By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor
A contentious legal case threatens to cast a shadow over the 2016-17 women’s varsity water polo season. Richard Corso, for more than a decade head coach of the University of California at Berkeley women’s water polo team, filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit last December in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda, against his former employer. Corso contends that in August 2016 he was pressured to resign so that Mike Williams, hired the previous year as Cal’s Director of Athletics, could hire a woman. After a national search, Cal hired Coralie Simmons in October 2016.
In a sport where female head coaches are rare—Coach Simmons is one of only a handful of women with top jobs at the 61 schools that field varsity women’s teams—Corso’s complaint shines an unwelcome spotlight on one of the country’s premier women’s water polo programs.
An acknowledged innovator in utilizing sports science, sports psychology and technology over a 42-year coaching career, Corso was elected in 2015 to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, was head coach for both the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team (at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics) and the Canadian National Team (prior to qualification for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics), from 1986 – 2005 was a highly regarded head boys’ and girls’ water polo coach at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, and complied a 227-98 career record while at Cal, including a second place finish in the 2011 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship, the program’s highest ever.
Swimming World spoke last week with Coach Corso and his lawyer, Andrea Tytell, who contends that her client was unfairly treated by an athletics department that wooed then—alleging NCAA violations—disposed of him.
“The NCAA investigation was contrived and part of the mechanism to attack Coach Corso’s credibility, through humiliation, so that no reasonable person with his credentials would remain,” Ms. Tytell said.
In response to a request from Swimming World, Herb Benenson, Assistant Athletic Director, Media Relations at University of California Athletics, forwarded a previously released statement concerning the suit.
“Many of the allegations in Coach Corso’s lawsuit are demonstrably false, and statements that the lawsuit attributes to Cal Athletics administrators are entirely fictitious.” [The statement is contained in its entirety at the end of this interview.]
Michael Randazzo for Swimming World: How did you get hired at Cal?
Richard Corso: In 2005 I was recruited by Berkeley to be their women’s water polo coach. Kirk Everist [head coach for Cal men’s water polo team], who I had coached in the Olympics, and Don McQuade contacted me to talk about leaving Harvard-Westlake to coach at Cal. In December of 2005, I took the job.
I left one of the two best high school water polo teams in the country. I also left Los Angeles Water Polo Club, one of the top club teams [which Corso founded in the late 1980s].
Things that were said, including “High Performance Initiative” [instituted by former Cal AD Sandy Barbour in 2009], as well as “world class program” were music to my ears. I left everything in Los Angeles; [not only changing jobs] but from a family level. It was huge commitment.
What did you find when you arrived at Cal in 2005?
Before I got there, the Cal women’s team was not good—you want a second source, ask their opponents.
I cleaned house. Athletes [were made] to show up for class, to take responsibility for their injuries. It took three to four years for the program to flourish [especially] academically. [I] had a 100% graduation rate [Cal records indicate a 95% graduation rate for freshmen entering in 2008-9 and 94% in 2009-10] and the team G.P.A. was over 3.0.
How did you change the culture at Cal?
I took chances on kids, [and] every year I had three kids on the team doing better at Cal than they did in high school.
[My accomplishment] was making a top-flight athletic and academic program. Women’s water polo at Cal was on par with the university’s mission statement, not only for athletics but for academics.
What caused a change of heart about the program?
After I signed [a] one-year contract [in 2015—a departure from two five-year contracts signed previously], I took a 365° evaluation of what had changed, what is going to change [given a new athletic department administration; Barbour left Cal in 2014 for the top athletics job at Penn State].
[I decided] I’ve got a year here [but] I can no longer work for that athletic department after I saw what they were doing.
The 2017 team was returning three Olympians — Dora Antal, Anna Illes and Roser Tarrago.
What I left on the table was a team that was world class. After June 1 [recruiting] commitments, we had domestically and internationally what would have been the best women’s team I ever had. They would have beaten the 2011 team by five goals.
My players had great attitudes, bought into the program, were great teammates and serious about school. We would have been the best team in the country.
Describe the consequences of Cal’s action in regard to your employment.
Basically, there are eight or nine top jobs in the country: the two Olympic jobs, then the men’s and women positions at Cal, Stanford, UCLA, jobs for coaches at my level. [Jovan Vavic coaches both USC’s men and women.]
I’d already been head men’s Olympics coach as well as head of the Canadian water polo team. The way I was discarded by Berkeley, the opportunities are [now] not as great for me to secure one of those [top] positions. That’s what I trained 30 years for.
Because of what happened at Berkeley, the possibility [of coaching at the top] no longer exists. It’s tragic because it’s not based upon my record; it’s based upon somebody else’s perspective.
Cal has described what they characterize as serious NCAA violations during your tenure.
There was a year to 18 months where [Cal] didn’t have any violations. In transition to Jay Larson [Cal Associate Athletic Director, Compliance, hired in January 2015], no violations were reported. You need violations [for the NCAA]; nobody’s perfect. They were looking out for things at Cal Berkeley, and if you’re not toeing the line academically, they don’t care about win-loss.
In the athletics department—the coaches I worked with—they toed the line because you [had to]. [With a] new AD, a new compliance officer, [they] were trying to build a political case.
After so many years, with three Olympic teams, coaching at Yale and Harvard-Westlake, I was not interested in politics. I was interested in the culture of my team. [I was] looking for them to succeed. I wasn’t going to change my motivation when I went to Berkeley.
Statement from Cal Athletics:
Many of the allegations in Coach Corso’s lawsuit are demonstrably false, and statements that the lawsuit attributes to Cal Athletics administrators are entirely fictitious.
First, in May 2015, the University received an allegation that Coach Corso had violated NCAA practice time limitations. Cal conducted an investigation which substantiated these allegations, and the University was required in March 2016 to self-report violations to the NCAA. Contrary to the suit’s claim that the allegations were meaningless, the NCAA Enforcement staff felt the violations were very serious and initially considered processing the case as a Level II (major) violation before ultimately determining it should be processed as Level III (secondary). The violation resulted in a significant penalty of a reduction of 48 hours of practice time.
Second, during the course of the investigation, Corso filed an internal claim of gender and age discrimination, which was investigated by the University’s HR Department and found to have no merit.
Third, the allegation that the women’s water polo sport administrator said that Corso was asked to remain as head coach until the department was able to hire a “younger, female coach” is absolutely false.
Lastly, following Corso’s resignation on Aug. 24, 2016, Cal Athletics conducted a thorough national search for a new head women’s water polo coach that included both male and female candidates, ultimately choosing the most qualified person for the position.