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A former youth soccer player filed a lawsuit last week against OL Reign Academy, U.S. Soccer Federation, U.S. Youth Soccer Association and Washington State Youth Soccer claiming a pattern of racist behavior and lost opportunities because of discrimination.
August Hunter, who identifies as a Black Asian American, was part of the academy from 2016-2020. According to the suit, filed Aug. 26 in King County Superior Court, Hunter showed “remarkable skill and potential” as a player but was bullied by her white peers beginning in 2016 and was not supported by the academy’s technical staff when she reported the hostile environment.
Hunter’s parents sought switching age groups and academies to protect their daughter and received “angry, hostile communications” from then-coach Jason Farrell, who opposed the decision, according to the suit. She remained with the academy and in 2017 was told to “take off your weave hoe and go eat a bowl of rice” by a biracial teammate, the lawsuit alleges.
Farrell currently coaches Ballard FC, a men’s fourth-division soccer team.
“I thought all of my experiences with August, her sister (Smith) and her brother (Keith) were great soccer experiences,” Farrell said via phone Friday. He acknowledged his position may not have made him privy of talk between the girls and didn’t know details about the suit.
“She’s very good,” Farrell said of Hunter’s talent. “I coached her for maybe a year and a half, and she’s a very good player.”
According to the suit, critiques of Hunter’s skills often described her as too aggressive and mean, tropes used against Black girls while white girls were praised for being competitive. Hunter claims in the suit that former OL Reign Academy technical director Tracey Kevins limited her playing time to five minutes per match and no other player had a similar limitation.
Kevins left the academy in 2017 to coach the USSF U-17s and is currently a USSF U-20 women’s national team coach. When attending a 2018 training camp organized by USSF, according to the suit, Kevins told Hunter in front of he majority of the team at a dinner that she was “too aggressive and not technical enough” and would not be invited to the next USSF camp.
When Hunter, a defender, injured a player perceived to be favored by Kevins, the latter “humiliated” Hunter to the point where she was “overwhelmed by tears,” according to the suit.
The arrival of current Reign Academy executive director Amy Griffin in 2019 didn’t improve conditions, according to the suit. There was an influx of white players who complained that Hunter played “too hard,” the suit alleges.
Griffin didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for USSF declined to comment Friday. An OL Reign spokesperson acknowledged the lawsuit but declined to comment.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Hunter said in May she also “experienced racist and homophobic taunting as well as profanity laced comments from parents and players of Crossfire Premier” in Redmond. A petition was started to support Hunter, who currently plays alongside her older sister at Harvard.
Hunter and her attorney, Veasna Hoy, declined to comment.
The suit also notes USSF “breached its duty to avoid inflicting emotional distress” and OL Reign Academy was negligent in notifying Hunter of deadlines to apply or comply for scholarships.
In a 2019 feature for television show Sports Stars of Tomorrow, Hunter and her sister, who’s a member of the USSF Athletes’ Council, said their family often didn’t have the financial means to afford travel for development camps and matches. The girls often sold cookies on the Seattle waterfront as a fundraiser.
According to the suit, the retaliation Hunter faced caused her to fall out of compliance with scholarships and developmental camps. Griffin is also accused of blocking Hunter’s return to the Reign Academy in 2021 because of a concern for “team chemistry.”
Hunter is seeking, in part, compensation for lost scholarships, grants, and benefits; implementation of standard coaching procedures; and damages for “loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress and humiliation,” according to the lawsuit.
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Some pretty wild omissions and inaccuracies in these claims, and it’s amazing the Seattle Times reporter didn’t do some basic fact checking. (My daughter played with AH for two years, got along well with both her and her sister, and thought she was a great player). A few of them:Originally posted by Guest View Post
— AH was a Seattle United player in 2016 (and again the last two years, when the incidents with XF arose), and again this past year. Farrell worked for Seattle United at the time, and Seattle United funded and jointly operated Reign Academy in its first year in ECNL, which was the 16/17 period that is the focus of these claims (the players were registered through SU). So what’s the beef with Reign and why isn’t there any complaint against SU? Maybe because SU just awarded AH a scholarship? Or because RR was one of her coaches at both Reign and SU and that fact would highlight how her story doesn’t hang together?
