WORCESTER (MA)
ABC News
By GERRY WAGSCHAL and JOSH MARGOLIN (@JoshMargolin) Oct 15, 2013
There’s an ugly secret lurking behind the legendary women’s basketball program at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, according to a stunning lawsuit filed today that accuses the veteran head coach of physical, verbal and emotional abuse.
Ashley Cooper, a 20-year-old who spent two seasons as a scholarship player for the Crusaders, charges that longtime head coach Bill Gibbons struck and berated members of the team repeatedly and sometimes “in front of hundreds of witnesses” during games. She said complaints about the abuse were covered up and ignored.
In court papers filed in Manhattan, Cooper said that the college — based in Worcester, Mass. — turned a blind eye to abuse that was well known among team members. She accused the school’s athletic director of being negligent in refusing to take any action. The abuse Cooper suffered forced her to transfer out of Holy Cross after two years, she said, and left her unable to play the game she loved since childhood at the collegiate level.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else ever again,” Cooper said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “I want to stop it. I’m doing this for other people. I’m taking a stand for others, for every freshman that walks through the door.”
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