Posted on 12/05/2022 11:06:54 AM PST by Loyalist
Portland Thorns FC head coach Rhian Wilkinson reacts after Portland defeated the Kansas City Current in the NWSL soccer championship match against the Kansas City Current, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022, in Washington. Wilkinson resigned Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, just five weeks after she led the team to the championship. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
Canadian Rhian Wilkinson has resigned as the head coach of the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) at the request of the players following her "friendship" with a player, she said Friday.
"During my time as the Thorns coach, a player and I formed a friendship that turned into more complex emotions," Wilkinson wrote on Twitter.
"In mid-October the player shared her feelings for me, and I reciprocated. While this was a human moment, it went no further than this expression of feelings for one another.
"In an effort to follow NWSL and NWSLPA [The National Women's Soccer League Players Association] processes to protect player safety, and to be as transparent as possible, the player and I immediately stopped spending time outside of training together, and soon after stopped all communication outside of work.
"In less than a week, I reported myself to human resources to make sure I had not crossed any ethical lines."
The NWSL and the players' union investigated and found no wrongdoing, according to the Thorns.
"The Portland Thorns and Coach Wilkinson followed all League processes and policies and fully cooperated with this investigation," NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement posted on Portland's website.
"The joint investigative team conducted a thorough investigation that resulted in a finding of no violation of League policies."
Wilkinson said she informed the team of what took place after the investigation concluded but the players had already "found out" before she was able to tell them herself.
"The narrative regarding my actions has now taken on a life of its own, and as a result I can understand that the Portland players feel hurt and have to deal with another non-soccer related situation," Wilkinson wrote.
"The result of this being that the players have asked for my resignation, and I have agreed to it.
"The investigative process and player and staff willingness to use human resources and league reporting is critically important," Wilkinson tweeted.
"If the women's game is to avoid further power imbalances and player abuses, these systems must be used and there must be trust in the process and its results. We must keep highlighting these processes," added Wilkinson.
Wilkinson led the club to a 10-3-9 record and Portland's league-best third championship in her only season as head coach.
I realize I am likely to get stoned for saying this, but I must admit I tend to view male vs female homosexuality very differently. Male homos, at least those few I have been acquainted with, have one primary goal in their actions: to get their physical jollies. With whom, or what, is immaterial. They can and do go to “bath houses” and have sex with MANY other like-minded phags in a single visit. No emotion involved, purely animal lust.
I have known several lesbians in my time, and nearly all are on much more of an emotional level. It is almost always an emotional relationship, sometimes not even involving sex. Also, lesbian sex is different because they cannot pass reproductive DNA between partners. They can go through the motions to a degree, but it is all based on a much higher emotional level than that which I am capable.
A few lesbians have been my good friends in my earlier days. Though I may see them as occasionally having an emotional screw loose, I always had great respect for them as persons.
I don’t think this female coach should have lost her job and gained the ire of the community over this incident. Things like this happen all the time among young women. I have read several times, and I believe it, that if truth be told the vast majority of women have and at least one emotional bond in their lives which could be labeled “lesbian”.
This woman made a good explanation, truthfully it appears, and didn’t make any excuses nor attempts to avoid her fate. Obviously she was a good coach, so she should be left alone and all this forgotten.
The head coach has to be impartial and dedicated to simply making the team be the best it can be in order to accomplish the ultimate goal of WINNING. How can she do that if she has a romantic relationship with one of her players? The other players would always be questioning her motives with respect to that player. This is not a little league or even high school endeavor where the coach's son (or daughter) gets all the playing time.
“Power imbalances.” /hurl
Their wives?
"I'll take 'Things That Men Would Never Say" for $300, Alex."
“The other players would always be questioning her motives with respect to that player.”
Exactly. You can’t have the head coaching boinking one of the players. It destroys morale.
Could the answer be . . . Lesbians?
I’m a male lesbian...I could probably help.
Correct. She’s a good coach, make her the coach of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team.
Women’s soccer and basketball have done more to promote lesbianism among young women today than any other force within society.Dinah Shore says:
They are called "LUG's": Lesbian until graduation. My wife may was a LUG.
What about Women’s Tennis and Golf?
Much older pedigree and sources of scandalous stories for decades before women played basketball and soccer professionally.
I knew a number of bisexual women in my earlier days. One was married (to a man) with several kids. Another was my college girlfriend.
I think bisexuality is more common among women than many people realize.
If you would like more information about what’s happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me. Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
How about a superior NCO or commissioned Officer in the military? That is why buggery should be punished in the military by a firing squad, and women have no place in this nations fighting force.
If the punishment seems harsh for the buggers and buggees, they can not go into the service.
The military is life and death writ large. Sports seems more important, but it is meaningless.
I've heard that the girl-on-girl kissing practice they get in college makes for happy husbands later in life. I hope you have been fortunate in that respect. :-)
38+ years.
Congratulations and God Bless you both. That’s wonderful!
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