A college volleyball player says her coach promised her that her new university would be giving her a full-ride scholarship. At the end of the year, she said, she found herself saddled with bills, while her coach was uninterested in helping her but enthusiastically promoting a biological male teammate.
Elle Patterson told Fox News last week that she had switched from Fairfield University to San Jose State University, following her volleyball coach, Todd Kress, after he promised her on a phone call that she’d get a full ride to San Jose State, too. As an out-of-state student, that was important for her decision. It seems he didn’t actually clear that with the university, and she didn’t even receive a partial scholarship from the university. To top it off, Patterson found herself demoted in favor of a biological male who identified as female.
Patterson’s family was sidelined by having to pay out of pocket, especially since she has three siblings. But they believed that the scholarship was merely delayed a year. This was again based on a promise from Kress, who, per Patterson, assured her, “We will not be covering your first year. But we will be covering your last three.” That didn’t happen either. Kress was again making an empty promise.
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Fox News went on:
In 2023, as a true freshman, right out of high school, Patterson found herself suddenly as a non-scholarship backup, rehabbing an injury and sharing playing time at right-side hitter with junior Blaire Fleming.
At the time, she didn't even know Fleming was transgender. Patterson says her locker was just three away from Fleming's in the locker room, and she had changed in front of the trans teammate multiple times. "I felt pretty betrayed especially since I was in the same position as the man that was on my team," she said.
We can argue about the Pattersons’ wisdom in trusting Kress for so long, but undoubtedly Elle was not fairly treated. “He didn't seem like the type of coach and the person who recruited me when he was actually coaching at San Jose," Patterson said. "The way in which he went about certain situations and just playing was more along the lines of just completely tearing you down as a person and not building you back up. But it definitely felt like he had certain people, one being the man on our team, that he would have done anything for... but it didn't feel like he had the support and belief in some of the other girls on our team.” And that is real misogyny.
After she missed a few games due to an injury, Patterson said, “We go through the entire season. I get to my end of the year meeting with them. And that is when I was sitting in the office with him and the assistant coach at the time and they said that they weren't going to give me a scholarship anymore.” They claimed it was because of Patterson’s injury, but Fleming, who continued to receive his scholarship, missed even more games than she did due to an injury.
Patterson originally believed Fleming was a girl and admired his athletic ability. It wasn’t until some attendees at a game started chants against men in women’s sports that Patterson first realized something was wrong. She and some of the girls were no longer comfortable changing in front of Fleming, but they were pressured to prioritize Fleming’s feelings. She ended up transferring to Indiana University and joined a lawsuit against San Jose State. Fleming had no business receiving a scholarship for playing on a women’s team.
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