NCAA research and the organization’s demographics dashboard indicate that there are only 35 female assistant coaches serving on football teams across all divisions of college football. That is compared to thousands of male coaches.
On July 10, one of those few women, Madison Lindamood, who is a graduate assistant coach at Ohio Dominican University, filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university, alleging she was assaulted by one of her own student-athletes and the university retaliated against her for reporting it.
Though Lindamood knew she worked in a male-dominated field, she never assumed that meant she would be in physical danger.
“I wanted that job,” Lindamood said in a statement. “What I did not expect was to be told that what happened to me did not count unless it drew blood. No woman should have to choose between staying silent and losing the career she’s worked so hard to build."
According to USA Today, Lindamood’s lawsuit describes a March evening at a university event when the accused student-athlete “approached her aggressively, made physical contact with her body, and forcibly ripped her bag from her person, physically pulling her, and searched her belongings without her consent.”
Lindamod documented bruises on her neck from the assault and had a witness; however, when Lindamood reported the assault to head coach Kelly Cummings and the school’s Title IX coordinator, Cummings was assigned to investigate rather than a third-party, and he brushed her off.
Cummings allegedly told Lindamood his “personal definition of assault required blood” and that “the player may have been aggressive with her as he is with his sister. What could she have done differently?"
After reporting the assault to the coach and Title IX coordinator, Lindamood said she was cut off from team communications, berated by other staff, shut out of meetings and forced into close proximity with the accused student-athlete several times.
Her suit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, including unpaid compensation as Lindamood reported that Cummings left her a voicemail in April ordering her not to return to work. Her hourly rate as a graduate assistant amounted to $1.29 per hour, far under Ohio’s legal minimum wage of $11 per hour.
She has expressed that she was afraid that pushing it further would cost her her job, and she feared for her safety,” attorney Sean Sobel said. “Reporting it internally cost her the job anyway.”
