NCAA coach suspended indefinitely after speaking out about male athlete on women's volleyball team

A coach for San Jose State University's women's volleyball team was suspended indefinitely after filing a complaint about her team having a male athlete.

Associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended after she made a Title IX complaint against SJSU, which has a male athlete named Blaire Fleming, born Brayden, on the women's team. Fleming's inclusion on the team has sparked five separate forfeits against SJSU and even caused his own teammate, Brooke Slusser, to speak out against him.

SJSU has been hammered over the controversy for months, and now the controversy continues with the suspension of Batie-Smoose, who has made shocking allegations against Fleming.

According to her interview with Quillette, Batie-Smoose alleged in her Title IX complaint that Fleming, the male player, conspired with an opposing player at Colorado State University to possibly injure his teammate Slusser.

SJSU was visiting CSU in early October when Batie-Smoose learned that Fleming visited the residence of CSU player Malaya Jones, whom he would line up across from on the opposing side during their game the next day.

Batie-Smoose said in her complaint that Fleming went on to defy his coaches' instructions during the game by allowing Jones an unhindered hitting lane that exposed Slusser to the ball. The assistant coach further alleged that she saw Fleming and Jones laughing together after targeting Slusser.

Fleming's behavior was allegedly so strange that head coach Todd Kress even took Fleming aside for a one-on-one discussion, but he didn't change his behavior.

"At one point," Batie-Smoose said, "Blaire sent an over pass, perfectly setting up Malaya to kill the ball again in the direction of Brooke Slusser, after [which] Jones blew a kiss toward Fleming and mouthed 'thank you.'"

This moment was reportedly caught on video and posted on X.

It is alleged that Fleming essentially gave Jones the SJSU playbook and that the two concocted a plan to leave center court open so that Jones could target Slusser with unobstructed powerful strikes.

Colorado State University's Malaya Jones [right] is accused of conspiring with Fleming against an SJSU player.Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images

SJSU responded to allegations made in the article and said the school "takes all reports and complaints seriously and is reviewing them."

"Due to federal and state privacy laws, the University is not able to comment on active reports or complaints," the school told Outkick.

"The University also has concerns about a number of inaccuracies in the article but is not able to comment further on those in light of those privacy laws. In addition, the University has significant concerns about apparent breaches of student and employee privacy and will be addressing those, as appropriate."

SJSU's coach Kress has also conspired against Slusser, Batie-Smoose claimed.

She said Kress told her that he has filed at least one Title IX complaint against Slusser on the basis that she referred to Fleming with masculine pronouns during media interviews. Kress allegedly described this as a threat to the rights of trans women.

SJSU coach Todd Kress reportedly filed a Title IX complaint against his own player for using the wrong pronouns.Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images

Slusser told Blaze News in an interview that in addition to having to share a changing room with Fleming, team meetings have focused on the transgender athlete's well-being and not that of the female athletes.

"We've had meetings, and it's a lot of just checking in on Blaire. ... We were like 'what about us?'" Slusser said. "It's mostly just saying you can't be the person to ... identify Blaire's gender identity. 'Blaire needs to do that for himself,'" the girls are told.

"Everyone above you is telling you you shouldn't be talking for Blaire, you need to make sure the other person is okay; and [the management] is not thinking about, 'Are we okay?'" Slusser explained.

Kress, CSU officials, and Jones have not responded to requests for comments from other outlets.

This article will be updated should CSU or SJSU officials respond to Blaze News requests for comments.

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