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Loading ...Ex-college basketball player sues university over gay comments
09.25.2008 12:03pm EDT
(Dallas, Texas) A former Southern Methodist University women’s basketball player is suing the school for $2.5 million, claiming she lost a scholarship after complaining her coach made inappropriate comments about her sex life.
Jennifer Colli was awarded a scholarship to SMU in 2005. It was renewed for the 2006-2007 academic year. But according to her lawsuit, it was terminated after she complained about coach Rhonda Rompola.The lawsuit alleges that at the first official SMU team meeting she attended in November 2005, Rompola spoke out against relationships between women on the team.
“The topic of this meeting was not about basketball at all, but about the gay relationships on the team and how Rompola did not approve of them,” papers filed with the court by Colli’s attorney said.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News Colli said that she was in a relationship with another player.
“Yes, I was with another team player,” she told the paper.
In a statement to the News SMU said Colli’s allegations of inappropriate behavior were investigated by two separate university offices.
“The results of the investigations did not support the student’s claims,” the statement said. “SMU stands by its findings and will address these issues in court,” the university statement said.
The lawsuit names both the university and Rompola.
It also alleges that attempts by Colli to secure a scholarship at other schools failed after coaches contacted SMU. Colli now lives in California and is hoping to become a model.
SMU is a private university of 11,000 students near the heart of Dallas.
*sigh* How is it that these stone age mentality people are even able to get to work for an University?
Has this woman never heard of the expression “Sticks and Stones”?
She really has to get a life this “Sue culture” is part of why our Nations are in Dire Financial Straits.
Unless she DOES have something to hide, most of them do.
Scotland, you have got to be kidding…putting blame on a discrimination lawsuit as a reason why the US economy is in shambles? Puh-leeze! Get your head out of the hole in the ground and look around. The Coach was out of line, no coach should talk like that whatsoever. It destroys the team cohesion the players need to work together and win.
Scotland, that silly Sticks and Stones adage is simply not true. Anyone who has experienced discrimination (and rest assured, everyone on this site probably has) knows that words DO have the same effect as physical harassment, if not more.
The being said, a team cannot unify and beat other teams if there are stupid statements being made like those the coach made.
In 1982, the football coach at my high school told the players they weren’t allowed to have sex with each other. Apparently those who wanted some and weren’t getting any were jealous and it was affecting the team cohesion.
I’m not sure the coach was out of line if all she said was that mixing sex and work was out of line. A lot us don’t sex and work. Without knowing if the coach went beyond that to condemn lesbians is sports or lesbian sex, I don’t know the coach was out of line.
SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola shared a Dallas home with Nancy Lieberman and Martina Navratilov in the 1980s. She married a male basketball coach in 2007; he works 1100 miles away from her. Cover?