Boston Alumni Defend Soccer Coach Amid Alex Cooper Harassment Claims
Almost 100 former Boston College girls’s soccer alumni have reportedly come to the protection of coach Nancy Feldman, who was accused final week of sexual harassment by Alex Cooper throughout her time on the college.
TMZ reported on Monday, June 16, that it had obtained a letter signed by 99 former BU soccer gamers, stating that their experiences with Feldman couldn’t have been extra completely different from the allegations made by the “Name Her Daddy” podcast host in her new Hulu docuseries, Name Her Alex.
The group said that they didn’t search to “diminish or discredit anybody’s particular person expertise,” however fairly wished to place their experiences with Feldman on document as a “united group.”
The previous faculty gamers stated that “we categorically by no means felt unsafe” below Feldman. “We had been by no means prone to or witness to inappropriate conduct or something that may very well be characterised as sexual harassment,” they stated, per TMZ.
“As a frontrunner, she approached each day with professionalism, making selections in service of the success of the workforce,” the letter continued.
The signatories, who TMZ stated spanned alumni over a number of a long time, concluded that Feldman “has remained an essential a part of our lives and we will stand by her.”
Cooper, 30, performed for the college’s girls’s soccer workforce between 2013 and 2015, per the BU web site.
In her new docuseries, Name Her Alex, which premiered on Tuesday, June 10, Cooper claimed that Feldman started to “fixate on me, far more than another teammate of mine” throughout her sophomore yr, describing the alleged expertise as “complicated.”
“[It] was all primarily based in her eager to know who I used to be relationship, her making feedback about my physique and her all the time eager to be alone with me,” she stated, in response to Folks.
“It was this psychotic recreation of, ‘You wish to play? Inform me about your intercourse life,’” Cooper described one alleged incident. She additionally claimed that Feldman informed her, “I’ve to drive you to your night time class. Get within the automobile with me alone.”
In an announcement to Us Weekly on Friday, June 13, a Boston College spokesperson stated, “Boston College has a zero-tolerance coverage for sexual harassment. We’ve got a strong system of sources, help and employees devoted to pupil wellbeing and an intensive reporting course of by our Equal Alternative Workplace. We encourage members of our neighborhood to report any issues, and we stay dedicated to fostering a secure and safe campus surroundings for all.”
Feldman couldn’t be reached for remark by Us Weekly final week.
Cooper studied movie and tv at BU, graduating in 2017. Feldman retired from the school’s athletics division in 2022 after 27 years of teaching.
If you happen to or somebody has been sexually assaulted, contact the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).