Holy Cross women's hoop coach accused of abusing player

The player claims coach "struck her on the back on more than one occasion, including during a January 2012 game against Brown. The incident caused Cooper to experience pain and left a red hand print on her skin, according to the complaint."

The coach also "humiliated her sometimes in the presence of other school officials."

Added on the suit is the school, which the player claims worked to cover up these offenses. Also, in the AP story we ran about this, the complaint says what happened at Rutgers paled in comparison to what happened to her at HC.

Not sure where I fall on these kinds of stories. I do think kids today, for the most part, are a bunch of babies and can't take it when someone yells at them (probably for the first times in their lives, because they've been praised for so long). But there really is no place for physical abuse.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/10/17/holy-cross-women-basketball-coach-steps-down-player-alleges-abuse/hvlRyMXKFbT8dbt7yYLWgI/story.html

 

Zag approves.

If this actually happened -- or as in the Rutgers case, what we know happened -- there is no gray area. It's abuse and something a university should not tolerate.

 

If the incident took place during a game as alleged, there almost has to be some kind of video footage.

So far the coach is taking the correct tack in his defense, i.e. complete denial, not rationalizations, explanations and excuses.

Because if it's true, at all, he's done.


The complaint's assertion the abuse was "worse than what happened at Rutgers" seems a little histrionic, not to mention impossible to verify either way, and ultimately irrelevant.

 

In the AP story, it mentioned that school has refused to hand over the footage of the game.

I agree that if he's guilty of being physically abusive, he's gone. But I really don't have a problem with verbally berating a player. Obviously some players react differently than others, but he's been there 29 years, and this appears to be the first player to come forward with these types of allegations (he has been investigated before, but the school found nothing substantial).

 

The school that won't produce the videotape has investigated and cleared him previously? You don't say.

 

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

 

I talked to Gibbons a few times several years ago when a local kid played for him. He struck me as kind of high-strung, but there probably aren't too many people in that line of work who are not.
Last night, I asked the local kid about it, just because I was curious about her reaction. I'm not writing anything about it because I no longer have any local kids on the team. She didn't want to say anything that might wind up in print, but she did say she never felt as if she were abused when she played for him.

 

I coached HS and junior high level girls basketball 25 years ago, and I understood very clearly I was never ever to put my hands on a player except for trivial shoulder-tapping, etc etc. It's kind of amazing a guy has been coaching college all those years and never got the same message.

 

Maybe she was drunk

 

I have railed against this for years.
It's total bullshit the crap coaches get away with.
A high school coach screaming at a kid or defense is OK ...'Cause you know, knowing you need to provide backside help in the post of a 2-3 zone is important.
A math teacher berating a student who can't do Algebra? See that's different. 'Cause it's just fucking math.

Neither is OK. Not at the high school or college level. It is unacceptable. Period.
And it's a big, big reason why I understand the need for teachers to be coaches.
And why athletics is out of hand.

 

The guy has been there 29 years with the longest tenure of any Cross coach.
That's a lot of women to deal with over that time,

http://www.goholycross.com/sports/w-baskbl/coaches/gibbons_bill00.html

 

I disagree, up to a point.

Competitive athletics is not the same as math class. Sports, especially from the varsity high school level and up, is an intense, physical and emotional endeavor played out in front of people who pay good money to see the athletes perform.

And sometimes coaches need to be emotionally forceful in getting the players to play to their potential and do the right things at the right times. Also, there is a difference between getting on a player vocally in practice or a game and screaming at them wildly.

That said, I've found in a long career covering preps that the best and most successful coaches never scream at their players, never cuss them and never lose control. They may at times be vocal and forceful, but it's always delivered in a way that the kids understand is done to make them better. And the kids who play for these coaches always -- always -- play up to or beyond their talent level.