Piedmont Family YMCA Chief Operating Officer Chris Carr recently issued an update to Cavalier Aquatics club parents following the news that head coach Gary Taylor was currently serving a two-year probation period was reported earlier this month.
As first reported by Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press, Taylor received the two-year probation from the U.S. Center for SafeSport after an investigation concluded with him admitting to emotional misconduct while coaching swimmers from 2015 until 2022 at NC State, Auburn and Cavalier Aquatics.
In the message to club membership, Carr told parents that after Taylor’s arrival at the club in 2021, three families issued complaints to SafeSport that same year, and the complaints were investigated by both the YMCA and SafeSport, and they found no wrongdoing.
Full Message:
Good Afternoon Cavalier Aquatics Parents,
Our leadership team is aware of the articles and comments regarding Gary Taylor and our Cavalier Aquatics Program. While we have spoken to several of you regarding these comments, we wanted to address our full team to provide additional information.
Gary Taylor arrived at the Piedmont Family YMCA in 2021 as our Head Coach for Cavalier Aquatics. In 2021, SafeSport received three (3) complaints from Cavalier Aquatics Families. These complaints were investigated by the YMCA, and then independent of the YMCA by SafeSport. In each of these cases, we found no wrongdoing, and SafeSport dismissed the complaints. Throughout any SafeSport investigation, SafeSport requires confidentiality from all parties (including the YMCA). To respect this process, the YMCA did not release the full details of the complaints to the team.
The YMCA remains committed to ensuring the safety of all participants in our organization. Incidents that arise out of Cavalier Aquatics, Camp, Afterschool, Youth Sports, or incidents within our facility at the Brooks Family YMCA will be investigated. Members and program participants can speak directly to myself as the Chief Operating Officer of the Piedmont Family YMCA with any concerns regarding our operations and programs.
The YMCA is proud of the accomplishments of our Cavalier Aquatics program. Notably, our club won the overall team championship at the 2022 and 2025 National Meet. We have also received Gold Medal Recognition from USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Program in 2023 and 2025, marking the program as one of the Top 20 clubs in the nation in each of these respective seasons. These successes have allowed our premier swim club to grow to over 235 youth throughout Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. We are incredibly thankful to you, the parents and athletes, who have supported us over the years. It is your dedication and support, along with our talented coaches, that have allowed for this success.
Thanks,
Chris Carr
Although the complaints mentioned all came in 2021, Taylor’s probation came after admitting to emotionally abusing athletes from 2015 until 2022.
Shortly after the news of Taylor’s probation was reported, he was removed from the Cavalier Aquatics website and is currently not listed as a coach with the club. However, he is still listed as an associate head coach at the University of Virginia, a role he took in addition to already being the Cavalier Aquatics head coach in May 2024.
According to The Augusta Free Press, the club’s first acknowledgement of Taylor’s probation came in a different message to club parents, where Carr told them Taylor “has been primarily at UVA for the last year, continuing at the Y to mentor coaches Conor Hassard and Jason Swaim through their transitions to Head Senior Coach and Head Age Group Coach.”
On June 17, The Augusta Free Press reported that Lauren Suggs, the wife of UVA head coach Todd DeSorbo, stepped down as a member of the Board of Directors at Piedmont Family YMCA.
Taylor’s wife, Jessica Taylor, is still listed as the CEO of Piedmont Family YMCA, however.
Read more on the allegations that led to Taylor’s probation here.
So much speculation, so few facts. Classic SwimSwam comments.
I kinda feel like this isn’t totally unrelated to the big administrative shakeup due to Trump and the GOPs cultural revolution bs, obviously it’s not at all directly connected, just, protecting abusers is kinda a pretty good summary of what is really going on with the maggot political movement
Did Coach Taylor physically or sexually abuse his athletes? Did he groom athletes? Did he cheat in any way? If the answers to these questions are “NO”, we should have never heard anything about this subject in the local media or SwimSwam. And it should have never risen to the level of an investigation by incompetent and arbitrary Safesport! What happened here is a few fragile kids and their parents got their feelings hurt and made a big power play using some local hack reporter (trying to make a name for himself) and Taylor’s unfortunate time at Auburn. Maybe most of the 18 swimmers left his team at Auburn because they didn’t have the goals, dedication or mental toughness to… Read more »
Do you have some inside information that has not been publicly disclosed? If so, what was the source?
