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She already knew one of them. A club teammate of Pearson's went to Florida; Pearson told her to share her phone number with the other Gators in case they wanted to hear her story.

"I talked to a lot of the Florida girls before he came on," she told the Star. "I went through this list of every terrible experience I had, and it's really long, but I started and played every game. I felt so bad for them because I got out of the situation and they were about to go into it with no say."

Pearson started in all but one game and spent more than 3,500 minutes on the field during the 2018 and '19 seasons before transferring to another school.

"It really scared them," she said of the response from Florida players with whom she spoke. "A couple of them transferred immediately and others took those words to heart and they ended up leaving by the end of the semester or just quit soccer in general because of him."

Amato spent eight seasons at the UA before leaving last May for Florida. His record was 88-53-17, including five NCAA tournament appearances.

He was fired by Florida in April following an exodus of players and complaints that he pressured them about their eating habits and bodies, . Florida agreed to pay Amato $1.04 million in base salary through January 2027.

In the wake of his firing, the Star talked to six former Wildcats and one Florida player about Amato. They all shared similar stories of what they said was verbal abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, critical comments about their bodies, controlling behavior surrounding food choices and more. Four of the women asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation or repercussions to their soccer careers.

Two of the six former Wildcats reported their concerns to the UA. The others said they were afraid to lose their scholarships or believed their concerns would be ignored because they were on the practice squad.

The two who did report their concerns said they were met with a lukewarm response and that if the UA took action, there wasn't a notable effect on Amato's behavior.

The Star requested records of complaints filed against Amato and any disciplinary measures he was subjected to during his time at the UA. The school did not provide any records. However, one of the former players provided the Star with the complaint she filed against Amato with the UA in 2016.

A spokeswoman for the UA confirmed the reports in 2016 and 2020, saying the athletic department was responsive to the issues raised by each student and respected their choices.

"As a public educational institution, FERPA and other privacy considerations impact our ability to share the eventual administrative actions taken and to review those outcomes with students, as well as our ability to speak directly to these allegations," UA spokesperson Pam Scott said in an email. "The University encourages all students to bring forward their educational experiences and concerns without fear of retaliation."

Scott said the UA wants its student-athletes to have a positive experience and that the school takes concerns and feedback very seriously.

"The university offers many opportunities throughout the year for student-athletes to provide feedback online, in person, by email and anonymously," Scott said. "Through these options, feedback is encouraged and resources are proactively shared. In these cases, the student-athletes’ feedback was addressed, including follow-up meetings and emails with reporting students."

Amato did not respond to the Star's requests for comment via phone call, text message or through LinkedIn. In May, he released a statement on Twitter saying he was "saddened and surprised" by Florida's decision to end his employment.

"Coaching transitions can be challenging with new playing styles, changes in philosophy and different training. While I recognize that change is hard, I was committed to working through these growing pains," Amato said in the tweet. "I need to make clear that in no point in my career have I ever or would I ever put the health or well-being of my student-athletes at risk. I value, use and connect my teams with resources such as nutritionists, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, psychologists and medical staff. Any suggestions otherwise are not truthful."

In response to Amato's statement on Twitter, Vina Talley, mother of former Wildcats standout Jada Talley, thanked Amato for his work with her daughter.

"You alone changed the trajectory of her life and we are forever grateful," Vina Talley wrote.

Tearing people down

Pearson has a far different view of Amato. One memory that stands out is a preseason practice her sophomore year, when she unsuccessfully attempted a move on a teammate.

"He said, 'What are you doing? You're not good enough. You will never see the field if you try and do that again,'" Pearson said. "He belittled me for 10 minutes. He just kept going and going. I remember calling my mom and saying I wanted to quit."

Pearson said Amato was controlling about food, saying players would buy cookies and soda with their own money at team-sponsored meals so Amato wouldn't see the forbidden items on their receipts. A biology major, Pearson said Amato also told her she had to miss mandatory labs for training.

"He would never do anything other than tear people down. He ridiculed the (expletive) out of me," Pearson said. "I never spoke up; I just kind of took it. If I was in this situation now, I would do something about it, but I didn't know the situation was wrong. I just knew I was unhappy."

Another player who only spent a semester with the team had a similar experience, saying even when she followed instructions in practice and drills, Amato would single her out for criticism.

"I was told one thing and then told another and it was never good enough," she said. "I lost all of my confidence and hated the game I came into college loving."

Once she began dreading the things she used to love — games, practice, traveling with her team — she knew she had to quit, but leaving behind the identity she'd had her whole life was hard.

"That experience, although very short, had lasting effects," she told the Star. "Whatever I do, I'm afraid someone's going to say it's not good enough."

