Second, no messing around with girls. The directors visit every new family in their home in the fall, and the camp boasts a return rate of 95 percent. DRAKE STADIUM'S NINE dark azure lanes make up one of the most recognizable surfaces in track. We would always say Victor had a certain sense of loving and being kind to people. Ms. Levine joined the American Jewish Congress in the 1950s as a lawyer on its Commission on Law and Social Action. Rachel Bujalski for ESPN. Look in that camera. -- and at other times seething over the memory of a woman who supposedly betrayed him. What did you do?" Over the past several months of training with Mainwaring, Benjamin has become a believer. First, Mainwaring hadn't voluntarily left education -- at least not at Caltech -- as he had suggested. Parents. August 11 through August 13, 2023. the man says. ", "He was much too secretive about the operations," Oliver says. Finally, Benjamin goes to bed. MARGOLIS-Bert. He enjoyed the training regimen, and Mainwaring was clearly legit: To Nosenko's surprise, the squad's standout member was Felix Sanchez, the Dominican American hurdler and then-Olympic hopeful. Mainwaring works in the Disability Services and Programs office at the University of Southern California. It's over for you. The former student says he left immediately. Rachel Bujalski for ESPN. had reinvented itself as it expanded through Lower Manhattan. Other than a couple of 1976 clippings from the local Leicester newspaper that touted Mainwaring's spot in the Olympics, searches of old papers unearthed nothing unusual. Producer Greg Amante, associate producer Tonya Malinowski and researcher John Mastroberardino of ESPN's investigative unit contributed to this report. Nosenko says he never discussed this part of the training with Sanchez or other members of the squad. He is planning to confront Mainwaring for abusing him 11 years ago. He says the abuse went on for several years. Several Syracuse squad members would visit him at Colgate, and new members joined. The world's greatest track athletes have run here through the years, in front of thousands of cheering fans. Some evenings after practice, the two would ride a bus downtown, where the coach -- he went simply by "Conrad" -- took Sharples to a Chinese restaurant and treated him to chicken and chips. Two thousand miles away, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a man named Tym De Santo was just back from vacation in March 2010. He says he and a counselor he's been seeing "are pretty sure I experienced an event while I was young. Widow of Randolph R. Rosenbaum, former owner/ director of Camp Greylock for Boys. Brian wants clarity. Sometimes, squad members were at the apartment at the same time. It's over for you. "Naturally I expect you to keep my address to yourself [Ed. EARLY THE NEXT morning, June 28, 2016, Mainwaring picks up Benjamin outside his apartment en route to Drake, as if nothing unusual happened the night before. ", "Do you remember me? He didn't complain at the time, but Outside the Lines has learned that another student filed a complaint about Mainwaring. The coach preached sobriety and celibacy, citing booze and girls as obstacles to athletic success. The campus sits on 300 acres of land, high in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts. Last summer over sixty boys were Seniors at Greylock, and the friendships are the reason . It was about 8:30 on the East Coast -- but he had designs on waking up Conrad Mainwaring three time zones to the west, using a number he found online. In 1980, just shy of his 18th birthday, Victor Zenoff told his mother he'd been sexually abused by Conrad Mainwaring years earlier. In the 1950s, two Adirondack girls' camps made a particular point of designing programs that prepared the campers to take significant roles in business and society. The Camp Greylock Directors, Staff, Alumni, and Community mourn the passing of one of its most beloved and longest serving Directors who passed away February 19, 2002 at his home in New The men now range in age from 22 to 59. He had a very powerful way of pulling you in.". The man lays into the coach for what seems like forever. Camp Greylock spreads across 300 acres near the town of Becket, a bucolic setting of top-flight sports facilities -- 15 tennis courts, five baseball fields, three soccer fields, two 100-yard flag football fields, an in-line hockey rink, a nine-hole golf course, a climbing wall, a zip line, a lake and a weight room -- and cabins nestled amid abundant forest. As startling as the sheer number of accusations was the fact that for years Mainwaring -- who rejected repeated interview requests -- remained a cipher, a man with almost no public footprint who was able to stay one step ahead of the allegations and the law. You're not doing this anymore. Even if the campers knew he had finished last in his preliminary heats in the 400- and 110-meter hurdles, it didn't seem to matter. Now an eye surgeon and aikido instructor in Syracuse, Druger, 56, says he visited Mainwaring for "sessions" in dorms where Mainwaring worked. Several staff members from that time period and one former