
August 18, 2025
5 former gamers are accusing their former coach, Maria Moseley, of psychological abuse, psychological cruelty, retaliation, and discrimination
5 former College of Wisconsin girls’s basketball gamers filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to the college’s former coach, Maria Moseley, its former sports activities administrator, Justin Doherty, and the Wisconsin Board of Regents on Aug. 15 within the Western District Court docket of Wisconsin.
In line with The Athletic, the 5 former gamers, Alexis Duckett, Krystyna Ellew, Mary Ferrito, Tara Stauffacher, and Tessa Towers, are accusing their former coach of psychological abuse, psychological cruelty, retaliation, and discrimination. The gamers are in search of punitive and compensatory damages, in addition to lawyer charges and a trial by jury.
Per their criticism, “She (Moseley) unconstitutionally toyed with the psychological well being of her gamers, together with Plaintiffs, as a way of exerting management over each side of their lives, together with retaliating in opposition to them based mostly on their protected speech and expressive acts and discriminating in opposition to them based mostly on their disabilities or perceived disabilities.”
Moseley, who resigned in March after spending 4 seasons on the helm of this system, can also be being accused of interfering in her gamers’ psychological well being therapies, prying into their private and romantic lives, and threatening gamers relating to their scholarships and enjoying time. Doherty, in the meantime, was allegedly made conscious of points by each gamers and fogeys and was additionally concerned in eradicating gamers from the group.
In line with the lawsuit, “medical suppliers handled a disproportionate variety of Moseley’s gamers for psychological well being points,” and “a number of gamers required emergency medical remedy or remedy at a psychological well being facility.”
The lawsuit additionally alleges that medical doctors on the college identified a number of gamers with “critical psychological diseases and temper issues and positioned them on quite a few prescription psychological well being drugs.” As well as, the College of Wisconsin “coerced gamers, following a psychological well being incident, to signal broad agreements releasing their medical data in the event that they wished to stay on the group.”
Notably, Moseley by no means compiled a successful report on the college, going 47-75 general and 21-51 in Massive Ten play. In her resignation from her place, Moseley cited “private causes” as the explanation she selected to resign slightly than presumably ready for the college to fireside her.
In line with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Towers, a 6’5″ former middle at Wisconsin who now performs for Ball State College, went public along with her account in January, posting a video to TikTok through which she detailed varied acts of mistreatment from Moseley.
In line with the lawsuit, Moseley singled out Towers, which disturbed different gamers on the group. “Tessa’s teammates discovered Moseley’s habits in the direction of their pal and teammate disturbing. Her teammates knew about Tessa’s ADHD and so they watched their coach bully her due to it. Then, as they witnessed Tessa’s psychological well being issues escalating in a number of crises, they noticed their coach’s habits rising even worse. They might do nothing about it since Moseley threatened to cut back their enjoying time in the event that they visited Tessa within the psychological well being facility or continued their friendships along with her.”
The College of Wisconsin’s athletic model communications division responded with a press release after Towers went public along with her account.
“We’re conscious of feedback shared on-line by former Badger student-athlete Tessa Towers and will probably be wanting into this matter. We care deeply concerning the bodily and psychological well-being of the entire student-athletes on our groups, throughout and after their time on campus. Whereas we want to share extra context round Tessa’s feedback, federal privateness legal guidelines prohibit us from publicly addressing the health-related claims made on Tessa’s social media account,” the college said.
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