YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WKYC-TV, NBC - 3 [Cleveland OH]
September 4, 2025
By Tyler Carey
The boy’s family claims Fighting Irish players filmed and posted videos of the alleged assaults, and that school coaches and administrators failed to investigate.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal civil rights lawsuit accuses football players at Youngstown’s Ursuline High School of hazing and sexually assaulting a freshman student during a team camp this past June.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Northern Ohio’s U.S. District Court, claims the unnamed teen was attacked multiple times over the course of the camp, which resulted in both physical injuries and “continued humiliation” as well as the need for psychological help. It also alleges Ursuline coaches and administrators knew of the hazing but did not take adequate steps to investigate or put a stop to it, part of what the plaintiffs lawyers say is a “culture of hazing has existed for many years.”
“Rather than act in accordance with its stated values and motto ‘Soli Deo Gloria’ (Latin for ‘Glory to God alone’), Ursuline and several of its administrators, coaches, and students opted to violate those values and acted solely for the glory of its football team alone,” the complaint reads.
The alleged victim has since transferred along with his sister, whom attorneys say faced intimidation from football players in an attempt to keep her quiet. Along with Ursuline High School itself and 11 football players whose names have been withheld, head football coach Dan Reardon and two of his assistants have been named as defendants, along with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, which runs the school.
“This case is about accountability,” lead counsel Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm said in a statement. “No family should have to endure the trauma this family suffered at the hands of other students and then at the hands of school officials who, the suit alleges, made excuses, ignored, and even tried to cover up what happened.”
ALLEGATIONS
WARNING: The claims detailed in the lawsuit may be disturbing to some readers. Please proceed with discretion.
According to the lawsuit, the student went on a nine-day trip in June with Fighting Irish football players and coaches, with stops in Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama. As part of what the plaintiffs say was an “initiation” ritual, a number of players are said to have come to the boy’s hotel room and pulled him out of a closet (where he was hiding) before throwing him onto a bed, where one player assaulted the victim by “humping” him on his buttocks “with a repeated thrusting motion” of his body.
This occurred with the offending player’s “penis erect and visible through his clothes,” per the plaintiffs. While all of this was happening, the lawsuit alleges another player was filming the attack, which he then shared on the football team’s group Snapchat.
The next day, the victim claims players “ridiculed” him for the assault within earshot of Reardon and assistant coaches Timothy McGlynn and Christian Syrianoudis, with other players telling him he was “going to get his butt took.” Four days later, the plaintiffs allege a number of players lured the teen to another room before slamming him to the bed, covering his mouth, and stripping him of his pants and underwear. One player then smacked the boy’s bare bottom while another filmed the encounter and shared it on Snapchat again, according to the lawsuit.
The filing contains a number of text and social media messages purportedly showing players planning and bragging about the attacks on the alleged victim. It also details a call the teen’s mother says she had with McGlynn after her son told her about what happened, and after the mother relayed these allegations to the assistant coach, she claims he “expressed neither surprise nor dismay that hazing was happening” and “expressed no sympathy or remorse” before describing the assaults as “just boys being boys.”
After her son returned home, the mother says she reported the incidents to Ursuline Principal Matthew Sammartino and Assistant Principal Margaret Damore, with the latter seeing the Snapchat videos and acknowledging, “This is bad.” When police were notified and the school began looking into the matter, the lawsuit alleges that coaches told their players “not to talk to anyone about what occurred,” and while some student-athletes were held out of non-mandatory sessions, all where back on the field when practices began. The Irish have since played and won two games in the 2025 regular season, all while attorneys say administrators did next to nothing to investigate the hazing and even deleted the team’s social media accounts.
“After destroying evidence of the crimes and instructing the players not to talk to anyone about what occurred, Sammartino, Damore, and (athletic director John) DeSantis took no further action,” the suit reads. “They did not suspend the football season. They did not investigate. They did not interview all the players on the trip. They did not suspend Reardon, McGlynn, or Syrianoudis even though they were on the trip; were aware of what was going to occur and what did occur; failed to rectify, prevent, or stop the hazing, attacks, assaults, and child pornography—all of which are criminal acts—and then failed to report it to Sammartino, Damore, DeSantis or any other appropriate person.”
In addition to the alleged abuse against the son, the complaint also says his sister was forced to leave Ursuline before her senior year due to “continued humiliation, retaliation, and harm.” At one point, the family says one of the accused players even came to the sister’s workplace “and stared at her in an intimidating fashion.”
