NACOGDOCHES — Six former female athletes are suing Stephen F. Austin State University for violating Title IX a little more than a month after the school announced it was cutting four sports.
The suit filed June 1 in federal court in Lufkin accuses the university of violating a section of law that promises equal protection and opportunity for men and women participating in collegiate sports.
SFA announced May 22 that it was cutting golf for men and women along with beach volleyball and bowling, which were women’s sports at the university.
University officials were served with the lawsuit Tuesday, said Damon C. Derrick, general counsel for the university.
“The university takes its Title IX obligations seriously and is prepared to respond through the legal process. As this is an ongoing legal matter, the university will not comment further at this time,” Derrick said in an email.
The suit was publicly announced by California-based attorney Arthur Bryant, who is representing the six former SFA athletes and “others similarly situated.”
“SFA’s elimination of the women’s beach volleyball, bowling, and golf teams is a blatant violation of Title IX,” Bryant said. “We reviewed the facts and the law with the school, asked it to reinstate the teams and agree to comply with Title IX, and it refused. So our clients are doing what SFA is requiring them to do — hold the school accountable in court.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs and the school met Friday, but SFA refused to bring back the three women’s teams, Bryant said.
The civil complaint tells only one side of the legal argument. SFA had not filed a response in court as of Tuesday.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Sophia Myers, Kara Kay, Ryann Allison, Elaina Amador, Berkelee Andrews and Meagan Ledbetter.
“It is truly sad and disappointing that we have to sue SFA to make it comply with Title IX, provide women with equal opportunities, and preserve our teams,” Myers said. “But we have to stand up for our rights and fight what is right, including the gender equity Title IX requires.”
Myers was a member of the beach volleyball program and has one year of eligibility remaining.
Kay is an incoming senior who was on the bowling team. The suit alleges that her credit hours at SFA would not transfer to other schools.
Allison is an incoming redshirt junior, who says in the suit that transferring would impede her academic progress and ambitions to attend medical school. She said she has chosen to give up beach volleyball if SFA does not restore the team.
Amador will be a senior this fall. She was a member of the beach volleyball program and said its elimination had caused her “considerable sadness, frustration and anxiety.”
Andrews will also be a senior this fall. Andrews was born without her left hand. When she joined SFA, she became the first ever Division I adaptive beach volleyball player and she has aspirations of playing beach volleyball at the Paralympics. Ledbetter is an incoming senior who said she’s been negatively impacted by the elimination of beach volleyball.
In the 2022–23 school year, SFA reported to the U.S. Department of Education that it had 7,832 undergraduate students — 4,961 were women and 2,871 were men, according to the suit. That means about 63.3% of undergrads were women. However, only 46.7% of the students on SFA’s sports teams were women — 212 women compared to 242 men, the suit says.
To follow Title IX rules, SFA needs to offer more sports opportunities for women, Bryant said. Eliminating the sports affected 40 women and 11 men, which makes the university even further away from meeting Title IX requirements.
Title IX requires that men and women have an equal opportunity to participate in college sports. Doing this would require SFA to add 218 spots for women in sports, Bryant said.
John Clune and Ashlyne Hare of Hutchinson Black and Cook in Boulder, CO, and James L. Sowder and Ellen Platt of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP, in Dallas, are co-counsel for the women athletes.
