Say nothing.
That’s what Caroline Ullring kept telling herself through the final days of March 1999.
She had accused her college tennis coach of sexually assaulting her in a Texas motel room during a spring break trip with the team. In late March, she had told athletic department officials about it, including a counselor and the senior women’s administrator, who briefed the athletic director about the allegations. The message Ullring felt she was getting from officials at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was that it would be best to keep this quiet.
The coach, Lew Gerrard, told the same officials what he told The Athletic earlier this year. He admitted to drinking in the presence of the team, perhaps touching Ullring’s thigh and giving players massages. Nothing else.
He agreed to resign. He denied assaulting Ullring.
Ullring says she was told that if she took her story to the police or other authorities, it would be her word against his. Everything would become public. There was only one way to ensure privacy.
Say nothing.
For the next 20 years, that’s largely what she did.
A teammate who heard rumors about the reasons behind Gerrard’s departure asked Ullring about them shortly after he resigned. She said she couldn’t talk about it. She didn’t…
