Berry College head swim coach Astrid Escobar has resigned a week ahead of the school’s Southern Athletic Association Championships that begin on February 12 in Danville, Kentucky.
Escobar was hired prior to the 2022-2023 season. In the season prior to her arrival, the men’s team had 20 swimmers and the women’s team had 23 swimmers. The team’s current roster lists 12 of each gender.
First year assistant coach Will Dubrowski is still listed on the school’s website.
Berry College’s men’s team and women’s team both landed on the recently-announced CSCAA Fall Scholar All-America Team list, with the men recording a 3.36 GPA and the women a 3.66 GPA.
At last year’s SAA Championship meet, the Berry College men finished 4th out of 7 teams while the women finished 5th out of 7 teams. Freshman Nicholas Fonzo was named the Men’s Newcomer of the Meet and Men’s High-Point Swimmer after winning conference titles in the 100 fly, 100 back, and 200 back.
Neither Escobar nor a spokesperson for Berry College has responded to a request for comment.
Berry College is a Division III school located in Mount Berry, Georgia, adjacent to Rome, Georgia.
Escobar’s coaching background, courtesy a Berry College press release from her hiring:
In 2021-22, Escobar was an assistant coach at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minn. Helping the program transition from Division III to Division I, Escobar helped a pair of Tommies to All-Summit League status, with Will Goldman and Grace Urkiel each setting school D-I records in the 100-Yard breaststroke on the men’s and women’s side, respectively.
Prior to arriving at the University of St. Thomas, Escobar served as Head Coach of Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving at State University of New York at Fredonia from 2019 to 2021. In her first season with the Blue Devils, two individuals and one relay earned All-SUNYAC honors at the conference championship meet and four school records were broken. A total of 14 athletes were named to the SUNYAC Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll for the 2019-20 academic year and both the men’s and women’s team captured the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America All-America award for the 2020 spring semester.
In the 2018-19 season, Escobar was an interim assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. While there, she helped the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team to D-III All-America status. The men’s and women’s teams combined to set eight school records during the season.
Escobar began her collegiate coaching career at Hamilton College, serving as an assistant coach for two seasons and as the interim head coach for a season.
The new Berry head coach has spent time coaching at numerous camps across the country, including the University of Georgia’s Bauerle Bulldog Swim Camp, Harvard’s Technique Academy, and Kenyon’s Total Performance Swim Camp.
A 2014 graduate of The University of the South, Escobar was a three-time NCAA Division III All-America in the breaststroke and an 11-time conference champion – three in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and eight in the Southern Athletic Association. She set Sewanee’s school and pool records in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events and was a member of both school-record setting 200- and 400-yard medley relay teams. Escobar was the 2014 Sewanee Senior Athlete of the Year, the 2014 Evelyn J. Mooney Award winner as the top senior female athlete, the Bishop Juhan Award winner for excellence in swimming, and a Vice Chancellor’s Scholar for Scholarship and Leadership.
It is absolutely appalling what some coaches are allowed to get away with, and what my son had to endure is beyond unacceptable. The verbal abuse he faced from his coach was not only damaging but has completely turned him away from the sport he once loved. No athlete, especially a young person, should ever have to experience this kind of treatment. It’s disheartening to see how toxic environments like this can destroy someone’s passion and confidence.
My son worked hard, poured his heart into that sport, and yet a coach’s words—words meant to motivate—have left him feeling worthless and broken. The damage caused by that kind of negativity goes far beyond the pool. It’s heartbreaking to see someone lose… Read more »
There is an audio that is going around the Berry College Yik Yak of her yelling at the students. Very harshly. I bet Berry asked her to resign or theyd fire her which would look bad for the school. Hopefully everyone of the swim team is ok.
The audio was removed from here bc it was so awful
The team is fine. The current roster witnessed harassment, verbal & emotional abuse by Astrid & did nothing. A couple spoke up and tried to help-others too concerned about not crossing Astrid. Frailness & egos abound. There is a 40 min audio meltdown of Astrid-with any luck it will follow her around a few decades.
No way
What has happened here is a tragedy. These swimmers have been through three years of abuse, manipulation, and coercion in the most toxic environment. It will take a very, very long time to heal and process this abuse. They will need all the love and support we can give them.
The administration of Berry College, President Steven Briggs and Athletic Director Angel Mason have been aware of the disgraceful actions of this coach from the beginning, as many parents and swimmers have been speaking up since the abuse began. It is my sincere hope that the college learns from this and shows that they truly care about their athletes and not just about covering up obvious abuse and protecting… Read more »
I agree. It’s my hope that the former swimmers will file a lawsuit against the college, the administration and Astrid for intentional emotional & psychological abuse and humiliation. Berry Admin failed a group of young athletes.
Wow. Wishing the team all the best in this trying time.
I totally agree. The athletic director knew all about this at the time they hired coach Escobar. So many swimmers have left because of her bully tactics and calling her male swimmers, eye candy, and so many other awful things. Unfortunately Angel, Mason, the athletic Director only said Coach Escobar is definitely staying for a very long time. When parents and swimmers would desperately approach her to do something about this terrible bully, and abuse toward swimmers situation.