Pearson stuck it out for two seasons with Amato, but the first day back to school for the spring semester, she requested a meeting with Amato and an assistant coach. Pearson said she was so nervous that she cried before the meeting.

Pearson said when she told Amato she was unhappy and wanted to transfer, he replied with an analogy about adults being able to handle these types of situations — then said Pearson wasn't an adult and couldn't handle it.

She was 19 years old.

"For so long after I had that meeting with him I felt crazy," Pearson said. "I felt like I was so stupid for giving up my scholarship and wanting to move away from my parents who had just moved to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. I didn't feel validated really until he got fired (from Florida.)"

'It was this whole cycle of fear'

One former Wildcat said she tried to bring Amato's behavior to the attention of athletic department officials.

In the spring of 2020, the woman — who is still playing college soccer and asked to remain anonymous — sent an email to UA athletic director Dave Heeke during her final UA semester before transferring.

"I have decided … that I needed to be a voice for the five girls who made the decision to transfer in 2018 and the seven who decided to transfer in 2019," she wrote in the letter to Heeke. "As young women, we were told that college will be the best four or five years of our lives. Yet for the 12 of us, it was everything but that while in the soccer program at U of A."

She went on to list statements from eight former players, which included:

• "I never felt valued or believed in. The soccer environment was completely toxic and exhausting to be a part of."
• "I was told to 'Shut the (expletive) up' during practice one time because I was being competitive and didn't want to lose the game."
• "We are told that he has an open-door policy, yet I am scared to go into his office due to the anxiety he gave me. I just wish I was able to feel comfortable and welcomed."
• "I hope one day he realizes that these girls are here to develop as people just as much as they are here to develop as players, and that they are more than a statistic on paper."

While the letter criticized Amato, it praised the support players received from strength and conditioning coaches, C.A.T.S. Academics tutors and mentors.

The woman pointed to the concept of respect — one of the five pillars of the "Wildcat Way," the athletic department's set of ideals for student-athletes.

"For the past two years, I have never felt like I am fully respected," she said in the letter. "There were times that I would show up to practice and feel like the only reason I was there was to be a punching bag for others."

The athlete told the Star she received a generic response from the UA thanking her for sharing her concerns. Nothing else happened for a few months, she said, until an associate athletic director emailed her.

During a subsequent phone call, the athlete reiterated her concerns. She was thanked, but never heard of anything happening as a result of the meeting.

She told the Star that of the 11 players that started out in her class, only two graduated from the UA. The rest transferred to other schools.

"Coming in being 18 years old, the least we could do is be respected," the woman told the Star. "He created this environment where we all hated each other, but we all hated him."

The woman recounted comments Amato made about the food they ate, correlating unhealthy foods with laziness or poor performance on the field. She said she would leave meals hungry because she was afraid to eat too much and be berated, or would order food she didn't want because it was on Amato's approved list.

She said when she wasn't injured, she would try to hide on the bench or pretend to not be ready so that she wouldn't get pulled in the game, for fear of being reprimanded if she made a misstep.

She decided to transfer after she was forced to miss a practice for an Eller College of Management event. Amato told her to report afterward for an individual practice.

When she arrived, Amato was gone. The athlete said she was shuffled back and forth between several locations and employees, only to find there was no plan for her.

"I felt so undervalued. I told him I felt undervalued ... he basically said I should be grateful I was given the opportunity to practice," she said. "It was this whole cycle of fear. So many girls were afraid to say anything. Our only thing was escape and hope that it's better."

'McKale whispers'

Student-athlete Chelle Mahoney reported Amato's behavior nearly four years before Amato left for Florida, but withdrew her complaint after several conversations with UA staffers about the process.

Before leaving the team in 2016, she filed a complaint against Amato with the Office of Institutional Equity, which investigates claims against employees.

Mahoney played soccer her whole life and committed to American University at the end of her sophomore year of high school. But when the Scottsdale native's father was diagnosed with cancer her senior year, she decommitted and came to the UA as a walk-on.

Mahoney saw some playing time her first season and scored a goal in a game against UCLA. She contracted pneumonia in May of her freshman year, but reported for preseason training in July.

"I kept trying to come back and (was) getting sicker," she said.

By late August, she was cleared to practice with the team. She performed well, outrunning many of her teammates, and had no breathing issues.

At the end of practice, Amato asked her to come have a chat with him. Mahoney expected positive feedback.

"He said, 'Now that you're healthy, I want to talk about the perception I have of you," Mahoney remembers him saying.

In a personal statement Mahoney submitted along with her complaint, she said Amato told her that she was not contributing to the team and was causing problems. He told her he'd heard "McKale whispers" about her, recounting a conversation he overheard at the student-athlete cafeteria.

