A college volleyball star who was allegedly targeted by a transgender teammate has blasted her school for suspending an assistant coach who spoke out.
Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended indefinitely from her position at the San Jose State University over the weekend, after she filed a Title IX complaint against the school, alleging transgender athlete Blaire Fleming conspired with Colorado State University’s Malaya Jones, 21, before an October 3 match in Fort Collins.
She claimed the pair engineered a plan to leave the center of the court open that Jones could target co-captain Brooke Slusser with powerful spikes, or ‘kills,’ after she said it was unfair and unsafe to be forced to play alongside a powerfully-built transgender teammate.
Batie-Smoose was then told on Saturday that she was suspended from her role, as school officials told her to leave campus immediately and not return until further notice, according to pro-female sports website Outkick.
Slusser shot back in a post on X: ‘My assistant coach spoke truth to protect my team. Then… they fire her.
San Jose State University Women’s Volleyball Co-Captain Brooke Slusser has blasted her college for suspending assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose
She claimed on X that Batie-Smoose ‘spoke truth to protect my team’
‘They took away the only safe space we had in the program,’ she continued. ‘Because she knew that it was right to stand up for the 18 women on the team. Not one man.’
Batie-Smoose claimed Fleming was acting aggressively toward Slusser during the game, before which Slusser’s roommate had reportedly received a social media threat that read: ‘distance yourself from [B]rooke tomorrow at the game, it will not be good for her.’
Batie-Smoose had filed a Title IX complaint last week claiming school officials have shown favoritism towards a transgender player
The assistant coach further claimed that when she later asked head coach Todd Kress if anything would be done about the matter, he said ‘it’s out of my hands.’
Batie-Smoose even said in her Title IX complaint that school officials have shown favoritism towards Fleming ‘at the expense of Fleming’s 18 female teammates,’ as reported by Quillette.
She claimed that head coach Todd Kress has allowed Fleming to break dress code and scheduling rules that other teammates have to follow.
Kress also reportedly regularly told the players that ‘excluding trans-identified players such as Fleming should be seen as morally tantamount to homophobia and anti-black racism.’
In some cases Kress allegedly suggests Fleming’s opponents are betraying trans rights and the entire LGBTQ community.
According to the veteran coach, Kress once even pushed out a promising student who was competing for Fleming’s position by demanding far stricter standards. That student was on a scholarship and had to leave the program and school.
She claimed transgender athlete Blaire Fleming (pictured) conspired with Colorado State University’s Malaya Jones, 21, before an October 3 match in Fort Collins
Fleming reportedly did not begin identifying as transgender with her teammates until April 2024.
However, Batie-Smoose said she suspected Fleming was not biologically female because of her immense raw physical power.
She was particularly worried after Fleming blasted a kill shot off the head of an opponent from the University of Delaware.
‘It was clear to me that the [University of Delaware player] was very athletic and skilled, but simply had no chance to protect herself from the spike,’ Batie-Smoose said.
Batie-Smoose added that many of Fleming’s own teammates now turn away during practice matches, as they’re afraid of Fleming’s power. She said this fear response is ‘virtually unheard of in women’s volleyball.’
Following her suspension, Batie-Smoose said she was instructed not to speak with the media.
‘This is just another form of what San Jose State has been trying to do – silence people that are speaking up for their First Amendment rights,’ she told Outkick.
She added that she wanted to ‘make sure I’m standing strong that only women should be in women’s sports.
Slusser said she is concerned about her and other players’ safety, alleging that Fleming could cause injuries by spiking the volleyball at 80mph
Slusser also said in her own court filings against the school that she was living with Fleming during the 2023 season and overheard a conversation in which she was said to be transgender.
By April, Slusser claims, Fleming admitted her gender identity to her.
She now claims that the university failed to warn any of its recruits that there was a transgender athlete on the team, even though ‘this was now a well-known fact to the athletic department, and virtually everyone else at SJU,’ according to Fox News.
Slusser also claims the school ordered players not to discuss Fleming’s gender identity publicly or it would ‘go badly for them’ and they would be jeopardizing their spots on the team, according to court documents obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
She said she is concerned about her and other players’ safety, alleging that Fleming could cause injuries by spiking the volleyball at 80mph, and describing the transgender athlete as ‘physically imposing’ at ‘six-foot-one and towers over opposing teams.’
Slusser went on to claim that she told coaches and school officials earlier in the season that she was uncomfortable continuing to play with a transgender teammate, and when her concerns went unanswered, she signed onto a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA.
It is being accused by more than a dozen female athletes including Slusser of knowingly violating a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination by allowing them to compete in women’s sports.
She also described Fleming as ‘physically imposing’ at ‘six-foot-one and towers over opposing teams’
The case went viral after a video last month showed Fleming sending a ferocious spike off an opponent’s face.
Amid the controversy over their inclusion, Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada have all opted to forfeit games against San Jose State.
San Jose now has five games left in its regular season and is expected to reach the All-Mountain West conference tournament on November 27.
Slusser has said she will not abandon her team during that time.
‘When we walk into that gym, it’s all about mutual respect and we’re all here for one goal – we all want to win a volleyball game,’ she said after the team’s loss to Colorado State.
‘When we walk into that gym, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in your personal life, what’s happening with a teammate, it doesn’t matter.
‘Everyone has their own personal morals, their own personal opinions, but when it comes to us on the court, we just have to walk out there and just be one,’ she said at the time.
