A coach accused in a federal lawsuit of turning a blind eye to hazing by members of the Ursuline High School football team had been accused of misconduct and emotionally abusing players — and even threatening to burn down their homes — while head coach at another Ohio high school.
Timothy McGlynn, the defensive coordinator for Ursuline’s “Fighting Irish” in Youngstown, was placed on administrative leave this month while an investigation takes place into the allegations in the Sept. 2 lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division. The lawsuit alleges that some players were physically abused by some of their fellow teammates while on a football camp trip in June.
But before McGlynn was hired at Ursuline, the lawsuit says that he resigned as head coach at Champion High School in Champion Township amid allegations of misconduct, including threatening players and irregularities with booster funds.
In October 2020, McGlynn was notified in a letter from Champion schools superintendent John Grabowski that he was being placed on administrative leave after several allegations of misconduct and emotional abuse of players were corroborated during an investigation by the school district. McGlynn was also accused of misusing booster funds, according to the letter. A copy of the letter was obtained through a public records request with the Champion school district.
Students reported that McGlynn routinely verbally abused them, with one student alleging that he threatened to kill someone multiple times and threatened to firebomb that person’s house, according to a summary of the allegations prepared by the Champion school district. The summary also includes one student saying that McGlynn hit him. “And then he goes on to cuss at you as he’s hitting you,” the student said. “It’s degrading,” he added. Other students detail examples of being forced to play through injuries, with one student being ridiculed for being “soft.”
The names of the students were redacted from the records to protect the students’ identities.
“Through the investigative process, several of the allegations from the original complaints have been corroborated by other students, and other adults employed by the district,” Grabowski wrote in the Oct. 21, 2020, letter to McGlynn. “The amount of physicality in your coaching practices, and emotionally charged language are not acceptable in the District.”
In the letter, Grabowski informed McGlynn that he was being placed on paid administrative leave and the Champion High School football team would be turned over to another coach to finish out the season “as we finalize our investigation into any wrongdoing.”
“You are not to have any further contact with the team during this time,” Grabowski wrote.
McGlynn, who had been the team’s head coach for three seasons, did not contest the allegations and resigned, Grabowski said.
Now he is one of the defendants in a federal civil rights lawsuit, filed anonymously by the mother of an incoming freshman player under Title IX, a federal law that requires schools that receive federal funds to put safeguards in place to protect students from sexual predators. The other defendants in the case are the school, its principal, the assistant principal, the head football coach, another assistant football coach and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, as well as 11 unnamed players and their parents. The players are all minors.
The mother alleges that her son and others were physically and sexually abused by their teammates during a multistate football camp trip and that the coaches knew about the brutal hazing but did nothing to stop it, according to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the mother said that when she told McGlynn that her son had been repeatedly assaulted, McGlynn reportedly replied, “It’s just boys being boys.”
Since the lawsuit was filed, the Catholic school’s president, the Rev. Richard Murphy, has placed McGlynn and another assistant football coach, Christian Syrianoudis, on administrative leave. Head coach Daniel Reardon has been suspended. Neither Reardon nor Syrianoudis have responded to calls and emails for comment about the allegations in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses top school administrators — Principal Matthew Sammartino and Assistant Principal Margaret Damore — of acting “solely for the glory of its football team alone” and of failing “to take the appropriate actions to address the misconduct.” Both Sammartino and Damore remain in their positions with the school, according to a spokesperson for the school who would not comment further.
Last week, Murphy benched the entire football team and canceled the rest of the season. Then on Tuesday, the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced it had barred Ursuline football players from playing for other schools this season.
“Disciplinary actions were taken against some students; others left the program or our school entirely before discipline could be imposed,” the school said in a statement Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Youngstown Police Department is investigating the allegations outlined in the lawsuit.
“We can confirm the YPD is actively investigating these allegations,” a department spokesperson said in an email to NBC News. “However, due to the complexity of the matter and the involvement of minors, we will not be commenting further at this time.”
The lawsuit also alleges that McGlynn “physically abused at least one Ursuline football player” and that the head coach and school officials knew about it and “did nothing.”
“McGlynn’s physical abuse of players didn’t end when he was jettisoned from Champion,” the lawsuit states.
It’s not clear how McGlynn was vetted before he was hired by Ursuline. McGlynn could not be reached by phone for comment.
When NBC News reached out to the diocese to find out if McGlynn had undergone a background check, a spokesperson referred a reporter to Ursuline athletic director John DeSantis.
DeSantis did not respond to an email from NBC News.
McGlynn’s past problems at Champion were no secret. An article about McGlynn’s ouster from that football program was published five years ago by NBC affiliate WFMJ in Youngstown.
McGlynn was named the Champion head coach in 2017 after nearly a decade of coaching football in other small Ohio towns.
Grabowski and other school officials opened an investigation into McGlynn after receiving numerous complaints from players and parents.
“Athletes in your program presented allegations of misconduct and possible emotional abuse to the high school administration,” Grabowski wrote in his letter to McGlynn. “Also, the Football Boosters presented separate allegations of possible misuse of booster funds.”
In a separate summary of allegations, unnamed players told school officials that McGlynn mistreated them and the other team coaches. The summary contains 27 comments, but it does not name the players, nor does it say how many were quoted.
McGlynn’s treatment of the team was talked about in “hushed tones,” according to the summary of allegations.
“We all talk quietly because if he overhears us talking about how he screamed at us yesterday or he made fun of our families or he said he was going to burn our houses down, then we would face 30 times the amount of anger than we faced the day before,” another quote in the summary reads.
The summary includes several allegations detailing verbal abuse and includes an allegation that McGlynn threatened to kill a coach for calling a play he didn’t like.
