bluesooner17
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NORMAN — Like everyone else in the college basketball community, Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale heard Kim Mulkey’s postgame politicking Saturday night.
Coale saw the video of the Baylor women’s basketball coach drop the microphone after telling the crowd celebrating her team’s Big 12 regular season title that if someone told them they would never send their daughter to Baylor, “you should knock them right in the face.”
She also heard Mulkey’s postgame news conference where the coach further expanded on those thoughts and said, among other things, that she’s tired of hearing about the issues at Baylor and that the problems there — including a widespread rape scandal that led to the dismissal of football coach Art Briles — are the same problems that happen at every school in America.
“It was hard not to hear it,” Coale said. “It’s been everywhere, obviously. I think we have a responsibility as coaches to train up our athletes and protect them and serve them and teach them. Our mission is to grow kids. I know, personally, my mission every day is to help develop these young women.”
Was it frustrating to hear a women’s basketball coach make comments that didn’t necessarily protect or defend women?
“I think we have a responsibility to fight for one another as women,” Coale said. “I think we do have a responsibility for one another. We have to take care of one another. We have to stand up for one another. We have to fight for what’s right. That’s the bottom line.”
When asked if she thought Mulkey’s comments weren’t fighting for other women, Coale gave a short, but telling answer: “I’m disappointed.”
Mulkey apologized for her comments in an ESPNW interview Sunday night.
“Not only do I sympathize with victims, I am angry about the way victims were treated at this university,” Mulkey said to ESPNW’s Mechelle Voepel, also noting that she regretted using words that encouraged violence. “It is horrible, horrible anytime someone does not take care of a victim. Even one sexual assault is too many. Nobody is dismissing what happened here. I want us to get to the bottom of it.”
Coale saw the video of the Baylor women’s basketball coach drop the microphone after telling the crowd celebrating her team’s Big 12 regular season title that if someone told them they would never send their daughter to Baylor, “you should knock them right in the face.”
She also heard Mulkey’s postgame news conference where the coach further expanded on those thoughts and said, among other things, that she’s tired of hearing about the issues at Baylor and that the problems there — including a widespread rape scandal that led to the dismissal of football coach Art Briles — are the same problems that happen at every school in America.
“It was hard not to hear it,” Coale said. “It’s been everywhere, obviously. I think we have a responsibility as coaches to train up our athletes and protect them and serve them and teach them. Our mission is to grow kids. I know, personally, my mission every day is to help develop these young women.”
Was it frustrating to hear a women’s basketball coach make comments that didn’t necessarily protect or defend women?
“I think we have a responsibility to fight for one another as women,” Coale said. “I think we do have a responsibility for one another. We have to take care of one another. We have to stand up for one another. We have to fight for what’s right. That’s the bottom line.”
When asked if she thought Mulkey’s comments weren’t fighting for other women, Coale gave a short, but telling answer: “I’m disappointed.”
Mulkey apologized for her comments in an ESPNW interview Sunday night.
“Not only do I sympathize with victims, I am angry about the way victims were treated at this university,” Mulkey said to ESPNW’s Mechelle Voepel, also noting that she regretted using words that encouraged violence. “It is horrible, horrible anytime someone does not take care of a victim. Even one sexual assault is too many. Nobody is dismissing what happened here. I want us to get to the bottom of it.”