She wrote in the personal statement that Amato told her he overheard three baseball players who were talking about a photo they'd seen of Mahoney in which they said she looked sexy and like a tease, "talking about me in a very degrading way."

"He said they saw me as a 'sex kitten' and that if that perception continued, I wouldn't be on the team in May," Mahoney told the Star.

Mahoney told Amato she didn't like hearing people talk about her in that way, to which she remembers him replying, "Well, I was a 19 year-old-boy once, too."

She wrote in her statement that Amato's final comment made her feel like he was condoning the baseball players' behavior and that by not doing anything to stop the conversation or defend her, he was agreeing with their views of her.

"In my opinion/perception, my coach had said he was not going to play me based on the perceptions he had of my life off the soccer field, and including his perceptions he had of my sex life," she wrote in the statement.

Mahoney said she was in tears by the time she reached the locker room, and later told her mother what happened.

Mahoney was called into practice early by an assistant coach to talk about an unrelated situation. While there, she mentioned the incident with Amato, saying that his comments made her feel like Amato was calling her a whore.

The next day, Mahoney said Amato sent her a text message and asked her to call him before practice. She had a teammate record the phone call, during which she said he told her that he was upset about the conversation she'd had with the assistant coach.

"He said it wasn't what I took it as and I shouldn't be telling anyone this," she told the Star.

Mahoney said Amato called her father shortly after, saying that everyone needed to take a step back and reset so that things could move forward. She skipped practice that night, and was told by Amato not to come to the following day's practice.

Mahoney's mother came to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, and the two met with Amato and a pair of assistant coaches. Mahoney said Amato apologized for her misunderstanding of his words, but due to the upheaval she'd caused on the team, there was no longer a place for her.

A week later, Mahoney decided to report the situation to the Office of Institutional Equity — saying she didn't want Amato to ever speak to other players the way he spoke to her.

The Star requested any complaints filed against Amato, but the UA was denied the request. In the denial letter, a UA records coordinator said the school was unable to produce any reports "based on the balancing test recognized by ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ courts to protect the privacy of persons and the best interest of the state."

Mahoney's complaint to the Office of Institutional Equity said she thought Amato's comments to her on the field were discriminatory and his decision to cut her from the team was retaliatory.

The Star requested any records of disciplinary action taken against Amato, but nothing was made available by publication.

Mahoney said Amato's behavior around food led her to develop an eating disorder that she struggled with for three years. She said Amato would comment on food choices and yell players' weights across the room during team weigh-ins. She said he told one player that she ate too much Taco Bell, which is why her thighs touched.

She and other players also described Amato's reliance on heart monitors to decide who was working hard. They said players would wear heart monitors at practice and those whose heart rates weren't high enough would have to stay after and do extra work.

Mahoney talked about one road game in which the players were split into two groups based on heart monitor performance. When they landed back in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, there were not enough spots for everyone on the bus back to campus. Mahoney said the group whose heart rates Amato deemed too low — including her — were left waiting at the airport until 1 a.m.

Mahoney played soccer for a semester at UNC-Wilmington, then underwent sinus surgery due to complications from her pneumonia. She transferred back to the UA after getting accepted into Eller, and now works in sales for the Los Angeles Rams.

"The guy ruined me, but I can still work. I definitely compartmentalize and try not to bring it up," Mahoney said, adding that the news coverage of Amato's firing stirred up old feelings. "He changed the way I have relationships. I don't trust men and I don't have relationships because of those things he said to me."

'Toxic culture'

The Florida player who spoke to the Star said Amato clashed with players who questioned his methods or were outgoing in their personal lives.

"He's a bully," she said. 'When people watch him, he behaves. When people don't watch him, he doesn't behave."

Zoe Barrie, a senior during Pearson's sophomore year at the UA, corroborated Pearson's claims about Amato's behavior.

"If you want to complain about something, it's immediately looked at as you're not tough enough," Barrie said. "I've always felt kind of averse to talking about it because I didn't play ... but it's the continuation of the toxic culture that just stuck with me."

She said Amato created an "us-versus-them" dynamic between the players on the practice squad and those who played in games. At the end of the 2016 season, he had players rank each other based on best to worst, she said.

Barrie wrote about her experience in an article called "," which was published in May on The Hidden Opponent, a news site about mental health. She wrote that during her four years at the UA, she saw 25 girls transfer or quit the team.

Barrie struggled to understand why she wasn't playing much at first. But a few months into her freshman year, she told her parents she needed help.

She said Amato told her parents she was going down a bad path and hanging out and partying with a bad crowd. A strong student who carried a 4.0 GPA, Barrie said his characterization couldn't have been further from the truth.

