State investigating UNR cheerleader's claims

RENO - The Nevada Attorney General's Office has joined an investigation into claims two University of Nevada cheerleaders were improperly fined $500 each by their coach.

''It's our responsibility to look into this,'' Assistant Attorney General Bob Pike told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

University of Nevada, Reno police launched an inquiry last week into the fines longtime coach Heather Soper-Wilson allegedly levied in April as a punishment of two students.

Pike, the attorney general's chief of investigations, said the state probe also will examine other areas, including whether coaches have fined other cheerleaders.

''We won't narrow our scope. We'll look at everything,'' he said.

Former cheer team captain Nicole Archie filed a complaint with campus police last week alleging that Soper-Wilson extorted $1,000 from her and her stunt partner. The fine was levied after the pair competed in a national competition in Florida without permission, Archie said.

Pike did not estimate how long the attorney general's probe could take, but UNR officials said a separate, internal review of the program should be completed within the next two weeks.

Angie Taylor, UNR's director of alumni relations, said she has spoken to several past and present cheerleaders about the alleged fining policy. She declined to say what she had learned.

Soper-Wilson did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

Some former team members a Reno newspaper contacted this week recalled fines being imposed for tardiness or the wrong type of dress during workouts, but at least one other said the fines didn't exist.

''It happened all the time,'' said Brent Reger of Chico, Calif., a cheerleader for Nevada in the mid-1990s. ''If you showed up late, for example, you'd get fined.''

After 1995, when the cheer team moved under the supervision of the Office of Alumni Relations, each cheerleader was given an account. The university, using money in the accounts, would pay for supplies such as uniforms and entry fees to national cheerleading competitions.

Cheerleaders would make payments during the year to reimburse the university. Archie said coaches would add fines to the students accounts.

Kris Kopec, on the squad briefly in the fall of 1995, said he recalled ''bizarre'' fines being imposed but couldn't specify names or dates of when the penalties occurred.

Kopec said coaches continually had him buy cheerleading supplies that he felt he did not need, such as a $250 letterman's jacket. He quit the team in the spring of 1996 after a dispute with Soper-Wilson over how much money he owed his account. When he quit, Kopec urged university administrators to audit all of the cheerleaders' accounts.

But William Cross, who cheered for Soper-Wilson from 1996 to 1999, said the allegations of fines were untrue.

''I was there for three years, and not once did I see anything (involving fines),'' said Cross, who now lives in Sacramento. ''The time I spent on the cheer team was one of the best I've ever had.''

He called Soper-Wilson a ''wonderful person who always stuck up for her team,'' and suggested that a small group of disgruntled students was responsible for the current probe.

Cross said students were asked to pay for something only if they lost items that didn't belong to them. University officials said any fining of students is inappropriate and said they will reimburse Archie $500.

Taylor will prepare a report for Paul Page, vice president for university advancement, on what if any action to take. Page, and possibly other university administrators, will make a final decision.