Bay FC back head coach Albertin Montoya, downplay ‘communications challenges’ amid reports of toxic workplace

Head coach Albertin Montoya will continue to lead Bay FC as they prepare for their first game of the NWSL season on March 15 despite Montoya being the subject of an investigation into the conduct of the club’s coaching staff.

At least two formal complaints had been filed against Montoya in 2024, accusing him of fostering a toxic workplace and bullying. Eight players from the 2024 season, Bay’s inaugural campaign, are no longer with the team because of  Montoya’s behavior, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The league announced the independent third party investigation shortly after the Chronicle’s investigative report was published.

“He’s currently the head coach,” a spokesperson said Friday during an interview with Bay’s CEO Brady Stewart and COO Jen Millet in New York. “We’re going through the investigation and we will do what we need to do. We don’t have a timing on it.”

Per the Chronicle’s reporting, the first complaint against Montoya was made over the summer and reached ownership as well as other club leaders. The second was made after the conclusion of the 2024 season through the NWSL anonymous reporting mechanisms.

Stewart confirmed that she saw the first complaint and backed up the Chronicle’s report that the club hired a third party to investigate the claim. Stewart said there was “no evidence” of the bullying allegation lodged against Montoya and, when asked about his current employment status, described the root cause of the complaint as a communication issue.

“I think it’s important to note that these issues that have been raised are all related to communications challenges,” Stewart said. “Of course, the league is looking into this, as you saw [Friday] morning, and we’ll absolutely cooperate with the league and support any recommendations from the league.”

The player who made that complaint “felt targeted by personal comments directed by Montoya toward her during review meetings” and “began to suffer anxiety attacks at the thought of going to training,” per the Chronicle.

Instead of any obvious disciplinary actions, Bay instead “provided [the coaching staff} with resources to improve” their communication skills, Stewart said, and the resources included executive coaching and expertise in one-on-one interactions. The second resource corresponds directly with the results of a mandatory league-wide midseason survey, which found that “some players have requested one-on-one meetings that have been denied,” per the Chronicle.

Stewart said they only learned of the second complaint this week after the Chronicle reached out the club for comment and said the club does not have access to reports filed through the NWSL.

The investigation into Montoya’s conduct comes just a week after Graeme Abel, a former U.S. women’s national team assistant coach, resigned as the team’s scouting director. Abel was hired only a week earlier, but the announcement of his employment brought attention to abuse allegations against him while he was the women’s soccer coach at the University of Oregon. The Oregonian published a report on the topic in April 2024 in which Abel was accused of “throwing objects, harsh language, and threats to kick [players] off the team or revoke their scholarship.”

The allegations against both Montoya and Abel have forced questions about Bay’s hiring and player safety practices, and potentially those imposed by the NWSL. The Bay officials chose not to answer a question about whether or not the Oregonian’s report came up during the process that led the club to employ Abel, but Stewart defended their processes.

“What I would say is Albertin has a 30 year history in this sport,” Stewart said in defense of the club’s hiring practices. “I think we can say that speaks for itself. I would also say we are founded with the ideal being a player-centric club, and, frankly, our culture and our values say that there is no room for poor behavior within our club. We also follow all of the league mandates and processes to the T, if not more, so I would say we are absolutely going to continue to do that.”

Outside of the reports, neither Stewart nor Millet said they heard complaints from players about Montoya’s conduct, something they attributed to their roles on the business end of the club, as well as geography. Their offices are in San Francisco, while the players trained and played in San Jose during the 2024 season.

The executives said they were unable to outline next steps from the club because they only learned about the second complaint against Montoya earlier in the week, but that the club plans to cooperate fully with the NWSL’s investigation.

Montoya’s ability to continue with his work in the midst of an investigation is unlike other NWSL coaches who have faced disciplinary action since a league-wide reckoning on abuse in 2021. The NWSL has usually been the one to hand down suspensions, as they did in the case of ex-Orlando Pride head coach Amanda Cromwell, who was placed on administrative leave in June 2022 for acts of retaliation before she was fired that October.

For their part, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman backed the league’s own processes shortly after confirming that an investigation into Bay’s coaching staff was underway.

“We remain focused and are very confident in the system and process that we put in place coming out of the joint investigation and everything we agreed to with the Attorneys General is in place and is underway and being implemented and in many ways confirmed all the systemic reform that we did on our own and in partnership with the Players’ Association,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Bermain said in a press conference earlier on Friday.