San Jose State U. Suspends Volleyball Coach Who Spoke Out About Male Player
Melissa Batie-Smoose filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging favoritism towards the male player on the female volleyball team.
San Jose State University suspended associate head volleyball Melissa Batie-Smoose.
Batie-Smoose filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging favoritism towards the male player on the female volleyball team.
Blaire Fleming is a male. Many schools have forfeited matches against SJSU because of Fleming for their safety.
🚨🚨SJSU’s male player, Blaire Fleming blasts a strike knocking another female opponent to the ground in tonight’s match up with Univ of New Mexico.
Sorry to the women of @UNMLoboVB who were overpowered by a male-led team, nothing about tonight's game was fair or safe. @NCAA… pic.twitter.com/seKmx7TXMa
— Beth Bourne (@bourne_beth2345) October 18, 2024
The school told OutKick: “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter.”
Batie-Smoose filed the lawsuit on October 29. From Quillette:
On 29 October, Batie-Smoose filed a 33-page sworn declaration with officials at SJSU, the Mountain West Conference, and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), exhorting these bodies to investigate (1) the overt favouritism that she believes her school has shown to Fleming, at the expense of Fleming’s 18 female teammates; and (2) the unsettling measures that SJSU officials have allegedly taken in order to suppress expressions of concern from these affected women.
In both respects, Batie-Smoose alleges that the behaviour of SJSU officials—including her own direct boss, Spartans head coach Todd Kress, whose position on these issues has reportedly alienated him from many of his players—may violate Title IX, the US civil-rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.
Batie-Smoose listed many alleged events in her lawsuit, but this one caught my eye.
It allegedly happened in October 2024 when SJSU traveled to Fort Collins, CO, to play against Colorado State University.
Co-captain Brooke Slusser’s roommate received a message to “distance” herself from Slusser.
Batie-Smoose went around the hotel to ensure the safety of the team members.
That’s when the team found out “Fleming had left the hotel:”
It was subsequently learned that Fleming had been accompanied by another player, whom I will refer to as “Kim,” as she prefers to remain publicly anonymous. Their destination was the residence of CSU’s right-side hitter, Malaya Jones, against whom Fleming would directly line up in the next day’s match.
During that match, Batie-Smoose claims in her Title IX Complaint, Fleming’s play style was bizarre. Fleming defied her coaches’ instructions by allowing Jones an unhindered diagonal hitting lane that exposed Slusser to kills. Batie-Smoose also reports that she repeatedly saw Fleming laughing together with Jones after the latter targeted Slusser in this manner. Fleming’s behaviour was reportedly so strange that even Kress expressed concern, and took Fleming aside for a one-on-one talk.
But Fleming’s behaviour didn’t change. And SJSU lost the match in straight sets—the Spartans’ first defeat of the season.
Batie-Smoose described one part of the game in the lawsuit: “Blaire sent an over pass, perfectly setting up Malaya to kill the ball again in the direction of Brooke Slusser, after [which] Jones blew a kiss toward Fleming and mouthed ‘thank you.’”
Fleming’s companion went to see head coach Todd Kress and Batie-Smoose:
It was only the next day, when a guilt-stricken Kim reportedly stepped into Kress’s office to tearfully tell Kress and Batie-Smoose what she’d seen and heard on the evening of 2 October, that Batie-Smoose received apparent confirmation of her hunch that Fleming had allegedly thrown the match.
By Kim’s reported telling—as Batie-Smoose summarised it in her sworn declaration to university officials—Fleming gave Jones the SJSU scouting report, and the two engineered a plan to leave the centre of the court open so that Jones would be able to target Slusser with powerful spikes in an unhindered fashion. (“Kim,” Jones, and Fleming were all asked for comment. All declined.)
This is all hearsay, of course. But Kim’s alleged claims certainly align with the strange events that Batie-Smoose and Slusser would witness during the next day’s match. Moreover, Kim’s decision to come forward ran entirely against her own interests—lending her claims more credence—as it required her to not only betray Fleming’s confidence, but also to admit to the Spartans’ coaching staff that she’d breached team policy by leaving the hotel on the night of 2 October (a fact her coaches hadn’t previously known).
Batie-Smoose came to SJSU in 2023. Fleming didn’t out himself until April 2024.
But the coach had suspicions before then:
“We had nine student-athletes who had not previously played on the SJSU team,” attests Batie-Smoose in her Title IX Complaint. “It is my understanding that none of these players [were] told before coming to SJSU that Fleming’s natal sex is male, or that there was any player with a male birth sex on the team.”
