U opens investigation into assistant Gophers men's hockey coach from 1984-85

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Olson:

The University of Minnesota has contacted former Gophers hockey players from the 1984-85 season and hired a law firm to investigate published allegations about sexual misconduct involving an assistant coach.

The U said in a statement Monday that it "takes this disturbing report seriously" and has hired Perkins Coie, an international law firm in Seattle, to "determine what happened."

University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle has sent a letter to Gophers hockey players who were on the team in the 1984-85 season, the only one when the former coach, Thomas "Chico" Adrahtas, was on staff.

Adrahtas could not be reached Monday by the Star Tribune. When reached last week by The Athletic, he denied that he ever sexually abused anyone. His attorney also issued a statement that said: "Mr. Adrahtas categorically and unequivocally denies the allegations that have been presented."

The Athletic reported last week that Adrahtas abruptly left his men's hockey coaching position at Chicago's Robert Morris University in 2018.

U opens investigation into assistant Gophers men's hockey coach from 1984-85

Report about sexual misconduct prompts outreach to ex-players.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

theathletic.com

Former players say Chicago area hockey coach sexually abused them

For years, stories circulated about Thomas "Chico" Adrahtas' behavior. Despite those rumors, he continued to get coaching jobs.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Here's a link to the Athletic article including the opening paragraphs and a bit of the Gopher hockey write up. Last Friday, Dan Barreiro had a good interview with the writer, Katie Strang.

It was September 2018 and the start of the season for the Robert Morris University men’s hockey team was less than two weeks away. Thomas “Chico” Adrahtas, the team’s coach for the past nine seasons, abruptly grabbed his bags and left the locker room. He did not tell the players anything before exiting. No one in the Illinois school’s athletic administration informed them why he had departed. One of the assistant coaches told players Adrahtas had an emergency.

It wouldn’t be until months later that people would learn that Adrahtas, who came to Robert Morris after a prolific career as an amateur coach, resigned his position because a former player of his from the 1980s had notified both the school and the American College Hockey Association of what he described as 20 months of sexual abuse by Adrahtas dating back to his time playing for him as a teenager.
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After the season, word of Adrahtas’ alleged actions came to the attention of Minnesota athletic director Paul Giel. Hartzell, Sacks’ coach on the St. Paul Vulcans and a fellow Minnesota alum, says that in late spring he visited Giel and relayed what he had heard from some Minnesota players.

“I remember the look on (Giel’s) face,” Hartzell said. “I remember he looked shocked.”

Giel pressed Hartzell for the names of players that had been abused but Hartzell had promised to keep their identity secret.

Kellin says he also brought the information to Giel.

“I told him the story just like I’m telling you,” Kellin said. “Paul Giel ended up firing him. He told me, ‘Chico’s outta here. You’ll never see him again.'” (Giel died in 2002.)
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Bringing up sh1t from 30+ years ago? Seriously? Guy was promptly fired from UMn, so what's the issue, why bring it up again, now? Did Giel not do enough? Maybe he should have just believed the accusation without any proof and gone with a gang of faculty members to the guys house and beaten him up and burned down his house or something? Did the victims go to the cops? If not, why not? If no one followed up on the accusations to see if there was any truth to them back then, if true, what a shame and I hope the guilt has followed this man and haunted him ever since, I hope he has had trouble sleeping every night, I hope his nightmares haunt him every night. But if he's innocent, then we should feel badly for him. People DO make false accusations, all the time, and rarely suffer any consequences for doing so, while the victims of their false accusations suffer greatly.
 
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KillmeNow said:
Bringing up sh1t from 30+ years ago? Seriously? Guy was promptly fired from UMn, so what's the issue, why bring it up again, now? Did Giel not do enough? Maybe he should have just believed the accusation without any proof and gone with a gang of faculty members to the guys house and beaten him up and burned down his house or something? Did the victims go to the cops? If not, why not? If no one followed up on the accusations to see if there was any truth to them back then, if true, what a shame and I hope the guilt has followed this man and haunted him ever since, I hope he has had trouble sleeping every night, I hope his nightmares haunt him every night. But if he's innocent, then we should feel badly for him. People DO make false accusations, all the time, and rarely suffer any consequences for doing so, while the victims of their false accusations suffer greatly.
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No false accusations here.....30 years of victim after victim tell the same story...What happened at the U is only a small sample of 30 years of abuse occurring to boys....mostly in Illinois. This story is so similar to what has happened for years by Catholic Priests. Yes, Paul Giel fired him when he found out what was going on...but Paul should have called the police. He should have outed this guy but he did not....so the guy went back to Illinois and started getting coaching jobs in the Junior programs again....Do yourself a favor and read the article in "The Athletic". It will make your blood boil. You will better understand why this happened.
 



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