Reporter Nick Coppola talks with KC Counts about his investigative report for the Las Cruces Sun News that revealed sexual misconduct allegations, Title IX incident reports, and questions about how those incidents were handled. Here's a transcript of their conversation:
KC Counts:
You've been covering sports at NMSU, Nick, for a couple of years now. And boy, what a couple of years it's been. Your most recent investigation dealt with NMSU softball and you pored over 350 pages of documents. So what made you go on that deep dive?
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, so this actually started as an effort to understand why New Mexico State chose to fire Kathy Rodolph and assistant coach, or should I say associate head coach, Cat Heifner from the softball program. They've been there for a long time. Both of them have been there for over 20 years. And the coaching transition, quote unquote, as they called it, was very vague in how they announced it, because that can mean anything. It can mean a firing, it can mean a retirement. It can mean a mutual parting of ways, quote unquote. It can mean anything. So it was very vague. And I'm like, why'd this happen? You know, it's because there wasn't really a lot of information. When I called New Mexico State and asked, they didn't really want to give me a lot of information. So, you know, I eventually, through this investigation, uncovered years of records involving, you know, sexual misconduct allegations, Title IX incident reports. and questions about how those incidents were handled. And that came, a couple months into my investigation because they're like, hey, maybe they were let go because of this. And while my reporting did not 100% confirm that was the reason that they were fired, and even that the fact that they were fired came out through the investigation because I found termination letters About a couple months into my investigation, they had originally announced them as just a coaching transition. They didn't really say that they were fired. And yeah, it just, it uncovered, years of this of course, you said it over 350 pages of documents that I looked over through over a dozen public records requests.
KC Counts:
When you say years, can you give us an idea?
Nick Coppola:
The report that I made detailed Title IX incident reports from 2021 to 2024. One of the incidents did not technically close until 2025, but the main incident that was closed in 2025 took place in 2024.
KC Counts:
And is that the alleged sexual assault that the student following that incident was kind of discouraged from missing practice.
Nick Coppola:
That took place in 2023. The 2024 incident was an instance of an unnamed upperclassman sexually harassing an underclassman through unwanted touching, unwanted sexual comments, alleged and just explicit photos being shared, just a wide range of just unwanted actions.
KC Counts:
When you say explicit photos being shared, that's like on social media, right?
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, it was shared through Snapchat. And the video, the alleged video of the non-consensual recording of another player was also done through Snapchat. So yeah, social media did.
KC Counts:
Now of course anyone who's been here long enough and has followed NMSU sports or news in general will of course remember that over this course of time we were learning more and more all the time. It was like the layers of the onion being peeled back regarding NMSU basketball and some very similar allegations. Are you surprised that these took so long to surface?
Nick Coppola:
You know, I wasn't exactly surprised when I uncovered the Title 9 reports because, again, I want to reiterate that while these did not directly lead to their firings, or at least I could not establish a connection of that, something nefarious or suspicious did occur that caused it. And so, given the basketball program, given why former offensive coordinator Tyler Wrights had to be let go and fired because of his social media history in 2024, you know, that early 2020s period of New Mexico State Athletics, you know, 2021, 2022, 2023, there were incidents, or alleged incidents, across multiple major sports. We're now talking men's basketball, softball, and football where something occurred and it didn't happen under the current administration. It happened under the past AD and the past president. And I also want to reiterate that as well because they do have new people and they're trying to clean things up. But it does show that towards the end of all these people's tenures in 2023 and 2024, there were things going on that are now slowly coming to the surface.
KC Counts:
And NMSU, following the revelations regarding the basketball program, there was a plan in place to kind of take on and do things differently, do things better. In the course of your reporting, did you learn anything about maybe why the university wasn't necessarily, or were they trying to follow those, or is there any indication that this is part of that?
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, so ultimately the story that I want to talk about, or the story that I reported on, it was about student safety, institutional accountability. The questions are bigger than a single coach or a single program or wins and losses and things like that. I think, now, in 2025, 2026, now that more safeguards have been implemented, recommendations from New Mexico Department of Justice have been implemented by the new university president, the former acting AD Amber Burge, now the new AD Joe Fields. I think those things are less likely to happen, but those obviously weren't in place in 2021, 2022, 2023.
KC Counts:
Who all would talk to you, from the university regarding this?
Nick Coppola:
Well, an NMSU spokesperson gave me a statement that basically detailed, in summary, these things happen to individual players. It wasn't an investigation of the program as a whole. I do want to note that my public records request did not pertain to any particular player, did not pertain to actually any particular coach. They pertained to the program as a whole. So the statement was a little interesting. And then they went on to say that, oh, we've implemented all these safeguards and things like that. Here's all the processes that we've entered, and you can read that statement in full in my reports. It's near the top, but overall, like on the record, other than that statement, no one really wants to talk to me.
KC Counts:
It's not unusual.
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, in my email, Joe fields didn't respond. Kathy Rodolph said that she wasn't able to comment on anything legally. She has texted me since then. I'm not going to reveal what she texted me, but.
KC Counts:
Gonna leave us hanging.
Nick Coppola:
Gonna leave us, yeah, I'll just ,I'll leave it there. But Heifner didn't want to respond either, claiming that she didn't know about the reports, which I find pretty hard to believe. But yeah, no one really within the university, wanted to talk. And of course, the players were named and I couldn't really do that either.
KC Counts:
It reminds me of some reporting done by the Las Cruces Sun News not too terribly long ago, about sexual assault on campus and how the university was dealing with students in the aftermath of reports like that. And so at that time, Jessica Onsurez came on and talked about that. And they even held a roundtable discussion on the topic here at the university. How helpful do you think the conversation has been? And in your mind, how do members of the community lend a hand to make sure that students on campus and around the community feel safe?
