, verbally, emotionally abused, bullied, body shamed players, pressured them to play or practice against the orders of the university’s sports medicine staff and denied players food. Players also alleged that on at least two occasions Gonzalez physically pushed players so hard in frustration or anger during practices that he knocked them over.
Gonzalez routinely pressured Vandals players who had not been cleared to play or practice by the school’s sports medicine staff to participate in matches, withheld pre-ordered food from players after losses, physically pushed players during practices, bullied and body shamed athletes. and on multiple occasions touched players without getting prior permission from them, making the women uncomfortable, according to summaries of player interviews conducted by attorneys.
The interview summaries, obtained by SCNG, detail what one Idaho starter described as a “fear-based environment” created by Gonzalez and substantiated allegations first reported by SCNG in December and January that prompted the university-commissioned investigation.
Player interactions with Gonzalez, one starter told investigators were “70 percent negative.” The summaries portray Gonzalez, who is 5-51 overall, 1-32 in Big Sky Conference play in two seasons at Idaho, as a coach who has failed to connect with his players and often lashed out in frustration. The Vandals have lost 24 consecutive Big Sky matches.
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The summaries also detail how the players repeatedly voiced concerns to Gawlik that Gonzalez and his staff were putting their physical safety and mental health at risk early in 2022-23 academic year but that Gawlik was dismissive toward them and their concerns.
Thompson & Horton attorneys interviewed more than three dozen people, compiling more than 80 hours of interviews and also “reviewed information provided by players, coaches, other athletic staff, and administrators,” according to an email to Idaho players from Holly McIntush, an attorney for Thompson & Horton.
Current and former Idaho players, their parents and supporters have repeatedly expressed frustration about the length of the investigations and what they describe as the university’s inadequate response to repeated credible allegations.