— the story claims AH’s playing time was limited. It wasn’t. In 17/18 and 18/19 she played up on Reign DA teams and played almost every minute. The playing time stats are still up on the USSF web site.
— AH committed to Harvard when she was in 8th grade. She’s now at Harvard, playing significant minutes as a freshman on a very strong team (some rankings have them as a top ten team), and at one of the best two or three colleges in the country (and one that has one of the most large and generous need-based financial aid programs in the country, with all of its aid paid through grants rather than loans). So what exactly has AH lost out on and what is the supposed damage here?
A lot of people in the local soccer community supported, advocated for, and cheered on AH throughout her youth soccer journey. Some of us even got along just fine with her family, although others — white, black, Asian, mixed, wealthy, and not — very much did not, because AH’s parents apparently did some polarizing things (mostly well before Reign ever came on the scene). It’s sad that this is how they’ve decided to move on to college.Comment
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That family is toxic AF. Stay the hell away from them.Comment
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If reign gets the wrong judge/jury they won’t exist anymore. Sad.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Sounds like an attempt at a money grab more than anything
“Hunter is seeking, in part, compensation for lost scholarships, grants, and benefits; implementation of standard coaching procedures; and damages for “loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress and humiliation,” according to the lawsuit.”Comment
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Good for her! Sounds like someone who persisted, fought through the slights and racism (yes it exists in the PNW) and "made it" despite the actions of a few horrible people. Was she single out and denied opportunities? Sure seems that way. By "moving on" and letting it go, nothing changes. In fact, it only gets worse if those people in powerful positions aren't held accountable. I wonder if anything happened (was it even acknowledged) to the Crossfire players and parents who taunted her during that game.
As for the lawsuits, Kevins dressing her down in front of teammates at a team dinner is cold blooded. As parents, we all should be able to recognize that this is a cold-blooded act that could have damaging effects on a young kid. The OL Reign Academy lawsuit is pretty straightforward. It comes down to whether they were negligent in notifying Hunter of deadlines to apply or comply for scholarships. Pretty simple.Comment
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Thanks MaxComment
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Sickening what lengths this family will go through to line their pickets. They all need to quit and Harvard needs to be on high alert as they will be next.Comment
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She’s on scholarship at Harvard. What opportunities was she not afforded? Great player, seems like more trouble than it’s worth. I don’t blame reign for not taking her back for concerns over “team chemistry”. You are not guaranteed a spot on any competitive team. I don’t see how them not taking you is standing for a lawsuit.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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The article — which is based on her complaint — is so fundamentally false and misleading about so many basic facts they this destroys the credibility of her allegations about what happened with XF. No one at Reign got more opportunities than August (except maybe her sister). The issues she had with teammates, players and coaches from Seattle United long predated her time with Reign and carried over into her first year at Reign before she started playing up. Yes, she had a lot of tension with her teammates and opponents. Yes, a lot of people thought she was overlying aggressive, gave too many fouls, risked too many injuries to teammates and opponents, and got too many cards; others thought she was a good teammate; and everyone recognized she was a very strong player. But how is Reign responsive for the racialized comment from a biracial teammate quoted in the article? Or for US Soccer’s decision not to call her back to ynt camps based coaches’ perception of her play at prior camps? And why should Reign have provided her or any other player who left the club in the lurch by leaving mid-year during Covid to go back to Seattle United with additional opportunities or a welcome back? And since when are soccer clubs responsible for making sure kids and their families meet the deadlines for applying for grants or scholarships? It’s all just nonsense.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Link to the actual lawsuit?Comment
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If she was consistently injuring teammates, she deserves a dressing down. You can’t do that in any sport without repercussions.Comment
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Between things like this and the Duke volleyball incident (or rather non incident it seems), it obscures the real racism that exists all over this country. Racism is real but this isn’t it.Comment
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her name is smith hunter and it's her sister august hunter that is suing if i read the article rightComment
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