At the Coburg Giants, you can demean a woman and still coach the female basketball team.
David Pearson repeatedly harassed a female player, pushing her to the point of having to make a formal complaint about his behaviour.
The harassment included sexual innuendo, inappropriate comments and unwanted touching during the club’s 2023 season.
There were also late night drunken texts, invasive personal questions and commentary, inappropriate messages including kiss emojis, comments on her body and looks and ongoing attempts to hug the woman who repeatedly made it clear she did not want that.
At one point he told her ‘I haven’t seen you with your hair down – you remind me of my first girlfriend’.
When she withdrew from him and set boundaries, he made her life very difficult including saying bad things about her and yelling and swearing at her in front of her team members. As a result, the woman was excluded, isolated and ignored by her peers at the club.
The woman reported the abuse to senior club management. They did not take the matter any further.
She submitted a formal written complaint, with evidence of his sexual harassment and witness statements.
When he was moved to a men’s coaching role at the club, the complaints about him dried up. Because of ths and the club’s so-called processes, Basketball Victoria says it will not intervene. It also says there is a lack of evidence (there’s loads of evidence).
The woman has left the club. Yet Pearson, despite a raft of complaints about his behavior, has been re-hired for the 2026 season. And he’s coaching women again.
The person who re-hired him says the female candidate lacked ‘accreditation’ for the job.
Huge ups to @notallclubs for reporting on this situation first!
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