The former Wayne State University women’s tennis coach, Sheila Snyder, last week filed a federal lawsuit against the university for gender discrimination. Snyder, who retired abruptly during the team’s 2024 season, had coached at WSU since 1989. Now, Snyder is revealing the true reasons for her midseason retirement and alleging that she was treated differently by WSU based on gender.
Snyder’s lawsuit describes an incident from February 2024 in which WSU president, Kimberly Andrews Espy, and the athletic director, Erica Wallace, gave Snyder an ultimatum after claiming she had violated the school’s workplace violence policy.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Snyder had “flipped a cell phone across a table” in order to get the attention of a student-athlete, “possibly using profanity.” While Snyder and the student-athlete personally resolved the matter, Snyder still chose to tell Wallace about the incident. An investigation was started on February 28, 2024, and by March 1, 2024, Snyder was told to retire.
Snyder alleges that a similar incident between a then-WSU football coach and a student-athlete took place in September 2023, but that coach was never investigated for violating the school’s workplace violence policy. From Snyder’s perspective, the only difference in their two cases is gender.
According to the lawsuit, as reported by the Detroit Free Press, “The events involving the head football coach were known to both Defendants Epsy [sic] and Wallace, and they declined to take any type of disciplinary action. (…) Upon information and belief, incidental physical contact and the use of profane language routinely occurs between male coaches and male team members. (…) As noted by the above factual pattern, Defendants WSU, Kimberly Epsy [sic] and Erica Wallace treated the Plaintiff, a 35-year employed female coach, in a disproportionate and discriminatory manner.”
During her time at WSU, Snyder had recorded 438 team victories, qualified for 14 NCAA tournaments, led her team to the quarterfinals and won GLIAC Coach of the Year three times. She is also a WSU alum herself, having attended the university from 1983-87.