As someone who knows and has known of the Berry situation throughout its entirety, yes, lots of “fishy” things were going on. For the sake of privacy and safety of the team and members I have heard information from, I will not delve into specifics. Another comment posted the infamous rant (or a clip of it). All I’ll say is believe your gut. The coach is definitely praising herself in the comments, I believe.
https://youtube.com/shorts/0j0KkGVsats?si=yaWNi_ARHpry1dE-
Above is a youtube link to a short clip of astrid’s bus meltdown on the way home from a swim meet. The whole thing was 40 minutes long. This unfortunately was a weekly occurrence.
Wow! I would be curious to hear more
Again, Angel, Mason, the Berry College athletic Director knew all about this and continued to make the swimmers endure the terrible abuse coach Escobar kept giving.
Angel Mason was also the assistant athletic director at Hamilton College so not only did she know Astrid and her treatment of swimmers at Hamilton, she hired her to work at Berry and gave her a platform to repeat her behavior. She’s clearly protecting her and I’m heartbroken to think about the number of swimmers that probably had to endure similar experiences and lost their love of the sport. Let’s hope the school follows through with a full investigation regardless of the resignation.
Wow
Listen I know you probably had your disagreements with the coach but don’t link these kinds of videos, such an invasion of privacy
Whose privacy was being invaded? What is a reasonable expectation of privacy when you berate a bus full of athletes? Why does she get privacy when she’s behaving this way? Why is she owed grace that it doesn’t sound like she gave that grace to her athletes?
Exactly!!!!!
Dude this was done on a bus full of athletes with modern day phones.
Those recording capabilities will get ya!
She might as well have gone around posting fliers.
A professional coach wanting the most & best for her swimmers would never make an opportunity for ‘these kind of videos’ to be linked.
Crazy how no one in berry admin knew about any of this and how horribly she treated her athletes…..oh wait we made several formal complaints years ago.
So true. Spot on accurate
Yes! Complaints from swimmers & parents due to coach Escobar’s actions were highly acknowledged to the athletic director at hire. Angel Mason did not care. Angel Mason did not listen. Such a bad bad unprofessional hire.
This is what breaks my heart the most. Knowing that students made multiple attempts to be heard, risking their own reputation in doing so, and nothing was done. I’m praying that the college will publicly acknowledge their fault in this and take steps to help these students heal. I have heard that they stated that they have done nothing wrong. I’ve also heard that once she resigned, Berry Admin ended their investigation…. That speaks volumes as to how much they actually care about their students. Shameful.
It is really upesting when you make a cry for help and no one listens. It makes you feel so cast aside. Being subject to all of her mind games quite literally almost broke me. And when many reached out for help, we were told improvements could be made on both sides.That was it. End of discussion. I just hope that she is never allowed to coach again so NO ONE else has to endure her toxic and abusive coaching. And I hope that from now on Berry sports admin will actually listen to and stand up for their athletes even when it doesn’t benefit them. Because as bad as it was this whole situation could have been a lot… Read more »
Hey, I am covering a story about Astrid’s resignation as Head Coach for Berry’s school newspaper. Would you be willing to do an interview for it?
Exact same thing happened on a previous team. Down to the same reason for the meltdown.
That’s crazy. And she will probably do it again somewhere else. Very sad.
Coach Astrid…you just need to be more positive
That rant is just ridiculous. If any indication of other behaviors / attitude of this coach, undoubtedly her exit was forced, and justified.
As a former swimmer from Hamilton, this tantrum is sadly all too familiar to ones she threw while at my school.
I am so glad a swimmer from another school is speaking up. Hopefully others will step forward and share their experiences.
Thank you for speaking up! We need more students and faculty from previous schools to do the same. Whatever it takes to keep her away from future athletes!
Another former swimmer here from her time at UWL. Astrid was the most unprofessional and manipulative coach I have ever encountered—from constantly flirting with athletes and university staff, crying and screaming at the team during practice, getting upset when swimmers would swim faster than her times…..the list could go on and on. The team’s favorite memory of her is when she showed up to training trip multiple days late and proceeded to throw a temper tantrum on deck and then went on to post negative tweets about the team on her Twitter…..the saving grace was that UWL was lucky enough to have had an incredibly supportive head coach the year she was on staff. It’s so sad to see how… Read more »
Be careful. GA law allows you to make such recordings as a one-party consent however it also states it is illegal to:
6) Any person to sell, give, or distribute, without legal authority, to any person or entity any photograph, videotape, or record, or copies thereof, of the activities of another which occur in any private place and out of public view without the consent of all persons observed;
Not a lawyer, but I would suspect that if there are 30+ people on the bus, that’s no longer considered “out of public view”.
I’d have to disagree with you on that one. But you know what is illegal… a coach verbally harassing her athletes
Can you imagine if this screaming and ranting happened in a different setting? An office? A classroom? A store? Any place of business? Would this be tolerated? This person worked for a university in a position of authority with young adults. Not only is this extremely damaging to everyone listening, it is beyond unprofessional. Administration heard the entire 40 minute audio and chose to do nothing. And mind you, this is one short clip of one audio. There are several audios from different dates. I can’t imagine having to endure being yelled at like that. It makes me sick.
Hey, I am covering a story about Astrid’s resignation as Head Coach for Berry’s school newspaper. Would you be willing to do an interview for it?
Yes I would