(Coach Cynthia Cooper Dyke) put us through hell

[WestsideWaltz]

This is bad, bad, bad. The collusion between the ADs at THREE schools and CCD is shocking.

Former players accuse Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of demeaning, demoralizing and abusive behavior

WNBA legend and Hall of Famer’s alleged actions led to a Title IX investigation at Texas Southern.

theathletic.com

 

[eebmg]

Disgusting on so many levels.

 

[Mulder]

Players Accuse Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of Abusive Behavior, per Report - Sports Illustrated

Former athletes are alleging the coach made sexual and degrading comments, as well as endangering their physical and mental well-being.

www.si.com

 

[SECbbfan24]

Good gravy... some of those comments

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Sounds like she tried to be too comfortable with her players. Disappointing. Inappropriate. Just poor leadership. These schools need to be held accountable as well.

 

[JellyBean]

Coach, Noooooo!! For the life of me, I do not know or will never understand why coaches think that they can get away with this type of behavior. I know some coaches go 10, 20, 30 years before stuff leaks out about a coach and their behavior and how schools did a soft investigation and swept the allegations under the rug. But you can't be doing stuff like this as a coach! Oh my word!

I think what makes me even more upset, after reading how long this type of behavior was allowed to continue, is the fact that, NOBODY had the stones to speak to Coach Cooper-Dyke and be like "Whoa! What the ---- you doing? You can't do stuff like this! Get your act together or we gone have problems" So many folks around these people are enablers. Sure there were some complaints, But apparently not enough to draw attention to the problem. Then when the whole thing blows up. "Oh. She was like this in 2012!" 2012!? We are in 2022 and now stuff is coming out. SMH

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Disgrace.

 

[WestsideWaltz]

Coach, Noooooo!! For the life of me, I do not know or will never understand why coaches think that they can get away with this type of behavior. I know some coaches go 10, 20, 30 years before stuff leaks out about a coach and their behavior and how schools did a soft investigation and swept the allegations under the rug. But you can't be doing stuff like this as a coach! Oh my word!

I think what makes me even more upset, after reading how long this type of behavior was allowed to continue, is the fact that, NOBODY had the stones to speak to Coach Cooper-Dyke and be like "Whoa! What the ---- you doing? You can't do stuff like this! Get your act together or we gone have problems" So many folks around these people are enablers. Sure there were some complaints, But apparently not enough to draw attention to the problem. Then when the whole thing blows up. "Oh. She was like this in 2012!" 2012!? We are in 2022 and now stuff is coming out. SMH

It's easy to understand why Cooper Dyke felt she could get away with this behavior because she did. Again and again and again. You read that the girls did go to the AD and if anything, CCD was empowered by it because nothing ever happened. When CCD found out about it, she let the team know that she was still there. The girls flat out said that they felt no one would believe them and they were correct. At CCD's last stop, she had her fans on the team and those players suggested beating up the ones who complained.

After all these years, no one is still taking responsibility.

And an interesting item is that the authors say some athletes couldn't speak because of non disclosures. Now why would they have signed non disclosures......

 

[JDuro]

Destiny Littleton really dodged a bullet here. She definitely fell in that group of players excited to commit and play for CCD when she was at Southern Cal.

 

[tigers4ever]

Sounds like she tried to be too comfortable with her players. Disappointing. Inappropriate. Just poor leadership. These schools need to be held accountable as well.

Abusive and sexually harassing is what it sounds like to me.

 

[WestsideWaltz]

That also reminds me that she signed highly regarded Ayanna Clark but left before she entered. Clark had academic problems and went to Central Arizona. She then followed Cooper to Texas Southern but left before she played one game.

 

[Blueballer]

That's some incredibly revolting behavior.

 

[bballnut90]

Big yikes all around. Feel awful for the players who were forced to play through injury, singled out, or even driven to contemplate suicide but am glad they're finally able to say their piece. What's most jarring is that this behavior was reported at several different schools to administration and each school simply swept these accusations under the rug and pushed the problem (Cooper) on to someone else.

 

[tigers4ever]

Abusive and sexually harassing is what it sounds like to me.

I agree schools should be accountable but I wonder about the non disclosures mentioned in the articles. Possible that the schools paid something in settlement, got the non disclosure and moved on.

 

[ochoopsfan]

I can say from the first year that she was coach at USC(13/14 season), every thing in the article is correct.

I was at nearly every home game and several road games, that season, and she threw "F" bombs not only at players but her coaches, too. Dont forget USC rarely had 1000 people in attendance for their home games and everything could be heard.
The Pac 12 broadcast table for live or streamed games was right next to the USC bench. They had to move the table as the curse words could be heard behind the broadcasters voices.

