Ex-Western Oregon women’s basketball players file $28 million lawsuit against school, coaches alleging abuse
Nine former Western Oregon University’s women’s basketball players filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the university, two coaches and multiple faculty members, alleging emotional and physical abuse that included excessive practices and inappropriate comments regarding players’ appearances.
The lawsuit, obtained by The Athletic, seeks $28 million in damages for what players said was bullying, verbal and physical abuse, and retaliation. The Division II team voted last February to forfeit its final six games of the season, and 10 of the 12 players from last year’s team did not return this season, including the nine who joined the lawsuit. The university withdrew 2024-25 scholarships for players from last season with remaining eligibility, according to the lawsuit.
Players alleged that head coach Jessica Peatross and assistant coach DJ Marlow punished them for sustaining injuries, commented on their physical appearances, threatened them with excessive conditioning if they complained and made disparaging and humiliating comments.
“Peatross and Marlow physically abused plaintiffs through using excessive and unreasonable amounts of exercise as punishment contrary to NCAA guidelines provided to all NCAA Division II schools, and emotionally abused and humiliated plaintiffs through disparaging comments about their bodies, tearing them down, belittling them and telling them they were worthless,” the lawsuit said.
“We received the lawsuit and are currently in the process of reviewing its contents,” WOU spokesperson Maureen Brakke said in a statement Wednesday.
Requests for comment from Peatross and Marlow were not immediately returned.
Peatross and Marlow were placed on administrative leave after the team voted to end last season early. In March, the university hired an external law firm to investigate the coaches’ conduct and found the allegations were not substantiated. Both coaches were reinstated at the start of April.
The lawsuit filed by players this week called that process a “sham investigation designed solely to cover up further abuse,” and said it included interviews with only four of the 12 players who made complaints. The lawsuit added that the investigator did not request videos, emails, documents or other recordings from the plaintiffs.
The filing also alleged the two coaches scheduled lengthy practices seven days in a row, forced players to work out while injured or sick, and in November 2023, began taking players’ belongings the night before a road game.
“The coaches would confiscate the players’ phones and threaten to wake them up at 3 a.m. and force them to run during the night until the sun came up if plaintiffs were caught with a phone,” the lawsuit said. “Players were forced to run until they were physically sick, their feet were bloody, they were vomiting, suffering from dehydration, extreme exhaustion and even unwanted weight loss.”
“There was constant bullying by these coaches,” Ana McClave, a former WOU player, said at a news conference earlier this week. “We are all college athletes, and we know hard coaching and what it takes to be an athlete. But it was belittling, bullying, just straight abuse that nobody should endure. We all knew it wasn’t OK, we all took a stand and we risked our scholarships and our time at Western Oregon to stand up against abusers.”
Peatross is in her second season as WOU’s head coach. She previously coached at Division II Salem University (West Virginia) and Delta College (Michigan), an NJCAA Division III program.
WOU is 7-11 this season and is scheduled to play Western Washington University on Saturday.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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