In asking for damages, the lawsuit accuses the involved players of the following crimes:
- Criminal hazing
- Assault
- Sexual assault
- Aggravated assault
- Battery
- Kidnapping
- False imprisonment
- Stalking
- Child pornography
- Sexual cyberharassment
- Distributing lewd and obscene materials
- Telecommunications harassment
- Witness/victim intimidation
‘RECKLESS HIRING’
This is Reardon’s second stint at Ursuline, having previously served as head coach from 2004-11. During that stretch, he led the Irish to three consecutive state championships before enjoying more success at multiple Colorado high schools and later Canton McKinley. He returned to Youngstown in 2019 and has remained ever since.
However, Chandra claims Reardon initially left Ursuline “under a cloud” more than a decade ago due to his “recruitment of players who engaged in conduct that reflected poorly on the school, its academics, and its reputation” along with a “willingness to turn a blind eye to his football players’ misconduct” (Reardon cited family reasons for his decision at the time) Though his replacement Larry Kempe attempted to clean up the program, the results on the field eventually dipped, and after a 1-9 campaign in 2018, the school sought to lure Reardon back from Canton.
According to the lawsuit, the Diocese of Youngstown initially denied Ursuline’s request to rehire Reardon “because of a history of dishonesty, turning a blind eye to his players’ misconduct, and general negativity that followed.” However, the Rev. Richard Murphy — Ursuline’s president — made a direct appeal to then-Bishop George Murry, who Chandra and his team say overruled advisors and allowed the school to bring Reardon back as head coach.
Three years later, the Ohio High School Athletic Association sanctioned Ursuline for illegal recruiting. The court complaint also alleges that assaults and fights are common among the team and that it is “known throughout the school that Ursuline ‘pays’ its players to attend the school and play football.”
Suspicions have also dogged McGlynn, who in 2020 resigned as head football coach at Champion High School following allegations of verbal and physical abuse against players. In a letter obtained by NBC affiliate 21 News in Youngstown, Superintendent John Grabowski told McGlynn that a number of the accusations had, indeed, been corroborated.
“The amount of physicality in your coaching practices, and emotionally charged language are not acceptable in this District and counterproductive to the athletic experience Champion seeks to provide its student-athletes,” Grabowski wrote.
Hires like this, the lawsuit alleges, have helped foster a toxic environment at Ursuline that “must be cleansed.”
“Ursuline’s culture of hazing has existed for many years—due, in part, to the school’s negligent and reckless hiring, training, supervision, and retention of football coaches who engaged in prior misconduct, and the School’s willingness to turn a blind eye to the sexual victimization of students it is entrusted to protect—all because the School elevates the glory of the football team above basic values,” the complaint reads.
RESPONSES
21 News reached out to both Ursuline and the diocese for comment. Sammartino released the following statement:
“At Ursuline High School, the safety, well-being, education, and character development of our students are our highest priorities. Earlier this summer, we shared a message regarding a report of inappropriate behavior involving a limited number of members of the football team during a June team trip. The isolated incident was immediately reported to the police and the Diocese of Youngstown by school personnel. There has never been and will never be any attempt to cover up the incident.
“We continue to work with appropriate authorities to ensure a thorough and fair review of the matter. While we are unable to share specific details due to student privacy laws, any concerns related to student behavior were addressed in accordance with the Ursuline High School Code of Conduct and any future findings from the authorities will be dealt with accordingly.
“We remain committed to reviewing our policies and procedures to help prevent incidents like this in the future. In addition, teams and coaches will receive further training to support a safe, positive, and inclusive team environment.
“We understand that this situation has continued to draw attention on mass media and social media, including the spread of misinformation and speculation. We also recognize how difficult it can be when answers are limited due to the need to protect student confidentiality.
“Thank you for your continued partnership and understanding.”
The diocese also pushed back on some of the lawsuit’s allegations, adding:
“The Diocese of Youngstown is aware of news reports regarding a lawsuit filed by one of our former Ursuline High School families. While detailed responses will only be made through the court process, the Diocese and Ursuline High School conducted a timely investigation, cooperated with the appropriate authorities, and took immediate actions to protect Ursuline High School students. No further statements will be made regarding this matter. Bishop (David) Bonnar prays for peace and healing for all those involved.”
In a Wednesday interview with 21 News, Chandra claimed more potential victims had come forward, and that a family member of the original complainant received an “angry, intimidating” message from the parent of a player.
“Apparently, even the filing of a 200-page complaint wasn’t enough to cause some of the people broadly involved in this to just stop dead in their tracks and say, ‘What are we doing here? We need to do the right thing,'” Chandra told the station. “Instead, we saw an effort to intimidate one of our clients as recently as today, right after the complaint was filed.”