Abigail Dollins/Statesman Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
One of the most critical skills you can possess as the head coach of any sports team is knowing how to push your players while still being aware of the lines you shouldn’t cross. Unfortunately, it would appear a couple of people affiliated with the women’s basketball program at Western Oregon went a bit too far based on the claims in a $28.2 million lawsuit that’s been filed by some former players.
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with Western Oregon University, a public school in the town of Monmouth (located around 15 miles southwest of Salem) with an enrollment of 3,750 students and a DII athletic program that competes in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
In 2023, women’s basketball coach Holli Howard-Carpenter resigned after nine seasons before being replaced by Jessica Peatross. She led the Wolves to a 10-13 record during her inaugural season before things took an interesting turn midway through February when Western Oregon announced it had canceled the remainder of the games on the schedule (resulting in six forfeits) while citing “internal team challenges.”
Western Oregon had lost eight of its last nine games when the plug was pulled, and Peatross and assistant coach DJ Marlow were placed on paid administrative leave (and later reinstated) in connection to an investigation that was seemingly linked to troubling abuse claims first chronicled by The Western Howl, the school’s student-run newspaper.
Now, we have some new insight into what transpired now that nine former players have filed a $28.2 million lawsuit against Peatross, Marlow, the school, and a number of administrators while claiming they were subjected to abusive behavior during that rocky campaign.
According to The Statesman Journal, the filing asserts the players were forced to endure “excessive” amounts of exercise during practices that led to them “vomiting and becoming dehydrated and physically ill,” with former guard Ana McClave saying Peatross forced her to partake in preseason workouts even though she hadn’t been clear to return from a knee injury she’d suffered during the spring.
The lawsuit also claims Peatross skirted NCAA rules governing the amount of time teams are permitted to practice while forcing players to sign forms fraudulently stating Western Oregon was in compliance. Another guard, Jodi Noyes, says she was targeted by Peatross and Marlow after they learned she was taking antidepressants and noted the former referred to her as “Eeyore” after learning about the treatment regimen.
One of the wildest revelations involves an incident where Peatross not only accused guard Hanne Hopkins of purposefully elbowing her in a collision that occurred during practice but called the police to report the supposed assault (footage captured by McClave clashed with her account of what went down to the point where the department debated charging the coach with filing a false report before realizing she’d never officially pressed charges).
The players noted they took their complaints to school officials who largely brushed their concerns aside and are subsequently suing for the eight-figure sum while pushing for additional reforms at Western Oregon, including anti-abuse and anti-harassment training and the appointment of an independent monitor to prevent a similar situation from unfolding.
It’ll be very interesting to see how this ends up panning out.