Portraits for Change

Sexual assault culture in athletics needs attention.

BY DARCIE ZUDELL | PHOTOS BY SAM WARREN | DESIGN BY RACHEL RECTOR

CONTENT WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS MENTION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond went from being established members of Steubenville High School’s football team to being found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl, who was reported to have drunk to the point of unconsciousness. The incident happened at a party, where those involved posted incriminating videos, pictures and tweets about the event.

The story blew up when a local crime blogger, Alexandria Goddard, made a post showcasing some questionable social media posts made by those at the party. When the story blew up, the digital activist group Anonymous hacked the high school football team’s website.

Anonymous then posted a video detailing the crime committed by the community-beloved football players on the website. People from all over the country flocked to the town, which has population of less than 20,000, to protest the harmful idea that dreams and promising futures were wrongfully destroyed. In the 10 years following the Steubenville case involving twostar high school athletes, a more nuanced discussion has taken the forefront: How does sexual assault culture impact sports?

The Ambassadors to the Survivor Advocacy Program (ASAP) at Ohio University has been asking the same question about abuse within sports teams on and off the field during their meetings.

“The intention was to create a workshop to inform athletes about how they can support each other in instances where something like that would happen,” says Mary Kate McElroy, a current graduate student at OU.

McElroy is getting their Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting. McElroy strives to support survivors of sexual assault in any way they can. They are a member of ASAP, which is a student-run organization serving the Survivor Advocacy Program (SAP) on campus. This current initiative hits home to McElroy as a former college athlete and a survivor of sexual assault.

McElroy understands the stigmas that follow when reporting crimes of sexual violence.

“You want people to think well of you,” McElroy says. “The way that sports can exacerbate that is, if it's a prominent sports person that is the perpetrator, then it makes it even more difficult because of their position.”

McElroy recounts how no reports were filed when they told trusted coaches at their previous university about their experience.

“My coaches knew that this was going on,” McElroy says. “They were mandated reporters and no one said anything or filed a case on my behalf.”

In the state of Ohio , school staff members are obligated to be mandated reporters, meaning that they are required to report to someone when a student discusses incidents of disorderly conduct, even if a student asks them not to.

In the Steubenville case, C oach Reno Saccoccia was given jurisdiction over his teammates' punishment when details of the party and sexual assault got the school’s attention, according to an interview between Steubenville’s former superintendent, Michael McVey and CBS Evening News. Footage from the investigation revealed that Saccoccia chose not to initially suspend the boys from the team because he did not want more attention to be drawn to the incident.

Mays sent a text message to a classmate during the initial investigation, according to forensics investigator, Joann Gibb , stating: "I got Reno to take care of it." Mays went on to say that "[Saccoccia] was joking about it so I'm not that worried."

When asked by a female reporter about the incident, Saccoccia got uncomfortably close to her and said: “You’re going to get yours. And if you don’t get yours, somebody close to you will.”

A Change.org petit ion created in 2013, titled "Steubenville Schools: Fire Coach Reno Saccoccia" has garnered over 100,000 supporters. Despite the investigation into the case, Saccoccia remains the head coach of the Big Red Football team at Steubenville High School. In 2023, he is currently nominated for the National Federation of State High School Associations' National Coach of the Year Award.

Steubenville is known for its high school football team as well as the attention and revenue the football team generates. There can be a certain attitude that teams and athletes are untouchable due to the community support they receive, and more importantly, the revenue they generate.

“We know that athletes are in kind of already unique power dynamics within their sports,” Kacey Long, the director of programs at The Army of Survivors, says. “So, whether that is tied to the possibility of future scholarships, that being their safe space and community or even eventually being their income and career, there's already a really concerning power imbalance there.”

The Army of Survivors is a nonprofit organization aiming to raise awareness, accountability and transparency about sexual violence committed against athletes. The organization was founded in 2018 by over 40 survivors of sexual assault, according to the nonprofit’s website.

Long says a lot of athletes do not come forward in cases of sexual assault or abuse for a plethora of reasons, one of which is that they do not know how to report abuse.

"We've seen that there's a lot of research that shows that folks don't know where to report, how to report and what they can do," Long says.

Long also revealed a shocking statistic: 13 percent of athletes are reported victims of sexual assault or abuse that occurred during their participation in sports. The statistic Long is referring to was calculated by the World Players Association in 2021.

“Athletes deserve to feel safe within those spaces and that they get a final say over their body and their autonomy,” Long says. “Making sure that they know that they deserve to have safety and comfort within all of those spaces.”

Coaches play a significant role in the lives of athletes, which is why The Army of Survivors offers an eight-week module called the Compassionate Coaches Program. In these eight weeks, coaches are challenged to understand trauma, cultures that promote abuse and how to report instances of abuse. The program aims to empower coaches to train athletes in a trauma-informed manner that recognizes them as individuals rather than just trophies.

“I think one of the biggest things that we can recommend to parents and coaches is to just have more conversations, more transparency and really kind of connecting with those athletes,” Long says. “Seeing them outside of just their statistics or how many points they score, how many yards they run in a game.”

If sexual assault is normalized within a team, what is stopping individuals from continuing that cycle of abuse off the field? By prioritizing the physical and emotional wellbeing of athletes and holding all individuals accountable for their actions, the prevention of the normalization of abusive behavior in sports and society can move along.

Some athletes and their supporters use outlets separate from sports to advocate for survivors of sexual violence. After being dismissed by coaches and administrators at their old university for sharing their story, McElroy is dedicating their thesis to giving a voice to other survivors who have endured injustices related to the neglect of survivors.

"I really felt like there needed to be a better platform for survivors to be able to tell their stories in a more safe way," McElroy says. "I found out that the media kind of can commodify your story and just turn it into clickbait and look over all of the important parts and just pull out something that fits in their narrative."

The Steubenville case was escalated greatly by evidence that was posted and exposed on social media. In the documentary surrounding the case released in 2018,“Roll Red Roll,” Goddard spoke on the guilt she felt after bringing light to the social media posts made on her crime blog. Goddard got emotional when she expressed, “It gets difficult for me because you know by making her relive this by being vocal and demanding that Steubenville know that they didn’t do the right thing.”

McElroy plans to collaborate with survivors in a reference collection process, during which uplifting and empowering portraits of the survivors will be taken in locations and outfits of their choice. The portraits will be painted to highlight survivors importance, strength and resilience. Along with the portraits, McElroy plans to include the written stories of each survivor to showcase.

“Portraiture through history has been used to connote individuals with great importance,” says McElroy. “So like the monarchies and rich families, so I want to like kind of do that same thing for my survivors and show them their importance and their incredible strength.”

ASAP and The Army of Survivors are organizations dedicated to assisting survivors who may be reluctant to report their experiences due to external factors such as their social status or the apprehension of being criticized or judged for speaking out.

In the sports world, when an athlete shows strength, they are rewarded and praised; that strength is sometimes not recognized when it comes to reporting sexual violence. Shifting this stigma can be the start to real change.

“Until we culturally stop rewarding these people or brushing this under the rug, I don't know how that's really going to change,” says McElroy. “I think it just takes a cultural shift to take this seriously.” b