Nine former Division II Western Oregon women’s basketball players are suing their coaches and school, alleging abuse they say they suffered in the program.

The players are seeking $28 million and additional punitive damages.

The 58-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court claims coach Jessica Peatross and assistant DJ Marlow physically abused and bullied the players. The coaches called them “brats” or “babies,” caused multiple overuse injuries, bloody feet, and vomiting from excessive drills, threatened them after bringing their concerns to the athletic department, and forbade anyone who reported the abuse from rejoining the team this season, the suit says. Peatross and Marlow started at WOU in June 2023.

The athletic director, Randi Lydum, is also a defendant in the suit, which claims she misled the players by assuring them their complaints would be heard and taken seriously. The suit even says Lydum acknowledged that she had a poor track record with coaches because she had already fired a soccer and volleyball coach over abuse claims. But, the filing says, the coaches punished the players for being “dramatic” and “tattletales” by going over their head to Lydum, who didn’t resolve their concerns.

“She made me feel like I could confide in her,” player Ana McClave said of Lydum. “And she told me that everything that was happening was wrong, and that it would get fixed, and there would be solutions to the problem. But it only made it worse.”

WOU, president Jesse Peters, and dean of students Malissa Larson are also named as defendants. The suit says multiple parents reached out to Lydum and other school officials, but that led to reduced playing time for their daughters and no action.

“We received the lawsuit and are currently in the process of reviewing its contents,” a spokesperson for the university said in a statement to Front Office Sports.