Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville softball batting cages
EAST ST. LOUIS — A federal judge won’t let Southern Illinois University end a lawsuit from a woman who alleged gender discrimination after the school hired a man to coach the softball team at its Edwardsville campus.
Shannon Guthrie began seeking recourse against SIU after the school passed her over for the head coaching position in 2021 in favor of P.J. Finigan, whom Guthrie asserts was an assistant baseball coach with no softball experience, didn’t apply for the job, and allegedly lacked the posted minimum qualifications. Guthrie first filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which issued her a right to sue in June 2023.
The SIU Board of Trustees asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Gilbert Sison to grant summary judgment, a request he denied in an order filed March 31.
Longtime SIUE softball coach Sandy Montgomery retired in 2019. Her first replacement was associate coach Jessica Jones, first as an interim and then the full-time head coach. Her tenure lasted three seasons before she moved to an administrative position with the school. The school posted the job opening on May 17, 2021.
Tim Hall, then the university’s athletics director, formed an eight-person search committee, according to Guthrie. Three members reviewed 30 applications and advanced 12 for full committee evaluation and video interviews. Two candidates earned on-campus interviews: Guthrie, who was the head coach at Division II University of Illinois-Springfield, and Chelsey Mulligan, an assistant at D-I St. Louis University.
According to Guthrie, Hall felt Mulligan didn’t have the experience to be a head coach while Guthrie “lacked the right soft skills for the team’s culture and student-welfare needs,” Gilson wrote. Gilson further examined the record of search committee communications and prior testimony about the search, during which Hall said Guthrie was qualified for the job but the group had concerns about building a positive culture distinct from the prior three decades under Montgomery and Jones.
The job ultimately went to Finigan, who said he accepted the position on an interim basis within a matter of days from first discussing it with Hall at the end of his annual review. Text messages between the two first mentioned the job on June 18 — a week before Guthrie’s in-person interview — and SIUE announced his interim appointment July 1, according to court documents.
Finigan resigned June 14, 2022, which led to another search committee. That process resulted in a job offer to Kirsten Verdun, who declined the position, and then a successful hire of the other finalist, Ben Sorden, who remains the Cougars’ head coach. Guthrie did not apply during the 2022 cycle.
Gilson said plaintiffs who sue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act can survive a summary judgment motion by either presenting enough evidence for a judge to think a reasonable jury would agree gender discrimination occurred.
Criteria include showing protected status, being a qualified applicant, not getting the job and alleging the eventual hire was neither in the protected group nor more qualified than the plaintiff. If the complaint establishes those points, the employer can only earn summary judgment by articulating “a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse employment action,” Gilson wrote. If an employer can show a legitimate reason, the plaintiff has to show evidence the reason is a pretext for its intended discrimination.
SIU challenged whether Guthrie succeeded in meeting the established criteria, but Guthrie said “the hiring process was a sham; that Finigan was pre-selected before her interview took place; and that defendant’s stated reasons are inconsistent, subjective and contradicted by the record,” Gilson wrote, adding he agreed.
There is no claim anyone with authority said Guthrie didn’t get the job based on her gender, the judge said, but neither is there a question of her protected status, her qualified application and losing out on the position. SIU insisted Finigan was better qualified based on its “culture change” priorities, but Gilson said the record offers enough evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude Guthrie “was substantially more qualified” for the position.
“The job posting required collegiate softball coaching experience, the ability to recruit, knowledge of NCAA rules, and the ability to develop student-athletes,” Gilson wrote. “(Guthrie) met these qualifications. In fact, she played softball most of her life and had 14-plus years of softball coaching experience, including head coaching experience. She had a master’s degree in sport management. Finigan had no softball coaching or playing experience. Further, Finigan did not apply for the position, he did not interview in the same process as (Guthrie) and he did not have a master’s degree.”
Regarding Hall’s “gut feeling” Guthrie wasn’t the right fit for “culture change,” Gilson said when everything is considered from Guthrie’s perspective, “there is ample evidence in the record to support the existence of pretext,” including the context and timing of communication between Hall and Finigan and the disparity of his qualifications relative to Guthrie, as well as the posted qualifications and the school’s hiring history.
While SIU offers plausible explanations, Gilson said, so did Guthrie, and that means summary judgment is not appropriate given a reasonable jury could land on either side.
Gilson said Guthrie testified “Hall arrived late for her interview, that he asked her a couple of generic questions at the beginning of the interview and then talked the entire time, that he made slights at the former female coach, that he was complimentary of male coaches and that he displayed disinterest during the interview. Defendant denies all these facts. Again, these credibility disputes cannot be resolved at the summary judgment stage.”
The matter will proceed to trial, though Gilson suggested the possibility “a settlement conference would be beneficial.”
