In the wake of a burgeoning sex scandal at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, some former students and staff have stepped forward to defend TMU personnel and practices against what they perceive to be unfair media coverage.
Now Habersham and other news outlets published detailed reports about a former student, soccer player, and staff member, Hayle Swinson, who alleges she was groomed and raped by TMU’s former Vice President, Bradley Reynolds. Another former soccer player, Caylin Carter, validated and expanded upon Swinson’s claims. Carter added that other authority figures at TMU knew or should have known that Reynolds’ relationship with Swinson was inappropriate.
Status of the inquiry
The Enotha Judicial Circuit District Attorney, Jeff Langley, is currently investigating Swinson’s allegations, and said last week he would determine whether it was still possible to prosecute Reynolds for the alleged abuse.
In other developments, the outside investigator hired by the TMU Trustees, Richard Hyde of Phoenix Research, LLC in Atlanta, told Now Habersham he was just beginning his investigative work this last Monday, June 9, and was “just learning the players” at the University as he set about asking questions of the involved parties.
Also this week, the women’s soccer coach, David McDowell, emailed that he would decline comment while the investigation is underway.
Former player strikes at ‘misleading’ coverage
During a protest at the small Christian college campus in Cleveland on June 6, Caylin Carter shared her personal experiences at the school with Now Habersham. While she never alleged any sexual abuse, she did claim that student complaints were ignored and punished.
Meagan Kough, a former TMU soccer player and coach, was one of several who wrote in to take issue with Now Habersham’s coverage, saying the article conveying Carter’s views, was “full of misleading statements and misinformation, especially pertaining to Coach McDowell.”
Now Habersham reached out to Kough and the others and asked for interviews so they could share their personal experiences. They declined. However, through email, Kough said she played for McDowell on the TMU team from 2011-2016 and coached alongside him from 2015-2020.
Kough dismissed Carter’s implication in the article that McDowell was to some extent complicit in abuse allegedly committed by Reynolds.
In the lengthy email, Kough gave a completely contradictory account.
She wrote, “I believe Coach Mac to be one of the godliest men I know, and there is no other coach I know that desires more to honor Christ.”
Coach’s ‘no-carbs’ rule
Kough continued: “In my time working with Coach Mac he made some mistakes and implemented some strange rules (the questionable diet plan, for example), but if something wasn’t working to make the team better he had a willingness to adapt. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I never experienced or witnessed anything in our professional relationship that led me to question his morality or motives. The way player meetings, workouts, and away trips were conducted were, in my opinion, always above board.”
Kough’s reference to the diet plan refers to Carter’s claim that McDowell insisted on a “no-carbohydrate” diet for the players, causing several to lose weight at an alarming rate. Carter told a reporter that McDowell was so strict about diet that he urged other students to report to him any instance of players eating any source of carbohydrates.
Former player: Coach ‘among those fooled’
Carter’s account described McDowell pressuring players into counseling sessions and social time with Reynolds.
“We all now know Dr. Reynolds to have been an expert at deceiving and manipulating, but at the time he had so many of us on campus fooled into believing him to be a kind, wise, safe, and Godly man,” Kough wrote. “Coach McDowell was among those fooled, and he was convinced this was true about Dr. Reynolds whenever he would encourage us as players (not order us) to seek counsel from him.”
Responding to another of Carter’s complaints, about swimming parties at Reynolds’ home, Kough wrote: “There was a pool in the Reynolds’ backyard, so the family would usually offer for the team to go swimming before dinner if they wanted to. While it was mandatory for the players to be at the dinner as a team function, there was nothing mandatory about going swimming.”
Reynolds only culprit
Reynolds’ alleged abuse of Swinson occurred in the Reynolds’ basement, off-campus, during private religious counseling sessions, according to Swinson’s interview on a Christian podcast. Swinson also sometimes slept over in the Reynolds’ basement, behind what she believed to be a locked door, she said. It was on those occasions when the worst abuse occurred, she said in an incident report filed with the White County Sheriff’s Office last year.
Swinson has declined to speak to the media, apart from the Christian podcast where she first shared her story.
Kough also took issue with Carter’s claim that Coach McDowell demanded to meet her boyfriend when she was on the team to see if he met with the coach’s approval.
“Coach Mac has always had a care and concern for his players that went outside of just the soccer field. He wants to help them grow in their faith and prepare them life outside of soccer when they graduate. Because of this, conversations about players’ romantic relationships would come up in player meetings, and Coach Mac would offer counsel if he felt it would be welcomed…. I personally thought he should have stayed away from topics about the players’ romantic lives, but nonetheless I believe his motives in bringing it up was always for the good of the player,” wrote Kough.
Assistant coach defends head coach, soccer program
Jonathan Britt, head assistant soccer coach, assailed Now Habersham in an email he wrote after the website published its coverage of the TMU situation.
“It is clear you are looking for clicks and write only what you feel would make a good story,” Britt wrote. “It is lazy journalism and you should be ashamed to call yourself a journalist….”
Britt challenged the time frame relayed in the story, particularly concerning a conflict between facts as stated by Carter and Swinson’s tenure at TMU and on the team.
“Caylin Carter was never a teammate of Hayle,” Britt wrote. “Hayle was no longer eligible to play after 2010. So how was Caylin, who was a Freshman in 2014, a teammate? With respect, that is very poor research.”
‘Countless people’ to vouch for coach’s character
Christina Jones, another former player, also wrote in disagreement with the article.
“Caylin was clearly hurt by her time at TMU and is apparently still experiencing much of that hurt over 10 years later. I’m not downplaying that, just calling to attention how quickly you decided to write up a story without doing an ounce of research to support it. Had you done so, you would’ve heard from perspectives like mine and so many others who have played for Coach McDowell, coached on his staff, coached various sports at TMU alongside him, or taken one of his theology classes on campus (because yes, he taught one of those.)”
Jones also supplied a lengthy list of factual and contextual differences with the account of life on the soccer team and at TMU provided by Carter. She wrote: “There are countless people willing to vouch for the character and high professional practices of David McDowell, but you chose to only ‘read one bad article’ instead.”
Coach McDowell response
Now Habersham made several attempts to reach Coach McDowell to verify dates and other facts, but did not hear back until he wrote several days after Carter’s story was published. He said he is out of the country and has not had regular access to email.
“I will not be doing any interviews while the school is being investigated,” McDowell wrote.
Hyde, the outside investigator, has not yet indicated how long he expects his investigation to take.
In a phone interview, Hyde said, “There’s very little I can tell you right now…As far as timeline goes, I’m going to work the case with all deliberate speed, but I’m not going to rush and be sloppy either.”
Asked about non-disclosure agreements allegedly signed by departing faculty and staff, Hyde said, “I don’t know anything about anything right now.” He did not want to comment further about the investigation.
As reported previously, Bradley Reynolds hung up when Now Habersham contacted him by telephone at the Texas sandwich shop where he now reportedly works.
