Rower's Family Says Abusive Coach Pushed Athlete To Suicide

CBS San Francisco

December 7, 2022

On New Year's Day nearly two years ago, Parker Kinney spent the day with Brian Lilly Jr. at picturesque Scripps Beach in the San Diego area and realized his friend had become a shadow of his former self.

Kinney and Lilly walked on the sand for hours and went to dinner. At the end of the night before saying goodbye, they opened up about their shared struggles while rowing for the coach at the time at University of California-San Diego and how it had affected their well-being.

Yet Kinney couldn't possibly fully grasp the depths of Lilly's despair that afternoon: The 19-year-old college rower took his own life just three days later.

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