The match between Esplugues and Sandor Volleyball Club was about to end. “The whole game went perfectly until at the beginning of the last set the Vallirana players appeared. They had a game at 20 and ours and the previous one they were late. Since it was their turn to play, they entered on the court and they stayed under the stands. And I see the coach complaining because our game was late,” explains Laia Fabrés, coach of the Baix Llobregat team, who continues: “The atmosphere it started to heat up and they were placed on the sideline where they couldn’t be. The girls started to get nervous and were more aware of what was going on outside the court than what was going on inside. I called a time out to talk to them and tell them to be calm, concentrate and ignore the boys. I, seeing that they were starting to disturb them, told them to move. They answered me badly, there were a lot of tension. We complained to the referee and they got them off the court, but they stayed in the hallway tidors, from where you can see the track,” he adds.
Intimidation from below the bleachers
From there they continued to reprimand the players with sexual harassment and disrespect, including a player with Down syndrome. “I heard them laughing in his ears, because he wears glasses that help him see. I could hear them clapping their hands simulating the sound of sex,” recalls Fabrés. The players ended up very touched: “They were shaking on the court, very nervous. They left crying, angry.”
I am 14 years old and this has never happened to me. I am aware that these are things that happen, but it had not happened to me.”
A player from CV Esplugues
The next day, Monday, he had to go back to training, but Esplugues understood that he couldn’t act as if nothing had happened. “We started with psychological support. The coach held a meeting with the players to deal with the situation. She could not train as if nothing had happened. These sexual violence behaviors cannot be normal for them, they must try and see to what extent they were affected,” explains David Gusano, the technical director.
“The club provided me with the contact of a psychologist and I spoke to them to be able to have such a conversation, to assess how they were, how they were handling it. Before training we stayed and talked about what had happened. And we came to the conclusion that it could not remain like this, that we could not remain silent. It could not remain as another experience as players and as girls. They are small and it is surely one of the first situations of this violence in the her life. One said to me: “I’m 14 years old and this had never happened to me. I’m aware that these things happen, but it hadn’t happened to me”, reflects the coach to ARA.
Esplugues is waiting to receive the report of the facts to file a joint complaint with the families of the players with the legal advice provided by the federation. In addition, it studies creating a protocol as a club for situations of this kind. AE Vallirana have acknowledged that they found out about the facts through the call of this newspaper and the team’s coach says that at no time did he hear any insults or vexations from his players towards the Esplugues athletes . However, he says: “If I had to put my hand in the fire I couldn’t tell you that there wasn’t an insult or a bad word, although I didn’t hear it.” “Was there any joke that was inappropriate at some point? It could be. But as far as I know there were no insults or anything sexist”, defends the coach.
