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PODCAST: | “Freedom to Learn:” Melissa Batie Smoose and Vernadette Broyles on Courage, Consequences, & the Future of Title IX

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“It is not a kindness to endorse and affirm a false reality.”

In January, young female athletes, policymakers, and other advocates for protecting women’s sports held a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court while justices heard arguments in two cases — one from Idaho and the other from West Virginia — that could shape how our nation defines fairness, safety, and sex-based protections in athletics. Those legal battles are not abstract. They are deeply personal, and Melissa Batie-Smoose’s story shows us exactly why.

On a recent episode of Freedom to Learn, I spoke with Melissa, former associate head coach of women’s volleyball at San Jose State University, and Vernadette Broyles, her attorney, about what unfolded during the 2024 season and the legal and personal consequences that followed.

As a longtime women’s volleyball coach, Melissa risked her career to speak up when female athletes’ safety, dignity, and privacy were put at risk by a male on their team. Her decision to file a Title IX complaint set off a chain of events that cost her her job, but also helped fuel a national conversation about women’s safety, privacy, and equal opportunity in sports.

Melissa, Vernadette, and I discussed the path forward, including why federal action matters regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, and how proposals like the Defense of Freedom Institute’s RESPECT Title IX Act could restore clarity to a law that was designed to protect women and girls, not erase them.

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Highlights from our conversation have been edited for length and clarity.

Melissa, when you were hired as associate head coach of San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team, did you know that there was a male on the team?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: I did not know. It seemed the administration hid that from me. But quickly, on the day I took beach practice, I knew there were lots of differences in this player.

This is not a new career for you. You’ve been coaching women’s volleyball for a long time.

Melissa Batie-Smoose: Yes. I’ve been in volleyball for 30-plus years, and I’ve been collegiate coaching for 30. I also played in college and played professionally on the beach for a while. This has been my life.

So you show up at San Jose State University and quickly discover that there’s a male on the team. What does that look like when you have a male on a female team? There’s a pretty big difference between men’s and women’s volleyball when it comes to net height, right?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: Yes. That is why the men’s net is higher than the women’s. Men and women are different. Men jump higher. Men are more physical. They’re more powerful. They’re faster. It’s everything. That’s why we have separate categories—so that women can win, win awards, and feel great about themselves.

It’s not just playing the sport for women; it’s to become leaders. There’s so much you’re developing as a coach. The X’s and O’s are the minor parts. It’s developing young women into strong females who can go on to be CEOs, doctors, lawyers — all the things that help them get there come from playing and competing in women’s sports and competing against other women.

How did the team members handle having a male on the team? Were they informed?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: They were not informed. As soon as I noticed, I brought it to the attention of the administration and the head coach. I was told that I was not allowed to tell any of the players, or any of the kids’ parents that I was recruiting, or the kids I was recruiting to come to San Jose State, or I would be fired.

That’s an extreme level of deception.

Melissa Batie-Smoose: They’re putting fear in you, and it definitely works. I built this career since I was straight out of college. Then I was having to live with this every day, knowing it was destroying me. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

I’m talking to parents, and their kids are coming across the country, and the world, to come play for you. They expect you to take care of their child. I have a daughter. I have nieces and nephews who play. They want to be protected. And I’m lying to them. That was so hard to deal with. It was either lose my career or stand up and do the right thing. And I just had to do the right thing.

We’ve talked about risks to women’s safety, dignity, and development. Let’s talk about women’s privacy and sharing spaces with a male. What were you observing on that front?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: They’re rooming on the road. At the time, I thought nobody knew because we weren’t allowed to share what we knew or didn’t know. They were rooming with this male. This male is in their locker rooms, all the safe spaces that we as females enjoy.

Brooke Slusser was the person who always had to room with the male player. I asked why, behind closed doors. I was told, “Because Brooke Slusser is requesting it.”

And this was a lie. We could have roomed the male player by himself. But they chose not to. They said we have to room him with other females.

Why was the male being roomed with a female, doing what he wanted rather than what Brooke wanted?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: That’s the biggest problem. The females on the team did not matter. Their privacy, their safety, how they felt did not matter. Once it came out, they brought their concerns to the head coach and the administration, and they kept being told, as I was, that we do not matter. “How do you think Blaire feels? How do you think [the male] feels?” The only thing that matters is that we accommodate the male.

Vernadette, did you have thoughts on this?

Vernadette Broyles: The unfair treatment didn’t stop there. There was preferential treatment in many other ways. The male player was not required to abide by the same rules that all the female players were required to abide by.

