A lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court alleges that a coach’s tracking of players and their menstrual cycles contributed to a “sex-based environment of hostility” for the women’s soccer team at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore.
As reported by Jaime Adame of the Lookout Eugene-Springfield, former player Addison Bellm also claims she was dismissed from the team last September in retaliation for her complaints against former women’s soccer coach Joshua (a.k.a. Joshwa) Martin.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 27, alleges Martin’s “mercurial style” had an “overt sex-based element to it,” and that the coach put players “at serious risk” by “often” driving more than 90 miles per hour when taking the team to games.
“I am bringing this case to seek accountability from the LCC Athletic Department and former Coach Martin because of their years of mistreatment of me and 22 other girls,” Bellm, who currently plays soccer for Westcliff University in California, said in a statement provided by her attorney, Portland-based Matthew C. Ellis.
Per Adame's reporting, LCC college spokesperson Jenna McCulley said in a statement “complaints received by the college were evaluated and investigated by both Human Resources and our Title IX office.
“While none of the allegations met the criteria to move to formal grievance procedures, the college provided informal supportive measures to all involved.”
Bellm alleges a violation of Title IX, among other laws.
Bellm played for LCC beginning in 2024-25 after attending high school in Beaverton. She now attends Westcliff University in California and is a member of the women’s soccer team.
Martin became LCC head coach in February 2022 and is no longer employed by the school. He is alleged to have “required players to let him track them using the ‘Find My’ function on his iPhone,” the lawsuit states, describing the coach as “inappropriately invading their personal lives” by following players and their boyfriends and girlfriends on Instagram.
Per Adame, the lawsuit also alleges Martin “required the team to report information about their menstrual cycle on [a] google document and would make coaching decisions based on the information, including who would play and how he would coach the games.”
After at least one complaint, Martin is alleged to have “cornered the team about the discrimination complaint and questioned them about who had filed it, openly deriding those he thought were behind it,” Adame reported, adding the coach allegedly “told players that he could take away scholarships both present and retroactively from the past, if he so desired.”
The lawsuit also claims Martin treated Bellm differently than other players. After one season at LCC, Bellm attempted to walk on at Oregon — a process that saw Martin monitor practices from behind a fence and provide Bellm with post-practice coaching via text. Bellm found this "creepy and odd," according to the lawsuit.
Having failed to make the Oregon team, Bellm returned to LCC for the 2025 fall season and Martin became “much more aggressive in his interactions” with her while continuing to “text and call Bellm at all hours,” Adame reported.
“He informed Bellm that she was required to attend specific mandatory practices, only to find afterward that the practices were not mandatory for everyone, only her,” the lawsuit claims. “Others on the team noticed the new focus on Bellm and asked why Martin was so focused on Bellm. He denied any different treatment.”
In July 2025, after Bellm spoke up after a mandatory film session, Martin reduced Bellm to tears in front of the team by belittling her for 10 minutes. He then "ignored her and ostracized her,” the lawsuit states.
In August 2025, Martin allegedly prepared a “contract” for Bellm that required her to "show humility by recognizing you may not know as much as you think you do," "Place team success above personal interest," "Don’t be selfish," and stated that "Negative body language, excuses, gossip, or public dissent will not be tolerated,” according to the lawsuit, as reported by Adame.
The lawsuit describes the “contract,” which Bellm refused to sign, was “consistent with sex stereotypes for women, essentially requiring that she be humble, docile, unselfish.”
She was dismissed from the team Sept. 10, the same day as a scheduled meeting with the college’s athletic director, Greg Sheley.
"In the meeting, Belm’s mother 'stated that she had concerns that implicated Title IX' and said 'her concerns should be brought to the [Northwest Athletic Conference] board' as well as SafeSport, a nonprofit organization created to protect athletes from abuse and misconduct," Adame wrote for Lookout on Tuesday.
Sheley abruptly ended the meeting, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress and punitive damages against Martin, according to Adame.
