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A second Boston University soccer player has joined Call Her Daddy podcaster Alex Cooper in coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against the program's coaching staff.
Shayla Brown, who is currently a senior midfielder, reportedly contacted a confidential ethics hotline regarding former head coach Casey Brown and a teammate and shared details with a sports psychologist, according to the Boston Globe.
“The coach, she said, was acting inappropriately toward one of BU’s key players, focusing excessively on her and trying to manipulate her in ways that were distressing to the player and her teammates,” the newspaper reported.
“This was not a case of a coach coddling a prized player, Shayla Brown said. Her teammate was ‘being groomed,’ she told the psychologist.”
Brown was joined by 17 other Boston University players in taking claims to the college's Equal Opportunity Office the following day, with all confirming that their teammate, who asked not to be identified publicly, had also shared details on the incidents with school officials.
“She recalled navigating a stream of awkward texts, unsettling invitations and unwanted attention,” the Boston Globe reported.
Cooper, 30, claimed she was sexually harassed by former head coach Nancy Feldman in her recent Hulu documentary Call Her Alex released earlier this month.
“I felt a lot of anger—anger at my coach, anger at my school, and anger at the system that allowed this to happen,” Cooper said via Vanity Fair. “I don’t think anyone could’ve prepared me for the lasting effects that came from this experience. She turned something that I loved so much into something extremely painful.”
Cooper claimed that Feldman, who served as Boston University's head women's soccer coach for 22 years before retiring in 2022, allegedly fixated on her "way more than any other teammate of mine" during her sophomore season, which included taking an uncomfortable interest in her and making comments about her body and personal life, such as asking Cooper if she had sex the previous night. The popular podcaster also claimed that Feldman would attempt to get her alone, put a hand on her thigh and stare at her, warning that "there would be consequences" any time she tried to "resist."
Cooper played on the Boston University women's soccer team from 2013 to 2015.
“It was this psychotic game of, ‘You wanna play? Tell me about your sex life. I have to drive you to your night class, get in the car with me alone,’” Cooper said in the documentary, according to Vanity Fair. “I started trying to spend as little time as possible with her. Taking different routes to practice where I knew I wouldn’t run into her, during meetings, I would try to sit as far away from her as possible. Literally anything to not be alone with this woman.”
Cooper said she attempted to report the incidents to Boston University officials who downplayed it and responded, "What do you want?" telling her family that they wouldn't fire Feldman but would allow Cooper to keep her full scholarship. The podcaster said the school never investigated her claims.
Feldman won 418 games, which ranks 22nd all-time among NCAA women's soccer coaches, and was selected as conference coach of the year 12 times, having served as the program's only coach since its launch as a varsity sport in 1995 prior to her retirement. Brown served as Feldman's assistant and was promoted to head coach following her former boss' retirement in 2022 before stepping down after the school launched an investigation into the players' complaints.
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