As for why it was put up with, the USC Alumni wanted(maybe demanded) the CCD be hired to replace Michael Cooper.
The Womans AD at USC was Donna Heinel. Guess who Donna Heinel is.
A former athletics official at the University of Southern California pleaded guilty Friday in an admissions scandal for allegedly helping students cheat their way for acceptance into the prestigious college.
Donna Heinel, who was USC's senior associate athletic director, pleaded guilty to one count of (honest?) services wire fraud as part of a plea agreement.

Former USC official pleads guilty to a fraud charge tied to college admissions scandal | CNN

A former athletics official at the University of Southern California pleaded guilty Friday in an admissions scandal for allegedly helping students cheat their way for acceptance into the prestigious college.

www.cnn.com

 

[JellyBean]

It's easy to understand why Cooper Dyke felt she could get away with this behavior because she did. Again and again and again. You read that the girls did go to the AD and if anything, CCD was empowered by it because nothing ever happened. When CCD found out about it, she let the team know that she was still there. The girls flat out said that they felt no one would believe them and they were correct. At CCD's last stop, she had her fans on the team and those players suggested beating up the ones who complained.

After all these years, no one is still taking responsibility.

And an interesting item is that the authors say some athletes couldn't speak because of non disclosures. Now why would they have signed non disclosures......

And that is the frustrating part. These ADs knowing that these coaches are doing questionable things and they either look the other way or go light on the investigation.

 

[Stymie]

And that is the frustrating part. These ADs knowing that these coaches are doing questionable things and they either look the other way or go light on the investigation.

I believe it is called a symbiotic relationship in biological terms.
In legal terms it is aiding and abetting.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

We need to empower our young people to speak out, immediately, when something isn't right.

 

[WestsideWaltz]

We need to empower our young people to speak out, immediately, when something isn't right.

But that's the point. These players did speak out. They were ignored. I think there's something quite telling that so many of them were unwilling to give their names to the story because they feared reprisal.

As we've seen a rash of transfers, I believe our young people have spoken out. We've taught them to understand this and as a result, they're saying, no, I won't be spoken to like that, no I won't be treated like that. When they realize that coaches won't change or the administration is uncaring, what else is there to do but transfer? And in the instances where there are mass transfers season after season, there are still people who will defend the programs and coaches saying the younger generation is soft.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

When I say, "speak out" I mean go to the press if nothing is being done. Scream it from the rooftops.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Not as high profile, but there was something similar at UC Riverside. Repeated reports of abuse against the head coach led nowhere. An assistant coach tried to step up and go to bat for the players, and she lost her job. There was finally enough publicity that the AD had to dismiss the coach, but it happened WAY later than it should have.

 

[cancontent]

When I say, "speak out" I mean go to the press if nothing is being done. Scream it from the rooftops.

We've seen examples of this and it still falls on deaf ears. Northern Kentucky and Detroit Mercy come to mind. In the case of Northern Kentucky, the athletes were very detailed in what they reported to the media. Detroit Mercy, the AD didn't seem to care even when the coach told players that they could stay even though she wouldn't let them play. I remember him being on record stating he supported her. I recall it took ALOT of local media attention for something to happen.

Don't know what it's going to take for it to be dealt with more seriously on a consistent level.

 

[Puppy Love]

Passing the buck is typical in business, too. I had a really abusive manager at work. These were all senior people, high up the management chain. I put up with it for a couple of years until it started to severely impact my life outside of work. Finally went to the next level manager and told them in detail how this person treated employees and why people were leaving. To my surprise, they acknowledge the problem and said they had been aware of it for a while. They said ‘please be patient we are working on it’. About two weeks later, the abusive manager and the entire team were transferred to another division. “Working on it“ turned out to mean that they were figuring out how to pass the buck on the problem. I got a really huge raise, presumably as compensation for putting up with it. It didn’t make me stay though, I quickly found another job in the company in a completely different group. The manager finally got what they had coming. They got fired about a year later when they finally did something so egregious that management couldn’t look the other way anymore.

I think that colleges put up with it for many of the same reasons businesses do. They don’t want the offending employee to sue them, and they don’t want the bad publicity. It’s just easier to pass the buck and pretend that real people aren’t being hurt.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

In the case of physical abuse...skip the school and file a police report. In the case of harassment or mental abuse, inform the school in writing and tell them if they don't address the issue ASAP, the correspondence will be on the local news and the internet. How is that for bad publicity? No one sends their children to school to endure abuse!