Fleming reportedly didn’t begin explicitly self-describing as transgender among fellow team members until April 2024. But in her Title IX Complaint, Batie-Smoose reports that she’d strongly suspected as much as soon as she observed Fleming practise in Fall 2023.
Over a three-decade career as a coach and recruiter in women’s volleyball, Batie-Smoose had seen few women who possessed anything close to Fleming’s level of raw physical power. Fleming was relatively undisciplined and sometimes listless, Batie-Smoose reports, but what “stood out was spiking the [ball] and blocking on the front row, due to Fleming’s leaping ability and hitting power, which far exceeded that of any player in the [Mountain West] Conference.”
“But even when it comes to the future, it’s hard to be optimistic,” Slusser told Quillette. “If the university is willing to put their female athletes though this ordeal once, what stops them from doing it again?”
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Comments
George Soros must be very proud of San Jose State.
What on earth has Soros got to do with it?
Willfully obtuse as always in the service of evil aren’t you
Huh? What has Soros got to do with it?
Milhouse, I suggest you read “Return of the Strong Gods” by R. R. Reno.
Nice to see that that school is giving favor to males over women, and encouraging them to injure real females with their increased strength.
At this rate, real women should just forget about sports, because once the “we can take scholarships and money from women” chum is in the water, the transgender “sharks” will be speeding in to feed.
Seems like retaliation per the bullshit corporate training I sit through each year. I’m sure the fake lawyer that posts here can explain how it’s not and it’s (D)ifferent.
It is infuriating that the simple fact that a man is on the women’s volleyball team as well as showers and rooms with women as if he were a woman isn’t the Title IX violation.
The head coach, Kress, should lose his job for allowing this cheater to intentionally throw a game too. But that won’t happen until the administrators have been hung from lamp posts
Iconotastic. You’ve touched on it; it’s the administrators – directors, trustees, corporation, regents, whatever the name. Nothing on campuses, from volley ball courts and swimming pools to lock outs and physical intimidation are going to stop until wholesale changes are made within these groups. Nothing.
Obviously he isn’t showering with the women, because as this post says, they didn’t know he was a man until he told them. The coach only suspected it. If he were anatomically male and showering with the women they’d all know.
Female locker rooms are not like the Carrie movies.
If there’s enough privacy that a man can shower there without anyone else knowing he’s a man, then what’s the problem? Why shouldn’t he shower there?
Whether he should be playing on the team at all is an entirely different matter, but as far as the locker room is concerned, if there’s that much privacy then I don’t see the issue.
Come off it. Women have a preternatural ability to sense the presence of a peter natural.
Of course you cheer the invasion and taking over of women’s locker rooms and showers by men…have you ever been in a women’s locker room? For most you dress and undress in open with a quick dash into a shower that may or may not be private. Why do you think women should have to expose themselves to men who for the most part have a sexual kink of Autogynephilia and are sexually aroused at the thought of and acting acting out of what they desire….
But you think that’s good. Very misogynistic of you…
YOU have no business arrogating the decision as to who is or is not allowed in women’s spaces. Feel free to undress or defecate on a busy street, if you wish, but you may not compel me to do the same.
Women DO NOT want males in restrooms or locker rooms. Period. Many women are not all that crazy about having other women see them naked.
The fact that you feel entitled to make decisions for us on this topic is contemptible., and despite my intense dislike of this word, truly sexist.
Make up your mind. Either women are exposed there, or they are not. You can’t have it both ways. If they are, then it’s impossible that he was participating, or they would have known that he was a man. If they are not, then what’s the problem?
If there’s the kind of privacy that would allow a man to participate the same as the women, and yet keep his sex a secret, then it’s NOT the kind of space from which men should be excluded, any more than women are excluded from spaces in which men are always clothed enough that a woman could participate unsuspected.
Just because they didn’t see him naked in the shower doesn’t mean he hasn’t seen them undress. Women don’t go around with their tops and bras and pants off in public. Regardless, it’s an invasion of privacy and it’s called a WOMEN’S locker room for a reason. You obviously know very little about the female sex.
I wonder if the remaining female player would quit the team in solidarity with their coach.
🤨😮
“the overt favouritism that she believes her school has shown to Fleming, at the expense of Fleming’s 18 female teammates”
Yes.
I’d like to see this issue investigated, not just for this team but for all teams.
In televised show trials.
Fwiw
I played at the lower college level late 70’s
It’s near impossible to play effectively with 18 players on the the team . Only ) spots on the court.
Is this really emblematic of what goes on at an accredited university in the USA?