camper who is now a staffer told Outside the Lines they couldn't recall anyone matching Mainwaring's description. '", He remembers Mainwaring saying, "It's going to stop when you realize what's necessary in your training, and your training isn't there. Some of the fastest humans have run there, from Jackie Joyner-Kersee to Maurice Greene. Greylock is a proud member of the Berkshire Summer Camp Association. . I hope you know that I'm genuinely sorry. Outside the Lines pieced together the details of Conrad Mainwaring's life and identified allegations against him that span from England in the 1970s to Los Angeles in 2016. Mainwaring was an avid reader and classical music aficionado who seemed, at least to a kid from Leicester, to know everything. She decided to pursue law instead. Mainwaring tries to walk away a couple of times, with the aid of a walker he has used since having hip surgery the year before. In fact, to this day, some of the men report feeling wildly conflicted -- angry and tortured by the abuse yet convinced that some of their achievements would not have been possible without him. "How bad do you want the Olympics?" Others considered more direct routes to get at Mainwaring. Yuri Nosenko (not pictured) met Mainwaring at UCLA in 2001. The former Olympian, who served as a camp counselor at Camp Greylock located in the Berkshire County town of Becket, is facing nine counts of indecent assault and battery on a child over the age . O'Boyle later said UCLA police informed him that the umbrella strikes didn't merit criminal charges and that the statute of limitations had expired on his claims of sexual abuse. Ring once, hang up. The position came with a house near campus. You can contact us year round or request info online. But once Druger opened up, there was no stopping him. Although communication diminished, the conversations were meaningful, he says. Is that when it happened to you? His boss, Robert Oliver, would note that Mainwaring was "very charming, but he didn't volunteer very much information, so I had to get most of what I needed to know by kind of dragging it out of him." Finally, the man turns and approaches the coach, raising his cellphone to record the encounter. He told Allinson to relax: "You need to be able to focus, and you need to learn how to slow your heartbeat down. "Everybody loved Victor. "There was no logic to any of it. Divided equally between junior and senior campers, Greylock features a varied program of arts and adventure, land sports, and watersports. He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail a few days later. A few days later, a man who asked to be referred to as Max is about to take a walk when his phone rings. Many had endured pervasive shame. Among them was Brian, who spoke on the condition Outside the Lines withhold his last name. WHILE MAINWARING WAS busy coaching at the UCLA track, his past was beginning to catch up. "Do you train with this man?" ", The coach said the boy needed to give him a hug. Above all else, he just wanted to make the UCLA team. As O'Boyle parks and walks toward the track, he hasn't decided whether he'll record the confrontation. Her condo overlooks Richardson Bay in affluent Tiburon. But, as she told it, she was rejected after taking an oral exam because she had a lisp. De Santo was a niche celebrity. She gained greater visibility when she was appointed executive director of the American Jewish Congress in 1972, becoming, by all accounts, the first woman to lead such a Jewish organization. he wrote. Hittin' me with an umbrella! But Stephens' blog comment would prove to be a beacon for anyone typing in Mainwaring's name. His latest squad was a mix of students attending the university and younger athletes he had met at local track meets while working as a counselor at a nearby high school. After his confrontation, David O'Boyle wrote the letter that got Mainwaring banned from UCLA. The camp was founded in 1916 by three brothers, who sold it to a group of former campers in the late 1940s. Mainwaring stumbles through, at once self-critical -- "There is total hypocrisy in my life because I'm still teaching young people." Nosenko ultimately would be one of Sanchez's training partners in the lead-up to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. "Do you train with this guy?" "I couldn't even think. Seven men now say he molested them there, including Michael Waxman (above, right), shown with the coach in a yearbook image. Among the Nottingham students was Robert Druger, who later attended Syracuse University and ran on the track team. Benjamin feels uneasy, but he is oddly pleased when Mainwaring says, "Good, good, you're getting percentage quite quickly. LAPD Detective Sharlene Johnson says it was difficult to find any cases against Mainwaring that fell within the statute of limitations until Benjamin stepped forward. Mainwaring refused to answer questions and did not respond to several subsequent interview attempts. