The former head coach of Colorado Mesa University’s women’s lacrosse team may proceed with her claim of discrimination against the school, after a federal judge found Shanta Loecker plausibly alleged her termination stemmed from her gender or race.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office, representing CMU, argued that if the university intended to discriminate against Loecker, an Indian-born woman, it never would have hired her in the first place. CMU also advanced the narrative that, rather than being a victim, Loecker was the cause of numerous problems for her players.

U.S. District Court Judge Christine M. Arguello decided that Loecker had put forward sufficient arguments to suggest that she was treated less favorably during her tenure as coach than white or male employees. At the same time, Arguello found “sparse” evidence for Loecker’s other claim, that she was subjected to retaliation. The judge dismissed that part of the lawsuit, but gave Loecker the ability to amend her complaint solely to address the retaliation allegations.

Tom Newkirk, one of Loecker’s attorneys, believed Arguello’s reasoning was sound. He said that female coaches, like his client, are singled out for criticism or punishment at greater rates than their male counterparts.

“It is not that men are more abusive, but the evidence is overwhelming that females like Shanta are simply not permitted to come close to using the same foul language, tone and harsher coaching methods permitted of men every day at every university in every state,” Newkirk said.

A spokesperson for CMU said the school will continue its vigorous defense against the allegations and “is committed to the inclusion of diverse employees and students.”

Loecker’s tenure as head women’s lacrosse coach lasted from August 2018 to April 2020. According to the athletic department, the team under her leadership qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history. The student-run newspaper reported in 2020 that the reason for Loecker’s departure was “unclear,” but that player turnover had been high.

According to the lawsuit, CMU’s athletic department tolerated boorish behavior from other coaches while only acting on the complaints against Loecker. In one example, Loecker said soccer coach Todd Padgett aggressively told her she had “better watch it” and Padgett’s assistant coach yelled at her. 

When Loecker told co-athletic director Kris Mort about the encounter, Mort allegedly encouraged her not to report it to human resources. Mort also told Loecker of how another men’s coach once pounded his chest like a gorilla in front of her, the “implication being that Coach Loecker, as a woman, just needed to deal with that kind of behavior,” the lawsuit alleged. (CMU terminated Padgett later in 2020.)

Loecker also claimed Mort told her women are “too emotional” and “difficult” as employees, and athletic director Bryan Rooks also allegedly said coaching is a “better fit” for men. Loecker felt Rooks singled her out for discussions involving race, as well.

Upon her termination, Mort and Rooks reportedly blamed a “culture of exodus” in the lacrosse program. Loecker acknowledged that 11 players left in 2019 and 2020, but cited mental, medical and academic issues as being responsible for many of the departures.

The athletic directors also claimed Loecker called her players “narcissistic (expletive) brats” and that she made her players report their calorie intake. Loecker disputed in whole or in part those accusations, countering that it was “widely known” that some male coaches called their students slurs or punished players for their weights.

Loecker alleged violations of Title VII, the federal law that prohibits employment discrimination, as well as Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs receiving federal funding. She not only claimed that her specific treatment was indicative of gender bias, but that the entire athletic program was inherently unfriendly to women.

According to statistics kept by the U.S. Department of Education, there are clear sex-based disparities in Colorado Mesa University’s athletics program. Recruiting expenditures for men’s teams are more than double those of women’s, total salaries associated with men’s teams are $580,000 higher than for women’s teams, and women make up approximately 35% of varsity team players despite being the majority of the undergraduate population.

“While CMU, both now and at the time (Coach) Loecker was fired, seeks to portray Coach Loecker as aggressive or abusive, CMU is also permitting extreme and perhaps even abusive behavior from similarly situated white male coaches,” Loecker’s attorneys alleged.

CMU flatly disputed the allegations of discrimination, as well as Loecker’s description of herself as a successful coach.

“On the field, plaintiff marginally improved upon the team’s win-loss record from the prior seasons, while off the field, plaintiff failed to retain nearly a dozen athletes, was accused of ill-treatment of students, and got into a verbal altercation with a coworker,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Eric T. Butler in the motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The school also argued that, if it had intended to discriminate against her on the basis of gender or race, “it never would have hired plaintiff in the first place.” While Loecker pointed to examples of male coaches being rude or mistreating players without being disciplined, “plaintiff fails to identify a single coach who was accused of all of these forms of misconduct in less than two years, as plaintiff was,” Butler wrote.

In her March 22 order declining to dismiss the discrimination claim, Arguello noted that it was sufficient, at this stage of the lawsuit, for Loecker to allege only that white male coaches were not terminated for behavior similar to Loecker’s.

The case is Loecker v. Colorado Mesa University et al.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from a university spokesperson.