"No professors were worried about me, my academic counselor wasn't worried," she said. "All of these people who were involved in my life saw nothing wrong other than the fact that I was miserable with my experience on the soccer team."

Barrie stuck it out for four seasons. She equated her experience on the team to the reality show "Survivor," where contestants are split into teams but ultimately there can only be one winner.

Barrie said she knows not every player had a bad experience under Amato, but that it doesn't invalidate her claims.

"It was horrible and it happened," she said.

'I gave up on things that are hard'

Another player, who was just 17 years old when she arrived at the UA, said she felt like Amato fell short of his duty to coach.

Having played for difficult coaches at elite levels most of her life, the woman said she's used to being coached tough. This, she said, was different.

"What I saw from my other coaches is they push you and say things to get a response out of you to be a better teammate or athlete," she said. Amato, she said, seemed intentionally demeaning and cruel.

The conversation about her quitting the team took less than a minute, she said, with Amato telling her at the end-of-season meeting that he'd heard she had a problem with him and didn't know if there was a spot on the team for her anymore.

"It took about 45 seconds. As someone who spent 20 years of my life working toward a goal, for it to end like that was tough," she said. "But I didn't have a lot to lose. My parents could put me through school. I had a choice, unlike some of my friends."

She said she remembers sobbing as she left Amato's office, but smiling at the same time. Then she realized her identity as an athlete was gone and she had to start over from scratch.

"It kind of broke my spirit a little bit. I gave up on things that are hard," she said, adding that she's been through years of therapy as a result. "Because of Tony, I'm so afraid to fail at everything in life that I'm afraid to try anything I don't already know I'll be good at."

With the recent focus on the importance of athletes caring for their mental health along with their physical health, the woman said she hopes sharing her experience will shine a light on the importance of coaches treating athletes with respect.

"My parents dropped me off at school and I came back a different person, both good and bad," she said. "It was hard and really unfortunate and sad."

The UA replaced Amato with Becca Moros, a former Duke standout who played a decade in the pros. Players have praised the 37-year-old for her ability to relate to them. 

The UA athlete pointed to another coach on campus who leads by example. Caitlin Lowe led the Wildcats to this year's Women's College World Series in softball; she cried during postgame interviews as she talked about her pride and love for her players. Lowe, a former UA softball star, just finished her first year as head coach.

"Every player should have the opportunity to play for someone like that who cares about them like that," the woman said.

'Power differentials is a key variable'

One expert said the culture of sports enables these types of situations, which are happening around the world.

"Power differentials is a key variable here," Kait Simpson, a former college swimmer and University of Edinburgh doctoral researcher, told the Star in an email. "In all elite sports, there is an element of this, and economic exploitation that puts athletes in a vulnerable position. In university sports specifically, coaches hold power over scholarships, playing time, trajectory of athletes’ future life and sport career, and their well-being."

Simpson said athletes from varying backgrounds and cultures around the world may not know how to recognize abusive coaching, which is why clear, organizational definitions are needed. She said the industry needs to adopt an athlete-centered approach to safeguard student-athletes. It would prioritize safe places to report and third party investigators and include lifetime bans and an international registry of coaches whose behavior is found to be abusive. Mental health services would be accessible to both athletes and coaches.

While Simpson said there's a lot of work to be done to ensure that health is at the center of sports environments, there's a lot of good happening. Athletes speaking up about mental health has been huge, she said, and will help make it harder for organizations to enable or ignore abusive coaching.

There are also international efforts underway to improve the climate for athletes, Simpson said, pointing to the , which has created language and definitions to identify abuse. The IOC also has a toolkit and its consensus statement on harassment and abuse is a report that Simpson said sports organizations and groups should be familiar with.

are working on audits, investigations and helping athletes who have experienced abuse, and work with FIFA and other groups around the world to proactively protect athletes, Simpson said.

Simpson urges athletes to take suspected cases of abuse seriously and report it, despite the fact that the process can be difficult to navigate. 

"Everyone has a role to play in holding their organization, university, governing body to account about having safe places to report and specific steps to follow in these situations," she said. "Never ignore anything that doesn’t feel or look right. If it’s not happening to you but you are aware and do not do anything, you are perpetuating a serious problem."

Simpson said that she doesn't believe coaches are inherently bad. They're likely just competitive people who are driven, care deeply about their team and love to see results.

"I believe that the environment, long-standing culture, and system in many (sports) environments breed risk," she said. "These are those places where there are few checks and balances around safeguarding, lots of pressure to achieve results, and few resources in place to support and monitor environments and well-being — both coaches and athletes — that can help things can be flagged and addressed early."