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, I think, it becoming more part of the public discourse and the conversation certainly helps because the more people that talk about it, perhaps the more likely is there to be action on this. And I think the biggest takeaway from my story in particular was that public records, documented reports. I didn't just pull anything out of nowhere. These were documented. These were taken. These were investigations by the university itself, by the OIE. And I feel like the biggest takeaway from that is that public records reveal years of serious complaints, serious allegations, serious safety concerns that have not been fully visible to the public. And at the same time, you know, despite my reporting, and you know, you talked about Jessica's reporting as well, you know, the university still has not publicly explained, you know, why this was able to occur or why this longtime softball leadership, was removed, was it because of this? We don't know. They haven't confirmed, and those are both significant findings.
KC Counts:
Tell me about the EPRA process that you went through.
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, so in the middle of my investigation, New Mexico State changed the way that public records can be filed to them. So originally it was just an email to records custodians, which they have several, around December, I believe, maybe it was the end of November, they switched to a portal. Now you have to go to this website and it's the same process. It's not too terribly taxing. You need to put your name, your records, dates of records, things like that. And then you get sent the results from the portal. But there were a lot of public records filed. I believe I filed over a dozen. I believe there were 18 in total. 18 in total that revealed the allegations that were included in my reports. And there were many more that I looked into but that didn't uncover or anything or that I didn't include in my report because I did not believe that the information was perhaps as grounded or maybe didn't have to do too much with softball or at least was not relevant to the rest of my report and didn't really tie in that much. But the public records let's just say I got a lot better at filing public records over the course of this investigation.
KC Counts:
And just like that, when you get so good at doing it and doing it here in Las Cruces at New Mexico State University, you're going to be moving on. Where are you going?
Nick Coppola:
I am, yes. So I will be moving on to the Greenville news where I'll be covering Clemson sports, primarily Clemson football, men's basketball, and baseball. This is something that happened very recently, you know, end of July, beginning of August is when this all kind of tie together. I'm very excited. This was a good place to be at, but I'm very excited to move on and begin this next chapter.
KC Counts:
Well, and before I let you go, obviously a new semester is getting underway at New Mexico State University. It's an exciting time and new students here should be elated to be on a college campus and excited about the start of the fall sports semester. And because you covered sports at NMSU for the last couple of years, what kinds of things would you be highlighting going into the fall semester for NMSU sports?
Nick Coppola:
That's a good question. You know, well, the football team is going to try and make a bowl game again.
KC Counts:
Well, we try every year.
Nick Coppola:
We do, yeah, they do.
KC Counts:
With varying degrees of success.
Nick Coppola:
They do, yes. But in this current era under head coach Tony Sanchez, that hasn't happened yet. You know, for his first year, they went three and nine. Second year, they went four and eight. So they're trying to do it this year. They retained more players. I think they did better in the transfer portal than they have in years past. So I think they have the pieces. It's just all got to come together now. but I think it's there. New men's, or I guess not new, men's basketball coach, Jason Hooten is trying to get New Mexico State basketball back to where it was, before the allegations that you talked about within the program, where they were in the 2010s, being in the tournaments. And whether it does, that remains to be seen, but I think they got a good transfer portal class. You know, women's basketball, the roster is almost completely new. You know, they brought in a new coach, who was an assistant at Providence. Only one player was retained. And that's actually a Las Cruces native, funny enough, Emma Cristiano. The rest of it is new. So it's very interesting to see how that will come together. So yeah, and of course, you know, softball's got a new coach.
KC Counts:
Right. So what about the future of NMSU softball?
Nick Coppola:
Yeah, you know, I think, you know, there was a reason why Benet Higgs, she was an assistant under Kathy Rodolph in 2024 and 2025 and she was retained. Joe Fields has stressed that she had nothing to do with whatever reason that they were fired for. She was put in a pretty difficult spot, you know, especially now that this report's coming out of, you know, what was happening in the tail end of, or allegedly happening in the tail end of Kathy Rodolph's tenure. So she's got a tough deal on her hands, you know, but I think she did okay, you know, in her interim season given the circumstances. 27-27 is not a bad place, you know, to be. I think people thought they were going to be a lot worse. given the circumstances of, because October, that's not an opportune time to change a coach. It's not a very convenient time to change a coach. And so I thinks he's got a good head on her shoulders. I think she knows what she's doing. But of course, you know, she's not only got to bring wins to the program, but she's also got to make sure that these reports don't even come to pass, even if they are alleged allegations. You know, I think it's important that player safety gets addressed within that program.
KC Counts:
Nick Coppola, thank you so much for coming on and talking about all of this with us. And best of luck to you in North Carolina?
Nick Coppola:
South Carolina. A few things that I want to mention before the Senate. Firstly, you know, the reporting followed the documents. They were public records. They were documented. Nothing that I said strayed from that. It wasn't a one record story. This was a product of extensive public records requests and research over many months. The goal wasn't to prove a theory. The goal wasn't to prove any kind of hunch that I had. The goal was to establish facts. Transparency is important in these kinds of things, and I believe that my reporting made things more transparent, a transparency that I don't think NMSU really provided. And lastly, I think the public deserves to know about these things and how these are handled.
KC Counts:
Very good.
Nick Coppola:
Thank you.
KC Counts:
Thank you very much.
KRWG reached out to NMSU, which said it had no additional comment on the story beyond what was offered to Coppola and the Las Cruces Sun News.