You people are so silly.
If you are enrolled in university, why in the name of Heaven would you be spending such large chunks of your time traveling around the USA playing? Who pays for this? How does any of this help you after graduation? You can’t all get jobs coaching, can you?
Are there any adults in the USA?
The college pays for this, and in many cases this is what pays for your education.
There are tens of thousands of student/athletes attending University/College on athletic scholarships. The revenue generating sports of Football and Men’s basketball along with alumni donations to the athletic department budgets pay the way for the other athletic teams which don’t have a positive cash flow…with a very few exceptions for Baseball and even more rare Women’s basketball. Several State govts provide paid tuition to all in State students who attend their public Universities or Colleges using revenue from State run lotteries. Participation in athletic programs at competitive levels builds leadership, develops teamwork and the adult electorate continues to support these valuable programs.
Any data to support such assertions? Not that I’m aware of.
Anecdotally:
1. I’ll bet you it is the extremely rare med student who played ncaa Same for top law schools top mba
2. Pretty sure Zuckerberg, musk, Trump, gates Jobs, Wozniak, Biden, Obama, Pelosi managed to find their way without your hypothesized leadership benefits
3 I’ll bet you right now that you’ll have trouble finding any college president who played ncaa
Plenty of military manage to find their way up the ranks without ncaa play
Likewise virtually every single plumber electrician welder heavy equipment-operator
In fact I’d bet there is not a single leader of any country on earth right now from Russia to Paraguay to Thailand …….. I’d bet none of them had the hypothetical benefit of taxpayer funded play, as young adults. (Maybe khan exception in Pakistan?)
My point remains: Americans look ridiculous to the rest of the world arguing about adult women playing.
I can’t believe in 2024 anybody would actually defend such nonsense. (Didn’t it take 12 people to hand The King Of France his gloves prior to the 1789 revolution? Imho that’s how stupid this is. How about helping rebuild some lives in Notth Carolina)
To support what exactly? Athletic dept revenue? Go check out the publicly available info from the Univ of Alabama Athletic Dept to how the funding works to fund athletic department budgets. UA revenues were $214 million with expenses of $195 million in ’23.
The State of GA offers the HOPE scholarship to all eligible GA HS graduates with proceeds from their gaming/lottery. Many other States do the same.
Leadership isn’t limited to the temporal power of elective office nor to a board room/C Suite. Leaders are necessary at all levels to support/implement the goals of their organization. For several generations many young adult US Citizens have used the benefits of military service to acquire not just transferable skill sets (mechanics, communication, heavy equipment operation and so on) but leadership skills in a practical, hands on way. Then there’s the use of the earned benefit of the GI Bill to pay for up to four years of tuition at trade and technical programs as well as Univ education.
The argument isn’t about adult women playing sports it is about fundamental fairness in competitive sports; biological men who have inherent physical advantages over women should not be allowed to insert themselves into women’s sports. This also issue extends to high school and younger competition.
Anecdotally I played rugby in College after playing Football, Track/Field in HS and had a successful military career which benefited from leadership lessons and teamwork. My best friend in HS won an athletic scholarship in baseball to Univ of TN and is now a very successful banking executive. Another friend and won an athletic scholarship to Univ Alabama and is now a successful surgeon. Another friend won a baseball scholarship, and is superintendent of our local Schools.
How does your Nation do things? I noticed you didn’t name it nor offer any alternatives.
Was your lobotomy painful?
Clearly not painful enough.
His verbal diarrhea reminds me of the late lamented idiot BartE.
My son was a top high school golfer. He was specifically told by universities that he could not major in engineering because of the travel and team commitments required by playing college golf. He decided that engineering was more important. Travel would have been paid by the school, same as high school golf.
My point exactly. Thank you danvillemom.
(Maybe the reason that citizens of other countries view Americans as relatively naive/childish is because Americans so often behave relatively naive/childish. Just a thought.)
Paraphrasing Vincent Gambino addressing the jury in “My Cousin Vinny:”
“Everything that guy just said is bullshit.”
“If you are enrolled in university, why in the name of Heaven would you be spending such large chunks of your time serving food in the cafeteria line? Who pays for this? How does any of this help you after graduation? You can’t all get jobs at McDonald’s, can you?”
Playing on the sports team is a student job*, just like working the cafeteria. IT pays for YOUR education, even though you have no intention of doing it as a career. You are expected to be able to do two things at once (play and study) to get the career you actually want.
* “Who pays for this?” People do actually pay to see student sports teams play. The students didn’t create this aberration, they just get to benefit from it, and so does the school.
