In her documentary Call Her Alex, the media personality and Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper detailed alleged sexual harassment she said she endured during her three-season stint on the Boston University women’s soccer team that began in 2013. In the film, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, Cooper claimed that her then-coach, Nancy Feldman, developed a fixation on her that led to “deeply uncomfortable” interactions, including verbal remarks and physical touch.
“My sophomore year, everything really shifted,” Cooper said in the documentary, per Vanity Fair. “I started to notice her really starting to fixate on me way more than any other teammate of mine. And it was confusing because the focus wasn’t like, ‘You’re doing so well. Let’s get you on the field. You’re going to be a starter.’ 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 noted that since she was attending Boston University on a full-tuition scholarship, she felt limited in her resources and options while navigating the alleged harassment. “I didn’t follow this woman’s rules, I was gone,” she said, adding: “Every time I tried to resist her, she would say, ‘There could be consequences.’” Cooper alleged that she submitted written documentation detailing her interactions with Feldman to Boston University. “They said, ‘We’re not gonna fire her, but you can keep your entire scholarship and that’s that.’ No investigation. Within five minutes, they had entirely dismissed everything I had been through.”
Feldman and Boston University did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
In the film, Cooper claims that Feldman would pry for personal details about her intimate relationships. “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. “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.”
In one scene, Cooper and her former teammate Alex Schlobohm recalled unusual game tape reviews during which Feldman would allegedly make comments about Cooper’s body. “We’re gonna rewind my tape every five seconds and we’re gonna talk about my hair and my body,” said Cooper. She recalled Feldman making remarks along the lines of, “‘Look at those legs. Everybody, look at Alex in her uniform.’”
When Cooper and her parents first considered pursuing legal action prior to the start of her final year at Boston University, the attorneys they spoke to warned them of the grueling process that would await them. “If I’m gonna be real with you, they will drag this on for years and this will be your life,’” Cooper recalled being told. But they did agree that “this is clearly a case of sexual harassment.”
Cooper ultimately did not play soccer during her senior year at the university. Feldman retired in 2022 and received the declaration of “Nancy Feldman Day” in Boston on Dec. 11. “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. “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.”