Wow that letter is terrible. But I guess their next best option was a letter by Jessica Taylor stridently defending her husband against even the notion of any wrongdoing and threatening retaliation against anyone who even hints otherwise. Oh wait they already did that.
I know this won’t be popular, but I’m Team Taylor on this issue. If you read between the lines, these weren’t serious, or legitimate, Safesport complaints. Taylor should retain legal counsel and sue these parents and Safesport or damages. Does Coach Taylor tell swimmers, and their parents, that have zero work ethic things they don’t want to hear? Yes! Are they worthy of Safesport “probation?” Absolutely NOT!
Sillinger- you have 100% just nailed it. Three unhappy families with zero actual evidence out of how many swimmers on that team?!? Regurgitated topic for clickbait & the happiness of trolling is what this seems.
He would have done that if he could have. Instead, he admitted to wrongdoing and accepted probation.
That says quite a bit about the alleged frivolity of the complaints, to me.
Not necessarily. Most coaches do it because they love coaching and not for the money. There are many instances where they don’t have the funds to adequately defend themselves. Furthermore, with all the grooming and sexual abuse complaints that Safesport gets, why are they even involved with this situation? Johnny and Susie didn’t like being told to work harder, so the Mommies and Daddies complained to Safesport and the unsuspecting media…
But doesn’t accepting probation also say something about the seriousness of the complaints?
USCFSS has the ability to suspend coaches for a year or 2, and have done so before. If they thought athletes were at serious risk, don’t you think they would have done that?
IDK, maybe Gary shouldn’t be working with kids unless he gets some mentoring and/or therapy. The athletes at the University of Virginia seem to like him just fine. So what’s the problem? Probation is probation.
My interactions with Gary have never been that great. He’s kind of a hothead. But IDK, I don’t see anything that I think makes him unsalvageable as a human being or a coach.
Do you have some inside information that has not been publicly disclosed? What’s the source?
I am 100% in agreement.
Just to clarify…he was not removed from the Cavalier website and staff until this probation was published by the MEDIA (Augusta Free Press) and not when he was put on probation.
Coincidentally, the timing of him being removed from the website occurred AFTER USA Nationals. His probation took effect March 17.
Also, there were more than three complaints made to Safe Sport by members of Cavalier Aquatics. Chris Carr was not employed at the a Piedmont YMCA at the time of the safe sport complaints. This letter to the membership is inaccurate in more ways than one.
If there’s lots of smoke, the suspicion for fire increases.
Can’t automatically draw the conclusion, but the optics aren’t great.
I’m curious to find out more details about the separate investigation into UVA that was detailed in this article: https://augustafreepress.com/news/uva-swimming-posts-snap-of-coach-on-probation-to-insta-facebook/.
Kinda feels like there’s a lot of sketchy stuff going on that the public isn’t aware of yet.
“Investigation” is a loaded word, and this guy seems willing to print anything that a single source emails him about. “Yeah I’ll look into it” might sound like an investigation to someone who wants it to be, and a brushoff to someone who doesn’t.
The coaches’ rumor mill has not heard a whisper about any kind of formal investigation at UVA (and yes, we all knew about this SafeSport thing months, and years, ago).
FYI, this deceitful response from the YMCA constitutes Abuse of Process under SafeSport Code (section IX.H.a: “Falsifying, distorting, or misrepresenting information, the resolution process, or an outcome”) Where is the Center for SafeSport on this? Will it sanction the YMCA/Cavalier Aquatics? And will it publicly correct the record here? (see SafeSport Code section XI.S: “If any person or entity misrepresents the process, the underlying facts, or the outcome of a matter, the Center reserves the right to publicly correct the record.”) The Center and Virginia Swimming LCS Safe Sport Coordinators need to speak up here. The secrecy afforded a serial abuser is a great disservice to swimmers in Charlottesville and at UVA.