#Texas State hoops coach Danny Kaspar used racially-charged taunts: players

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Texas State coach Danny Kaspar; Jaylen Shead now with Washington State
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Texas State is launching an investigation into men’s head basketball coach Danny Kaspar, who has been accused by two former players of repeatedly hurling racist remarks to the team.

According to former point guard Jaylen Shead, Kaspar said that his players would run faster if a “brown man with a [turban] and an AK-47” was there, that a European player needed to improve or he would be deported and that Shead once was “running like the cops are behind him.”

Shead transferred to Washington State last season after two years at Texas State.

“For me, the experience was shocking,” Shead tweeted. “I could overlook the way coach Kaspar treated players in most regards. I could overlook the lies he fed us to get us there and keep us there. I could overlook the way he disregarded the rules and our health. But I could not turn away from the many racially insensitive things that were said to me and other teammates.

“These things happened so much on a daily bases [sic], we became numb as it was normal.”

Kaspar, 65, has been at Texas State since 2013, previously serving as head coach at Stephen F. Austin for 13 years.

“I personally find these allegations deeply troubling,” athletic director Larry Teis said in a statement. “I, and the entire Department of Athletics staff, take the concerns expressed by our former student-athletes very seriously. At my request, the university has launched a formal investigation through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX. It is our top priority to fully cooperate with the investigation.”

Shead, inspired to speak out by the nationwide protests following George Floyd’s death, said Kaspar would tell black players to “chase that chicken” when the coach wanted them to run faster, and told those struggling academically that they would eventually work at Popeyes.

Former Texas state player Alex Peacock supported Shead’s allegations, saying players stayed silent because they feared the consequences to their basketball careers.

“There is no embellishment in what he said,” Peacock told ESPN. “The first time I heard him tell somebody to ‘chase that bucket of chicken,’ I’m like, ‘Hold on. Being a player, it’s hard to come out when you’re in it, when you’re playing, because you don’t know what the ramifications will be.”

According to Peacock, Kaspar also allegedly told players he could utter slang derived from the N-word, used by players.

“He told the black players that if you can use it, I can use it,” Peacock said. “That’s one of the ones where you’re like, ‘OK … no.’ Those are two different meanings than when we use it.”