Hard to believe any SJSU students or their families were asked whether they wanted to finance the airfare and hotel accommodations for this team.
Perhaps the SJSU administrators print the money them selves.
No serious person believes that any university students are able to obtain a serious university education whilst playing and practicing and traveling Division I sports. (Perhaps a few exceptions)
Hard to believe that ticket sales pay for team expenses.
Regardless, most people on earth would wonder wtf ………. if they heard that you’re 19 years old and you’re enrolled at university, and yet you’re spending all this time playing. Playing. Traveling. Playing. Playing.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s absurd.
Ever hear of Bill Bradley? He was a Rhodes Scholar.
“No serious person…”
Well, that pretty much eliminates you from further consideration.
On your first point, SJSU is part of the state university system supported by the tax dollars of CA residents. CA is deep blue state, one party rule, dem super majority. Gov newscum and the state legislators in Sacramento can claim the taxpayers of CA voted for their tax dollars to be used this way. That’s the idiocracy of CA nowadays.
On your second point, female college athletes tend to have equal or higher grade point average and graduation rate than the general student population. Its the male athletes, particularly football and basketball, that have the higher failure rate and drop out rate.
Minor point: a Title IX Complaint is not a lawsuit. It is just a request that the school and/or DoEd look into the matter,
It’s easily >$1,000,000 for one group of 30 adults to fly somewhere one time, and sleep in a mid-range hotel for one night. Doesn’t include referees, administrators.
Do the arithmetic.
This is unbelievably, phenomenally wasteful.
It’s childish.
And the non-athletes pick up the tab? And their families?? Without a second thought? Are you kidding me?
It’s like running the a/c full blast with windows open — as is done routinely in oil-rich gulf states.
The U.S. is trillions in debt, but there’s money to fly grown men and women away from university. In order to play.
You don’t seem to understand that the US Govt (aka Federal govt) is distinct from the Govt of each State. Apart from our military service academies and graduate programs for military, Army War College as an example, the US government doesn’t operate Universities. Our public Universities are operated and financed by the State Govt as directed by the State Legislature and ultimately the electorate who choose the Legislature with their votes.
My mistake: Its more like $1,500,000 for one league for one season.
Just for airfare and lodging.
So that young adult university students can play.
It’s almost beyond belief that such things occur.
And the other students don’t say a word? Nor their families, who pay tuition?
This is an embarrassment to the USA.
“This is an embarrassment to the USA.”
As you appear to be a foreigner, no one really cares what you think.
Run along.
Cultural Marxist Seminaries
So the male player, who certainly knows he’s the most powerful player on the team, colludes with an opposing player to target a specific player on his team. If true, this is corruption. The kid is shady and has no integrity. He’s a snide piece of work who can’t be trusted. And he’s learning this behavior at SJSU.
Good luck with that Title IX complaint. Blaire Fleming is part of a protected class that can do no wrong in the eyes of the Feds. All Batie-Smoose is likely to accomplish it to paint a gigantic target on her own back.
The Title IX complaint may well go nowhere. But methinks she may have a claim for retaliation against the school for suspending her for filing one.
If someone sets odds and accepts legal wagers on the sport, wouldn’t this kind of collusion between players be a crime?
This notion that Trump will NOT be going after some people/groups is absurd. By definition of the culture war, he has to.
He needs to direct the entire civil rights office lawfare and the full force of the federal government against Wa, Or, and CA and a few other states as they are actively purging political wrong thinkers. The case of Mike Shaw in Oregon is prime example.
Bob Furgeson WILL win in Wa and he’s going to be weaponizing that government against every wrong thinker there is. This would actually be a very good use of Vance TBH.
17.2% margin! That will make it difficult to cheat.
Oops. I misunderstood you badly. I should have known. Washington State. Seattle. California North. Left Coast.
How has the discussion on this article turned into an attack on college sports? And a pretty heated one at that! The theme of this article is males invading women’s spaces, including women sports teams. Women have their own teams because they cannot compete with men. Males pretending to be females have no business on a women’s team.
I think most people who aren’t seriously disturbed realize that, Jan.
I am pretty sure there are openings
at other schools .for the coach that
was suspended …
The new thing now is to fire white coaches and replace them with black coaches, to demonstrate they are “anti-racist”.
His verbal diarrhea reminds me of the late lamented idiot BartE.
speaking of BartE…
where is he….
did he get the ban hammer
or told dont go away mad…
just go away.
Top rank boys high school basketball team can easily defeat top WNBA team. Women are going to lose all their athletic scholarship opportunities if this isn’t stopped.