sport news Parents of college rower file wrongful-death lawsuit former coach of pushing ... trends now
Parents of a former college rower have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the University of California-San Diego and his coach, Geoff Bond after their son committed suicide.
Brenda and Brian Lilly Sr. accuse that Bond pushed Brian Lilly Jr. beyond repair following verbal abuse during his career at Cal.
On New Year´s Day nearly two years ago, Parker Kinney spent the day with Brian Lilly Jr. at picturesque Scripps Beach in the San Diego area and realized his friend had become a shadow of his former self.
Kinney and Lilly walked on the sand for hours and went to dinner. At the end of the night before saying goodbye, they opened up about their shared struggles while rowing for the coach at the time at University of California-San Diego and how it had affected their well-being.
Yet Kinney couldn´t possibly fully grasp the depths of Lilly´s despair that afternoon: The 19-year-old college rower took his own life just three days later.
Kinney is convinced his friend had been taken to the edge by verbal abuse from coach Geoff Bond. Lilly´s parents feel the same way.
'This guy basically squashed Brian's self-esteem, his threat to push Brian off the team. And I don´t need to have a sports psychologist in here to tell me how damaging that was,' father Brian Lilly Sr. said.
Brenda and Brian Lilly Sr. have filed the suit against Bond and the school, alleging the coach mistreated their son largely because he challenged Bond's decision to allow a rower to remain on the team despite allegations of sexual misconduct against the athlete.
Brenda and Brian Lilly look at photos of their son Brian Lilly Jr. in their Easton, Conn. home
They are adamant their son was verbally abused by Bond, leading to his suicide in January 2021. Kinney said he saw the abuse.
'I felt like they were trying to sweep the whole sexual assault allegations under the rug and a decent amount of kids had legitimate concerns about this, being like, "This is pretty messed up," Kinney said.
'A lot of kids didn't speak out about it. Brian did speak out about it, so Geoff retaliated against him. Brian's main concern was that this would harm the integrity of the team, which I agreed with.'
The defense team for Bond, who coached at UC San Diego until last January, filed a motion to dismiss the Lillys' case.
The defense said Bond hadn´t seen Brian Lilly Jr. for the