Melissa Batie-Smoose: As little as not having to wear the same practice uniforms, showing up in different things, and nothing was done. Other female athletes would face consequences for that. He could not show up to practice, could be late to practice — basic things.

He was allowed to participate in outdoor beach and indoor, while other athletes being recruited for both were told they were not allowed to play outdoors and had to focus on indoor.

The biggest one of all: conspiring with an opponent to throw a match and injure our setter. That came out, and the administration and head coach did nothing. It was swept under the rug. The Mountain West did nothing. The investigation was tainted by lawyers who represent the male.

When was all this unfolding?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: During the 2024 volleyball season.

People might forget that there were teams forfeiting against your team as well. It happened how many times?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: Seven times that San Jose State was awarded a W. Boise State was the first team in our conference. Southern Utah was the first team overall, but that was out of conference. Boise State was the first team to step up and refuse to play us. They had three opportunities and declined all three, including the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference. They gave up their opportunity to go on to the NCAA. They were tied for number one in the regular season. They did such a courageous thing.

You risked your career when you decided to speak up and take action. What pushed you to that decision?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: Brooke Slusser joined the ICONS lawsuit. We were sitting in a hotel room with the head coach and another coach, both males. I’m the only female in the room. The backlash against her was absurd. I knew I had to stand up.

I filed a Title IX complaint that was about 35 pages long. Nothing was done. Two days later, I spoke out in Quillette, and the next day they removed me from the program.

When you say you filed a Title IX complaint, was that with the university or the U.S. Department of Education? What did that complaint look like?

Melissa Batie-Smoose:
I filed it with the university, the Mountain West Conference, and the NCAA.

Vernadette, can you give us an overview of Title IX and what it means to file a complaint?

Vernadette Broyles: Title IX was passed in 1972. It was an add on to the civil rights law that was passed in the 1960s that caught the law up to protect women against discrimination based on sex. The central purpose of Title IX was to give women and females in education equal opportunities and that included in sports.

A Title IX complaint typically is filed with the academic entity. They have an opportunity to investigate it and then it would be sent up to the Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights. Well, that didn’t happen in this case.

Melissa’s complaint was largely ignored. It was not investigated or fully investigated; it went nowhere. Whereas the male male athlete’s complaint against her was immediately investigated, and action was taken against her. So again, the unfairness and the favoritism just continued all the way up through the organization.

We filed with the EEOC, received a right-to-sue letter, and in September filed a civil rights complaint against the California State University Board of Trustees in federal court for discrimination and retaliation under Title IX and Title VII because they took employment action against her, as well as for retaliation in violation of Title IX and Title VII. And her complaint is moving forward in the federal court system where we are fairly confident that there’s going to be some accountability here legally to an exposure of what has happened here.

What were the actions taken against you, Melissa?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: I lost everything. I lost my career. They removed me a minute before we were taking the court for our match. Players were told 30 seconds before, all in tears, and forced to play.

We’ve been talking about risks to women’s safety. Can we talk about the personal safety risk you experienced because of this?

Melissa Batie-Smoose:
Living in California, I guess that’s the price you pay. I was sitting at my kitchen table on a Zoom with the plaintiffs. I got shot at through my kitchen window. I had double-pane glass, and luckily it didn’t go through the second pane ,or it would have hit me in the temple. The officer said it came from about 300 yards away. We moved to Texas for our safety and for our family.

I’m so sorry that that’s happened to you. There are just too many stories of violence in this space. They shot at you after you spoke up and said, “males should not be on a female volleyball team.” You said something that’s just so obvious.

Are there any other coaches who are speaking up about this?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: My colleagues who are supporting me remain behind closed doors. They’ll call me or message me saying, “I can’t even like your retweets or talk about protecting women in sport.” That they literally can’t even press like or their job is threatened.

What would you say to coaches who are watching this unfold?

Be courageous. Do what’s right and protect women. If we don’t stand up as coaches, there will not be a female category.

It’s really important for them to do this now. If we had coaches out there at the collegiate level that would not recruit these males, we would have less at the college. I understand that middle school and high school, it’s not the coach’s decision, but in college, it is the coach’s decision to recruit that male athlete.

But the problem is, there are so many coaches out there that will do anything to win. And that is an issue.

What do you hope to see next?

Melissa Batie-Smoose: I know through this that I am still meant to coach and impact young females’ lives. I would like to continue to do that and have that opportunity.

Vernadette Broyles: We want Melissa vindicated and restored. But more broadly, we need adults, including coaches, to stand up. We need laws changed so this cannot simply be undone by the next administration. We have to protect young women across the country.

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