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. In 1921 Andrew II's camp was sold to the Mason family and became Camp Greylock for Girls. Camp History. The young girls today think differently, and theyre right., Summing up her view, she said: Womens lib is probably correct, but its not my style.. He had kept the pain mostly to himself all these years, but then he found De Santo's blog and learned that one man who accused Mainwaring of abuse might have been just 12 years old at the time. Michael Waxman, Robert Bender and Vernon Sharples describe the lasting damage they say they suffered because of Mainwaring. Mainwaring coaches in the Los Angeles area. He had a word for messing around with members of the opposite sex: wenching. Camp Greylock, located in Becket, is described on the camp's website as "the Northeast's preeminent traditional residential summer camp for boys, entering its 100th summer on Center Lake, in . BY 1980, MAINWARING was 28, had landed at Syracuse University in upstate New York and was pursuing a master's degree in counseling and guidance. The report arrived just six months before expiration of California's three-year statute of limitations on sexual battery by fraud -- touching the genitals under false pretenses. About Greylock. He would repeat eight years later in London, again with Mainwaring as a coach. Three men now allege they were molested during this time. Its founders were three brothers, George, Gabriel ("Doc"), and Lou Mason. Through the years, the camp has catered to the children of wealth -- the sons of entertainers and sports executives, politicians and architects. He says he hid the abuse out of shame, fear and confusion -- all of which he blames for a lifelong struggle with alcohol. Naomi attended Hunter College High School in Manhattan and graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. The call lasts 44 minutes, and Max immediately records everything he can remember in his journal, which he provided to Outside the Lines. Reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada confronts Mainwaring outside the public track where the coach was training athletes earlier this year. Because the allegation did not include a claim of penetration, the sexual battery was what is referred to as a "wobbler," meaning it might not be charged by prosecutors as a felony. Mainwaring left Syracuse in the summer of 1985 for Colgate University, about 40 miles down the road in Hamilton, New York, where he worked in the admissions department. It's a friend -- a reporter -- following up on an earlier conversation: "That guy you told me about -- the one you said molested your brother back in the '70s what's his name again?" Many invited Mainwaring into their homes to meet their parents, who were equally enamored of him. The former student says that during a session with his then-girlfriend in the spring of 1988, Mainwaring said the couple's relationship was stalled because the man's sex drive wasn't strong enough. He worked for the school in student housing. Benjamin doesn't know what to believe, but he writes a detailed account of what happened in his apartment. DECADES AFTER HER eldest son confided that he had been molested by Conrad Mainwaring and then died a few days later in a hiking accident, 78-year-old Nisha Zenoff sits on a couch in her Northern California home. That influenced my thinking., Naomi Levine, Lawyer Who Helped Transform N.Y.U., Dies at 97, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/nyregion/naomi-levine-dead.html. The first mention linking Mainwaring to abuse wouldn't appear on the blog until 2013. "He was very clever, very diabolically clever because he was couching it as nonsexual," Brian says now. He smiled a lot. "Oh, this is a good one. Everything I was doing was about control.". Some of the members were UCLA students, some were not and some were Olympic-level athletes who had finished college. In later years the property was divided into smaller camps. David Allinson (not pictured) says Mainwaring promised him greatness if he followed his direction. Often, talk turned to Mainwaring's international squad in America. In the summer of 1980, Victor was approaching his 18th birthday -- barely out of high school -- when he told his mother he had been sexually abused by Mainwaring repeatedly over several summers. Later, Outside the Lines attempted to contact Mainwaring by email, phone and a letter left at his apartment. "Like cults use the Bible, he used it in a way that he knew had pull with me. He and Brian had connected through the survivor network and spent hours sharing their stories and feelings. After Mainwaring leaves, Benjamin replays the session over and over. There, De Santo says, Mainwaring molested him. Greylock is a place to foster friendships. Upon arrival, the man says, Mainwaring directed him to lie down on the couch. www.campgreylock.com. Within days, Victor died in a hiking accident. Until recently, Druger says, he compartmentalized the darker parts of the relationship while crediting Mainwaring with helping to improve his life in some ways. What are you, 7 years old? Greylock offers a structured program that combines instruction and . As she pursued her law career, Ms. Levine often found herself surrounded by men. The blog item, probably read largely by close friends and family, sat dormant