Several former players have accused University of Oregon head coach Graeme Abel of harsh treatment and verbal abuse, according to a story published in The Oregonian.

Abel served as a U.S. women’s national team assistant coach from 2015 to 2019, forming part of Jill Ellis’ staff that won back-to-back World Cup titles.

After the 2019 World Cup, Abel left the USWNT to take over as Oregon’s women’s head coach.

Oregon posted a record of 0W-3D-16L during the 2023 season, after which the Ducks saw 12 of the team’s players transfer away.

Part of the reason for the high number of departures, according to some of the 14 former players who spoke to The Oregonian, was the way Abel treated them.

“When I’d make a mistake at practice, it felt like he made it a job to embarrass you to the point where you just wanted to walk off the field,” one player said. “He’d stop the practice – and I know it’s college soccer, it’s very competitive — but he’d stop practice and just keep going nonstop on this one thing.”

Another player said that Abel’s behavior caused the team to “fall apart.”

“His office is like the scariest place,” one player said. “You’d have to sit there while he’d belittle you and say all these nasty things, and gaslight you into believing you’re not good enough. … Our team fell apart because of the environment he created. We were just trying to get through the day. There was no way we could focus on soccer.”

Abel responded to the story with a statement denying many of the accusations against him, including that he threatened to kick players off the team.

One player in the story defended Abel, saying she had a positive experience under his leadership, calling his methods “normal coaching.”