When Marta Galic got ready for practice she spent long minutes in the bathroom splashing cold water on her face, forcing a Superman pose in the mirror and making sure she was composed before stepping onto the court. The ritual began after a freshman‑year drill at the University of San Francisco where, she says, asking to leave for the restroom was denied. She lost control of her bladder during the drill and, according to Marta, when she asked again to clean up the coach refused. The coach later said she was unaware of the episode and has maintained that players are allowed to leave the court to use the restroom.
Marta and her twin sister, Marija, arrived at USF from Zagreb, Croatia, where both had played on the national U20 team. They were recruited together by coach Molly Goodenbour, who had visited Croatia several times and promised full five‑year scholarships. The twins expected a demanding program but also a measure of support and leaned on each other when things got hard.
Instead, they say the tone of the program shifted quickly. They describe constant verbal attacks, public humiliation and name‑calling. Marta later testified that Goodenbour repeatedly labeled her “lazy,” “worthless” and worse. A former teammate described routine insults at practice and alleged racially insensitive remarks from an assistant coach. Goodenbour has declined interview requests and in court filings characterized her remarks as performance‑related criticism rather than personal abuse; she has expressed regret about Marta’s restroom incident.
Near the end of their freshman year the twins secretly recorded performance reviews with Goodenbour and associate coach Janell Jones. In Marta’s recording Goodenbour appears to threaten to revoke her scholarship if she quit on drills — a punishment the NCAA forbids. In Marija’s recording Goodenbour pressured her about how she fit with teammates and her social standing on the team.
In 2021 the twins sued Goodenbour and USF, alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. According to the complaint and subsequent testimony, Marija suffered panic attacks, violent nightmares, depression and two mental‑health crises while at USF; Marta developed physical and psychological symptoms a psychiatrist linked to trauma, including obsessive bathroom trips. The psychiatrist testified that the twins’ conditions were caused by the coach’s behavior.
Their case exposed a larger problem: student‑athletes who experience emotional abuse have few clear routes to accountability. The NCAA has no formal policy specifically addressing emotional abuse for its roughly 550,000 athletes, instead assigning primary responsibility for safety to individual schools. SafeSport, created to investigate sexual abuse in sport, generally does not pursue complaints that are purely emotional in nature and often redirects them to national governing bodies that lack consistent resources. Athletes can report abuse through campus channels—coaches, athletic trainers, Title IX offices, university administrators—but those processes can create conflicts of interest when the institution is investigating its own employees.
The twins and their father raised concerns with multiple USF staff members, including an assistant coach, athletic trainers, a campus psychologist and athletic leadership. USF’s internal probe into Marija’s bullying claim was managed by a human resources official who interviewed only Marija, Goodenbour and Jones and closed the investigation, finding no violation of policy. USF later disputed the twins’ allegations while saying it prioritizes student‑athlete wellbeing.
Sports attorney Martin Greenberg, who has represented numerous college athletes, says best practice is to bring in an independent external investigator because universities inherently face conflicts when reviewing their own staff. The current patchwork of responsibility — with inconsistent reporting channels and little outside oversight — means accountability can be elusive, and coaches accused at one school sometimes land jobs elsewhere.
Goodenbour’s hiring at USF raised questions about how past complaints are handled. Records and reports show earlier accusations at other programs: a 2012 suspension at UC Irvine referenced a pattern of “insensitive and abusive remarks,” and former players at Chico State once complained of degrading treatment, though that school found no wrongdoing. Members of USF’s hiring committee later said they didn’t ask all previous employers about these allegations before hiring her in 2016.
At trial in July 2023 a jury found Goodenbour acted with intent or reckless disregard toward the twins. The panel concluded, however, that only Marija suffered severe emotional distress, awarding her compensatory and punitive damages. Judges later rescinded the punitive award, an appellate panel restored it and ordered a retrial in Marta’s case over excluded evidence about the coach’s past conduct. Marta later reached a settlement.
Despite the lawsuit, USF renewed Goodenbour’s contract through 2028; Goodenbour and Jones remain on staff. The university has said it stands by the women’s basketball coaches and staff.
The twins’ lives diverged after the ordeal. Marija stopped participating with the team after repeated counseling, graduated in 2022 with an architecture degree, and later completed an MFA in interior design in New York, but she says she can’t bring herself to play basketball again. Marta, who finished summa cum laude in three years, transferred to Tulane, used her remaining eligibility there, and found a different experience under longtime coach Lisa Stockton. At Tulane she rediscovered joy in the game, became a team captain and led the team in three‑pointers — a change she described as “night and day.”
Coaches and administrators acknowledge the line between demanding athletes and mistreating them can be hard to define. Longtime coaches note the job has grown more complicated as athletes gain more leverage: name, image and likeness deals, social media followings and easier transfer rules have shifted power dynamics and affected coaching culture.
The twins pursued their case not only for themselves but to signal to other athletes that they are not alone and that abusive treatment can be challenged. Their lawsuit highlighted gaps in policy and oversight for emotional abuse in college athletics, the limits of internal investigations, and the long aftershocks survivors often carry.
This reporting was supported by journalism funding and programs focused on investigative work and mental‑health reporting. Reporters working on these topics welcome other athletes’ accounts of emotional abuse in college sports.