When Cynthia Cooper-Dyke was a player in college and the WNBA, I would imagine this is how her coaches talked to her, but she has to know in 2022 that this simply doesn’t fly.
You have to be more sensitive to what your players are telling you, and you have to be very careful with the words you speak back to them. I am sure Cooper-Dyke, in her mind, was just trying to motivate the kids and saying things in jest, but they obviously didn’t take it that way.
Here is the wild story via The Athletic on how the players at Texas Southern University felt like they were going through hell during Cooper-Dyke’s reign over the program.
Yet that woman and others would come to feel differently after being subjected to language and behavior that some players considered abusive, and several say they fell out of love with or quit the sport because of Cooper-Dyke’s treatment.
At Texas Southern, Cooper-Dyke’s alleged actions led to a Title IX investigation that prompted the no-contact order. Records of the investigation reviewed by The Athletic indicate that among the allegations probed by the school:
- When told that one of her players — who had a previously known mental health diagnosis — was depressed, Cooper-Dyke responded, “No, she will be all right, she just needs some dick, that’s all.” Later she called that same player a “sorry-ass virgin.”
- Cooper-Dyke came up behind a player while she was doing squats and said, “Ooh, your hips are big, you got a fat ass and I can tell you like to ride some dick.’’
- Cooper-Dyke repeatedly shamed a player for her weight in front of the team, and that player was so despondent she stopped eating in front of her coach.
- At UNC-Wilmington, where she coached from 2010-12, Cooper often talked about her own or players’ sex lives. For example, at one practice during the 2010-11 season, Cooper-Dyke said, “Wet, wet” after making a shot and then motioned to a player and said, “I bet that’s what (name redacted) was last night.”
- During her first stint at Texas Southern, in 2012-13, Cooper-Dyke got on her knees in front of a male assistant during practice and mimicked performing fellatio, and she told one player that her slow running during a drill was due to her “getting dicked down” all the time. She called some players “Black-ass child,” “bitch,” “pussy” and “dumbass.”
- At USC, where Cooper-Dyke coached from 2013-17, she also harped on some players’ sex lives and named one of the team’s plays “hot sex.” She called some players “retarded” and once mocked people with special needs. She also pressured some players to practice when they were injured or returning from an injury.
Essentially Cooper-Dyke was a Bobby Knight style coach and all the inappropriate things she has been doing over the years have come back to haunt her.
Like Master Mordo says, the bill comes due…ALWAYS.
Flip the page for more of the wild accusations against Cooper-Dyke.