“I gotta be honest, when I saw the In Memoriam, I was like, ‘Man, that could have been me.’”
Alex Cooper is opening up about an “extremely painful” time in her life.
The 30-year-old “Call Her Daddy” podcaster, who played soccer for Boston University from 2013 to 2015, premiered her new Hulu docuseries, “Call Her Alex,” at the Tribeca Festival on Sunday, June 8.
In the documentary, she accused her former coach, Nancy Feldman, of sexual harassment.
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“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 in the documentary, according to Vanity Fair.
“I don’t think anyone could’ve prepared me for the lasting effects that came from this experience,” she added. “She turned something that I loved so much into something extremely painful.”
Feldman, who coached the team for 27 years (since 1995), announced her retirement in April 2022.
She led the Terriers to 13 conference tournament trophies, 14 regular season titles and 14 national tournament appearances, according to Boston University Today.
In the doc, Cooper recalled feeling “deeply uncomfortable” around Feldman during her sophomore year (2014), when Feldman allegedly began fixating on her “way more than any other teammate.”
"[It] was all based in her wanting to know who I was dating, her making comments about my body and her always wanting to be alone with me," Cooper explained, per People.
She goes on to allege that Feldman once asked if she had sex the previous night and would often put her hand on her thigh and stare at her.
“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 claimed in the doc.
She further accused Feldman of threatening her with “consequences” if she resisted her requests.
“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,” Cooper said.
“Literally anything to not be alone with this woman,” she added, per the New York Post.
Cooper slams BU for not investigating her claims at the time
Cooper made her official debut with the Boston University Terriers as a freshman on Aug. 11, 2013.
As a junior, she took six shots against Bucknell in the PL Championship and scored the game-tying goal against St. John's in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
But due to the escalating harassment with Feldman, Cooper decided to leave the team the following year.
In her documentary, Cooper says she was hesitant to speak out against her coach out of fear that she would lose her full-time scholarship with the school.
She eventually told her parents, who contacted lawyers. But when they approached Boston University officials about the harassment, they were “brushed off,” per the New York Post.
Cooper claimed that BU officials never investigated her claims and never considered firing Feldman.
They did, however, allow Cooper to retain her full scholarship.
As for why she’s deciding to speak her truth more than 10 years later, Cooper says she hoped to put an end to the harassment after learning that the “abuse of power” was still happening on campus.
“I spoke to one of the victims, and hearing her story was horrific, and I knew in that moment, if I don’t speak about this, it’s going to continue happening,” she said in a Q&A at the premiere, per Deadline.
She also recalled the moment she stepped foot on Boston University’s soccer field a decade later.
"The minute I stepped back on that field, I felt so small," she said at the Q&A, per People.
"I just felt like I was 18 years old again, and I was in a situation with someone in a position of power who abused their power, and I felt like I wasn't the 'Call Her Daddy' girl,” she added.
Cooper goes on to say that she’s “not ashamed” that it took her so long to share her truth.
"But it makes me question a lot, and I think this documentary, as difficult as it was to explore, I actually think this is just the beginning,” she explains.
"It's really opened my eyes to how difficult the system is, and it's so built against us as women," she added.
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The two-part docuseries, “Call Her Alex,” debuts on Hulu June 10. It will also be available to stream on Disney+.