for a year. Greylock parent Nate has had a simply spectacular experience - from how the boys treat one another, to the focus on skill building, (including the tremendous growth I've seen in my own son in certain sports as well as in his leadership), to the tremendous camp spirit, the sensitive and supportive way Mike handled a death in the family, to . Brian was 18 when he arrived at Colgate in the fall of 1987, a jazz guitarist and successful high school athlete who had struggled with motivation. He is not on the Bruins' track team, but he is training toward his dream of making his home country's national squad. "He just kept on saying that I'm this amazing guy kind of showering me with compliments," Sharples says. What was that? "I was aware that he was going to the Olympics because he used to come into the shop and try and get a bit of stuff for free," says Sharples, now a slender, balding 59-year-old. Today, she is showing a reporter some old photos of Victor. Nor did the stranger realize that he had just pulled a thread that would begin unraveling the mystery and misdeeds of Conrad Mainwaring, a former Olympian who coached Olympic-level athletes, including a two-time gold medalist. You weren't following Christ.". "I really think of [Mainwaring] as a killer. How do you get them to trust you? Now, they had found a support system. There wasn't a single mention of Conrad Mainwaring, whom De Santo met when he lived in England. During his time in Syracuse, Mainwaring also kept office hours as a counselor at nearby Nottingham High School, according to two men who say they were minors when he abused them there. Efforts were made to corroborate their stories, including speaking with family members, friends and spouses they had confided in over the years, as well as reviewing letters, journals, photos, official documents and news articles. School district officials told Outside the Lines they found no records that Mainwaring was ever a staff member or a sanctioned volunteer. Nisha is a psychotherapist, with a specialty in grief and marriage counseling. In a letter to another squad member during that time, Mainwaring wrote that he was leaving for "California Institute of Technology for my new position as Counseling Psychologist and Professor of Psychology.". Founded in 1916, it is one of the oldest privately owned, all-boys camps in the nation. "You are a false teacher," Brian says. Police deemed it a hiking accident. He has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of sexual battery by fraud and is free on bail pending the outcome of his case. Mainwaring told Brian he was headed to California for a new job, gave the young man his new number and said he could call collect anytime. But then, quickly, she is inside Victor's head and overwhelmed. He was a camper, counselor, department head, and group head at Greylock before joining the Directorate. Benjamin lies there stunned, but almost hypnotized. He was easygoing. 2,310 were here. Inside the apartment, Mainwaring has Benjamin lie on his back. Other Important Dates. He worked a series of random jobs and continued to coach athletes, sometimes in an official capacity. In 1995, Michael Marcus and Lukas Horn purchased the assets of the former Camp Greylock for Boys, Inc. Some old members continued to visit him and stay in contact, but Outside the Lines spoke with only one accuser who says he met the coach during that time. To remove the additional barrier of transportation, helping ensure access to the healthy meals, learning opportunities and physical activity at Camp Greylock, the Y runs a free bus service each . The university manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and it is perennially viewed as one of the nation's top tech schools -- the MIT of the West. "My time in UK was so pleasant and inspiring!" IN MAY 2018, a phone rings at the Marin County, California, office of Andrew Zenoff, an entrepreneur who initially struck it big two decades ago by selling a pillow for nursing mothers. It was overcast, and the rush of Exposition Boulevard traffic was audible from a hundred yards off. In an effort both to learn about Mainwaring's family history and to address his claims of abuse as a boy in Antigua, Outside the Lines reached out to his brother in England and sister in New Zealand. But he was neither a professor nor, formally, a counselor. After Ms. Levine retired, N.Y.U. By then, the summer of 1978, Mainwaring was well on his way to establishing a dramatic legacy at Greylock. ", After workouts, Mainwaring gave Sharples and other squad members massages; he called it "physiotherapy." In total, 14 men told Outside the Lines they were abused by Mainwaring in the Syracuse area. Shapiro's lawsuit also names Camp Greylock, Inc., a summer camp for boys in Becket, Massachusetts. This contradicts California law, which states, in part, that if "the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose, [he] is guilty of sexual battery," regardless of the age of the victim. In the lawsuit and in . When Sharples turned 18, Mainwaring invited him to cross the Atlantic and work as a counselor at Camp Greylock for Boys in Massachusetts.