Former San Jose State University assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose’s contract won’t be renewed by the university after speaking out against trans player Blaire Fleming. 

The assistant coach was suspended indefinitely from her position in November after she filed a Title IX complaint against the school and has now been told her contract will not be renewed. 

Batie-Smoose told Fox News that she took the job at San Jose State to ‘stand up for these young women and do everything I could to protect future generations’. 

The complaint alleged that transgender athlete Fleming conspired with Colorado State University’s Malaya Jones, 21, before an October 3 match in Fort Collins. 

Batie-Smoose claimed the pair engineered a plan to leave the center of the court open so that Jones could target co-captain Brooke Slusser with powerful spikes, or ‘kills,’ after Slusser said it was unfair and unsafe to be forced to play alongside the transgender teammate. 

Slusser demanded that officials remove Fleming from the roster ahead of the Spartans’ conference championship game in Las Vegas in late November. 

The co-captain, along with ten other current and former Mountain West players, and Batie-Smoose are involved in a lawsuit against the school, claiming that the plaintiffs’ free speech rights were infringed upon because they were discouraged from speaking about their opposition to her participation. 

SJSU’s administrators told the volleyball team not to speak out about the issue once the player’s gender identity became public knowledge and said that doing so would be considered ‘transphobic,’ the suit alleges.

Assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended indefinitely from her position in November 2024 after she filed a Title IX complaint against the school and has now been told her contract will not be renewed

Co-captain Brooke Slusser demanded that officials remove trans player Blaire Fleming from the roster ahead of the Spartans’ conference championship game in Las Vegas in late November

‘I spoke up for the young women on the team who were being silenced and gaslit while dealing with having a male athlete in their locker room, on the court and rooming with them on the road,’ Batie-Smoose claimed. 

Some of the team’s players were reportedly upset that they had not been informed of Fleming’s biological sex, only discovering when rumors began to circulate on campus.

Many other teams were forfeiting games against the team, which the lawsuit claims Slusser tried to warn coaches about before the season began. 

But Slusser’s warnings were met with fury from head coach Todd Kress, who ‘became angry at Slusser for bringing these concerns forward and told her any protest about Fleming would not go anywhere.’

According to her teammates, Fleming spikes the ball 80 miles per hour, faster than anyone else in the conference during practice.

Slusser claimed that the powerful hit puts other players at high risk of injuries, including concussions, and hands the Spartans an unfair advantage.

Slusser previously told Fox News that she had been spiked by balls before, while she finds it ‘stings, but you kind of brush it off,’ she was left with bruises from Flemings spikes. 

After finding out Batie-Smoose had been dismissed she said a lot of the team ‘broke down and was kind of freaking out.’ 

Slusser (pictured left) claimed that the powerful hit puts other players at high risk of injuries, including concussions, and hands the Spartans an unfair advantage

‘You can’t truly voice how you’re feeling without them just trying to cover it up or act like it’s all OK. With Melissa, you could voice how you felt, and she could comfort you and validate your feelings and at least make you feel heard, compared to the other coaches,’ Slusser claimed

Head coach Todd Kress, who ‘became angry at Slusser for bringing these concerns forward and told her any protest about Fleming would not go anywhere’

She claimed many didn’t ‘feel safe anymore’ because there was no one to go to about the issue. 

‘You can’t truly voice how you’re feeling without them just trying to cover it up or act like it’s all OK. With Melissa, you could voice how you felt, and she could comfort you and validate your feelings and at least make you feel heard, compared to the other coaches,’ she claimed. 

Nearly every one of the players on SJSU’s 2024 team that has remaining NCAA eligibility has entered the transfer portal, according to Fox News. 

‘I think that it speaks volumes that the majority of the team transferred because they did not want to be subjected to the mental anguish the university put them through. They had had enough of the lies and manipulation, and I wish them the best,’ Batie-Smoose said. 

The lawsuit is yet to go to trial. Slusser is also involved in Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA over gender ideology policies that allow trans athletes to compete in women’s sports, according to Fox News.