Honeybun watch….

 Anson Dorrance is back in the news.

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the challenges facing women’s sports today is the prevalence of coach-athlete romantic relationships. The problem ones are not the one-time thing, but when a coach makes a regular habit of dating athletes.

Romantic relationships between coaches and athletes often go hand-in-hand with sexual harassment, because the athletes who don’t cooperate are penalized.

When I was doing my original research for the sexual harassment survey, one name just kept coming up over and over…Anson Dorrance, coach of the hugely successful University of North Carolina women’s soccer team. Dorrance had been accused of sexual harassment by several of his players, but the charges didn’t go anywhere.

Now Dorrance is back in the news. A federal appeals court has decided to hear a complaint against Dorrance filed by one of his former athletes. 

Nobody is guilty until convicted, but I hope that the University of North Carolina has learned a lot from the recent Duke lacrosse scandals, and that they cooperate fully with the current investigation. 

What North Carolina should do is assign an official spokesperson to the situation to make sure that both the athletic department and the university are being represented during the investigation.  Also, it would be wise for North Carolina to have an official web site about the situation.  This web site could include facts about Dorrance, a timeline of the case, and contact information if anyone has a question or comment. 

North Carolina also should issue a simple statement that says that both the university and athletic department will cooperate with the authorities and will have an official statement after the conclusion of the case.