Nino Giarratano is the former head coach of the University of San Francisco’s baseball team. Officials said that he was fired after a class-action lawsuit alleging that he created an intolerant sexualized environment in the program.
Officials stated that Giarratanos’ firing was immediate.
This announcement was made two days after former baseball players filed a suit against Giarratano, and former associate head coaches Troy Nakamura for creating an intolerant sexualized environment in the program.
The suit claimed that the university knew about the inappropriate conduct of coaches and that the National Collegiate Athletic Association had failed to implement any rules prohibiting harassment and retaliation.
Sunday’s news release from the university stated that Nakamura was fired on January 13th and Giarratano was officially reprimanded on January 24th after receiving complaints from family members and team members.
Officials said Sunday that Nakamura was fired because Giarratano allowed him to play on the baseball field prior to last week’s game.
The lawsuit’s new allegations and Giarratanos’ recent behavior granting Nakamura access at baseball operations are extremely concerning. In response, we have taken action to make changes in the leadership of baseball programs, Joan McDermott from athletics said in the release.
The safety and well-being our students is USF’s top priority, according to the Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, president of the university, stated in the release.
He said that we are sorry to all students, current and past, who were affected. We have reopened the internal investigation and encourage anyone with information about the Title IX office to share it with the anonymous whistleblower hotline.
Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff journalist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @jesssmflores
