New UNC wrestling head coach makes comments about young women, raises concerns

A week after Rob Koll was named the new head coach of the North Carolina wrestling team in August, the UNC alumnus and acclaimed coach was a guest on a podcast where the host asked him an open-ended question about what made Chapel Hill "so great."

“Well, first of all, it’s 60 percent women for God’s sakes,” Koll said on The Bader Show, a show on FloWrestling.

“And 95 percent of them are attractive," he continued. "It’s just a really neat little campus for young 18- to 22-year-old men. I mean, good Lord, why would you not want to go there?”

Koll went on to tell a story about visiting Chapel Hill a week prior, coincidentally during what he called a “sorority weekend.” He said it was “95 percent girls” and said he wondered why UNC wasn't holding athletic recruiting events that weekend. 

Listen to the podcast below. Koll’s comments about Chapel Hill begin around 33 minutes into the episode. 

Host Mark Bader did not respond to The Daily Tar Heel’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

In the weeks since appearing on the podcast, as Koll made the move to North Carolina from his previous appointment as head coach at Stanford University, multiple members of the wrestling community across the country have expressed concerns to The Daily Tar Heel about the implications of Koll's comments.

Jasmine Gong, a Duke student and founder of a women’s wrestling club on her campus last year, called Koll's comment "predatory." 

“He's establishing a culture in UNC wrestling that normalizes that kind of behavior,” Gong said. “And so I think that has potential concerns of how the male wrestlers on the team would treat women in their lives or even just women on campus.”  

In response to The DTH's request for an interview, Koll issued an apology. 

"I did not mean to offend anyone in the Carolina community with my statements, and I apologize if I did," he said in the statement. "I am thrilled to be back at my alma mater, and I have nothing but respect for our students, faculty and staff." 

‘You see a lot of that’

The NCAA currently recognizes women’s wrestling as an "emerging sport," while the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recognizes it as its own sport.

In 2021, UNC made history by listing six-time All-American Marisol Nugent as the first-ever woman on an ACC varsity wrestling roster. In the past, numerous successful female wrestlers have trained at UNC facilities alongside the program. 

Hannah Ricioli was a nationally ranked wrestler in high school before she came to Stanford in 2021, the same year Koll was appointed as their head coach.

She said she did not find Koll's comments to be uncommon, saying "You see a lot of that" in wrestling. 

A wrestler at Cornell, who asked to stay anonymous, said they felt similar to Ricioli when they heard Koll’s comments on The Bader Show. Koll coached at Cornell from 1989 to 2021. 

“In my opinion, it is people like Rob who hindered the growth of the sport,” they said. “Women are here to stay and we're not going to put up with this. The world is changing. This sport is changing and you either change with it, or you will be drowned out by the good that is happening and you will go down as the bad guy in the industry.”

'It's hard to listen to'

Koll has coached 74 All-Americans since he won the 1988 wrestling national championship as a Tar Heel. 

Wrestling coaches and assistants who worked with Koll declined to comment about his statement on The Bader Show. 

Stanford assistant coach Grant Leeth and associate head coach Enock Francois, who worked with Koll for several years, provided comments to The DTH highlighting Koll's positive qualities. Neither said they were familiar with the statement Koll made in the FloWrestling interview. 

“I am sure the quote was taken out of context or came across in a way that wasn’t intended,” Leeth wrote in an email.

One coach, who requested that all identifying details remain anonymous, said they worked with and under Koll for a number of years. 

“It's very nerve-racking, especially where women's wrestling is right now,” they said about the comments on The Bader Show. “For growing young adults, females who want to maybe get into this coaching space, to see a revered member in the space say something so blatantly wrong, I mean, it's almost comical. It's hard to listen to.”

The coach said that Koll not publicly acknowledging the comments he made on the podcast is deeply disappointing, especially considering his position of power in the wrestling community. 

Gong said Koll’s comments affect more than just women in wrestling spaces. 

“You can both acknowledge that he may be a very successful coach and fundraiser and have a lot of experience,” Gong said. “But he's also creating an environment that is unsafe for women on campus, and also fostering a misogynistic culture in his team as well.”

UNC Athletic Communications declined to provide statements from director of athletics Bubba Cunningham and wrestler Marisol Nugent.

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@dailytarheel | university@dailytarheel.com

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