Ex-SJSU volleyball coach defends female player from trans athlete's disputed claims

San Jose State assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital about her recent lawsuit after losing her job earlier this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Former San Jose State assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose has stepped into the recent war of words between former players Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming. 

Fleming, who is transgender, made disputed claims that Slusser has been anorexic since they first met in 2023 and failed out of her classes at SJSU. Slusser denied Fleming's statements, previously saying that she developed an eating disorder from the stress and anxiety of playing and rooming with Fleming after discovering Fleming was a biological male, and the highly publicized scandal that ensued. 

The conflict between the two players and subsequent lawsuits by Slusser against the NCAA and Mountain West conference over the situation put the players and entire program under immense national scrutiny in their final season together in 2024.

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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

Now, Batie-Smoose has provided her perspective on the disputed claims between the two athletes.

"To my knowledge, Brooke’s mental health and academic performance were excellent during her first year and a half as a student athlete in the program. She was engaged, consistent and doing well both personally and academically. But after sharing her experience, the surrounding pressures intensified," Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital. 

"She was chastised on campus and on social media, which seemed to cause her well-being