Former Fresno State women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein took the stand today, many times in tears as she recounted the events leading up to her termination. She said coming to Fresno State as a head coach of a Division I team was “a dream come true.”

Jurors got to know the woman behind the lawsuit. They heard about Johnson-Klein's childhood; she lived in a trailer home in Oklahoma as a child. They saw pictures of a teenage Johnson-Klein: holding a catfish; in a high school basketball uniform. Johnson-Klein started playing sports in the fifth grade. She and her mother built a court out of rock in their backyard so she could practice.

“It was a desolate [childhood]. I focused on basketball [as a way out],” Johnson-Klein said.

Johnson-Klein received a college scholarship for her athletic achievemnets. She studied at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. “Those were the best four years of my life,” Johnson-Klein said.

After college Johnson-Klein traveled to Brazil, then to Switzerland to play professional basketball. She had to return to the U.S. because of an illness.

She took a position as an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma, a Division I school, then went to Cameron University, Division II, as head coach. It was here that she hired Adrian Wiggins as her assistant coach.

In April 2000, Johnson-Klein moved to assistant coach at Louisiana Tech University. Wiggins followed.

“It’s here that I developed my coaching philosophy. I’m a very strict coach,” Johnson-Klein testified of her “platoon-style” practices. “I believe good defense makes good offense. I’m physically demanding. I want my girls to walk into a gym and own it. It worked. My team was winning.”

Attorney Dan Siegel then questioned Johnson-Klein on how this dynamic played out with the Fresno State team.

“My role as head coach is to be tough,” Johnson-Klein said on the stand, fighting back tears. “It’s hard to be the bad guy, to say ‘no,’ to make them run that extra mile. You do it because you know they’ll need it during that championship game. I asked Adrian to be on the team. I was the bad guy, he was the good guy. I was okay with that. I wanted them to respect me.”

"Coaches are not always pleasant. She was the bad cop; Adrian Wiggins was the good cop. When she was let go, he stepped in and they saw him as [a saint]. This will be an interesting set-up," said Fresno-based attorney Ernest Kinney, who has been watching the trial closely.

Wiggins was promoted to the team’s head coach after Johnson-Klein was terminated. Siegel was establishing motive for why Wiggins may have turned on Johnson-Klein.

Johnson-Klein also spoke of her hiring process: how former Athletics Director Scott Johnson had courted her; how she had turned down a head coach position at Oklahoma State University to come to the Central Valley.

“Chuck [my husband] and I cried [after making the decision to accept the Fresno State offer]. [Chuck’s] kids are an hour from there. We could have gone there,” Johnson-Klein said, holding back tears again.

Of her relationship with Johnson, Johnson-Klein said he made sexual advances toward her, even grabbing her breast at one point.

“I felt shocked and vulnerable,” she said.

"I heard both sides of this. The 'he said, she said' is difficult to read but listening to Stacy on the stand, it was hard not to believe her," Kinney said outside the courtroom.

Johnson-Klein also spoke of a car accident in April 2004 which she claims left her severely injured. She admitted to asking her mother for prescription painkillers to alleviate the pain. She began seeing a doctor in Oct. 2004; he prescribed Oxycontin and Norco.

Johnson-Klein also admitted to asking a player for Vicodin to “tide her over” before then; she said she couldn’t yet have surgery for her injuries because they were in season.

"I think it was a mistake, poor judgment. I should not have asked a student athlete to help me with my problem," Johnson-Klein testified when asked what she thought of her actions in retrospect.

Attorneys for Fresno State say Johnson-Klein was terminated for a number of reasons; one of them- the abuse of prescription pain medication.

Issues of sexual harassment, Johnson-Klein’s attire and internal conflicts were also brought up as court adjourned Wednesday afternoon. Johnson-Klein claims another assistant coach, Drew Champagne, may have had an inappropriate relationship with one of her players, Chantella Perera.

“I think it’s important to be close to your players, to be a confidante, to be a leader. You shouldn’t be hanging out at their apartment at 3 a.m., spending too much time with them on the cell phone. I had to put limits on him and I had to check Chantella’s curfew. I’d rather put restraints on players, not my assistant coaches.”

Johnson-Klein said she had written a letter to Champagne, alerting him of her decision to let him go at the end of the season. Attorneys noted Perera is the same player who told university officials Johnson-Klein had taken Vicodin from her.

The term “ax to grind” was used as these apparent connections were made.

Johnson-Klein is expected to return to the stand to further discuss these issues tomorrow.

"I think [Johnson-Klein] is doing really well on the witness stand. Cross-examination is key though. It's hard to tell what the jury is thinking but [Johnson-Klein] is knowledgeable. She has class and composure," Kinney speculated.

Click on the video link to watch Catherine Mylinh’s report.