EAST ST. LOUIS – Shannon Guthrie of Springfield claims former Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville athletic director Tim Hall hired a baseball coach as the softball coach instead of her because of gender bias.
Guthrie, who currently coaches softball for University of Illinois at Springfield, sued SIU-E at U.S. district court on Aug. 31.
Her counsel, Jill Zwagerman of Des Moines, Iowa, stated Guthrie has coached for more than 15 years.
Zwagerman stated the school at Springfield belongs to the second division of college athletics and SIU- E recently moved into the first division.
She claimed Guthrie knew it would be a good opportunity to grow the program.
She added that Guthrie was concerned with her treatment in her interview with Hall.
“He only asked her two questions during the entire interview, which is certainly not enough to glean what she is like nor her coaching style or coaching philosophy,” she wrote.
Zwagerman wrote that Hall talked about how bad the previous coach was and referenced other bad female coaches, “compared to being oddly and overly complimentary of male coaches.”
She claimed his words and conduct made it clear that he preferred a male coach.
“This was confirmed when he chose P.J. Finigan, a male, for head softball coach,” she wrote.
“He was a baseball pitching coach who had no softball coaching experience,” she added.
“Baseball pitching and softball pitching are completely different as baseball pitching is overhand and softball pitching is underhand,” she continued.
Zwagerman claimed Hall excused his hiring of an unqualified male by announcing publicly that no strong candidates interviewed for the position.
“The message Hall sent was that he considered an unqualified male to be a stronger candidate than a qualified female,” she wrote.
Hall announced in 2021 that he hired Finigan as interim coach.
He stated that “the pool of candidates wasn’t as strong as I would have liked it to be nor what this storied program deserves.”
“We will reconvene an official search some time in the future,” he added.
Zwagerman claimed Finigan coached the team for one year with a 19-35 record before moving back to baseball as assistant coach at Lindenwood University.
She claimed SIU-E replaced him with another male, Ben Sorden. Hall announced Sorden's hiring last year.
This year the university announced that it hired Andrew Gavin as athletic director.
The announcement didn’t mention Tim Hall.
In her lawsuit, Zwagerman sought an order to require training on removal of implicit bias and gender stereotypes from assessment of female students and coaches.
She also sought an order to require an audit of compliance with gender equality law and immediate remedy of any failures or violations.
She asked for damages in an amount that would fully compensate Guthrie for her injuries, damages, and lost wages and benefits.