Piedmont Family YMCA addresses status of embattled swim coach Gary Taylor

Gary Taylor is no longer listed on the “Meet the Coaches” page on the Cavalier Aquatics website, in the wake of our reporting on Taylor having admitted to emotional misconduct involving athletes at NC State, Auburn and Cavalier Aquatics.

This appears to be the first tangible consequence, such as it is, for Taylor, who is serving a two-year probation handed down by the U.S. Center for SafeSport on March 17.

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ICYMI

• Cav Aquatics, UVA Swimming coach Gary Taylor on probation after admitting to emotional abuse of athletes
• UVA Swimming, Piedmont Family YMCA, local media silent on Gary Taylor story
• Podcast: UVA Swim assistant coach on probation in emotional-misconduct case

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Taylor is still listed on the UVA Swimming website as associate head coach, the job that he was hired for last year – in the midst of the SafeSport investigation into the misconduct allegations, which date back to 2015.

The Piedmont Family YMCA, the parent organization of Cavalier Aquatics, sent an email to swim families in the aftermath of our Monday report on the case involving Taylor to address “what you’ve been reading in the news.”

The email, under the signature of Chris Carr, the chief operating officer at the Y, reported that Taylor “has been primarily at UVA for the last year, continuing at the Y to mentor (c)oaches Conor Hassard and Jason Swaim through their transitions to Head Senior Coach and Head Age Group Coach.”

Carr also wrote that he was “happy to report that we have received the news that SafeSport has recertified Piedmont Family YMCA for sanctioned swim meets.”

I need to note a correction here: a spokesperson for the U.S. Center for SafeSport wrote on Friday to tell us that “SafeSport does not certify clubs or organizations.”

“We think the reference is likely to someone at USA Swimming who may engage on issues related to athlete safety,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “As the national governing body, only USA Swimming can determine what clubs and organizations are certified with their sport.”

The reference from Carr in his email to parents would have been to a decertification for the Y swim program that would have gone into effect when Taylor was put on probation. Because of the probation, the Y program would have lost its certification and its ability to host sanctioned swim meets, which would have been crippling to the bottom line.

According to sources, the Y removed Taylor’s affiliation with the team as part of the process for either retaining or regaining the certification, which we now know, from the email from Carr, was successful.

I don’t have a sense of the timing of those moves, though I will note here that Taylor’s name was still on the coaching roster on the Cavalier Aquatics website when we published our report on Monday.