Centenary paying $200,000 to settle sex discrimination suit

3/28/2008 4:10 PM

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -Centenary College will pay $200,000 to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the women's basketball coach it fired in 2006, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Friday.

``Employers must understand that a mother's right to earn a living is every bit as important, and as legally protected, as a father's,'' said Jim Sacher, EEOC regional attorney in Houston.

An EEOC news release said Elizabeth Wamsley was fired after she became an unwed mother. She gave birth in September 2005, returned to coaching full-time 10 days later, and was fired after the basketball season ended in March 2006.

Shreveport-based Centenary, an NCAA Division I school affiliated with the United Methodist Church, didn't have immediate comment.

The school didn't admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay damages to Wamsley, train its staff about sex discrimination and post policy on the matter, according to the EEOC.

Taylor Moore, who was the school's athletic director at the time, told Wamsley after the 2005-06 season ended ``that she should not continue coaching because she was now a mother,'' the EEOC said.

A month earlier, EEOC said, he ``reportedly told an assistant athletic director that his major concern with Wamsley was her 'life choice' in deciding to have a baby and that he was concerned she would not be able to be 100 percent committed to her coaching duties as a result.''

Wamsley is now a high school teacher in Corinth, Miss., and both she and Centenary have signed an agreement to say little about the settlement, EEOC attorney N. Eleanor Graham said Friday. An online directory had no listing for an E. or Elizabeth Wamsley in Mississippi.

Centenary resumed women's basketball in 1999 after 14 years without a team. The Ladies were 4-49 in two seasons under Wamsley, who had become interim coach when David Winkler quit in April 2004 amid allegations of an improper relationship with a player. The team was 4-23 the season before Wamsley was named coach, and 9-50 in the two seasons since her dismissal.

The school didn't use Wamsley's record as a defense, Graham said Friday.

``Her last performance review, right before she had the baby, was satisfactory,'' she said. According to Graham, the school said students and players had complained about Wamsley, and Moore, ``said the program reflected total chaos because of recruiting issues.''

U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter of Shreveport signed the agreement Wednesday and it became part of the court record Friday, according to the EEOC statement.

Centenary competes in the Summit League. While Wamsley was coaching, the conference was known as the Mid-Continent Conference.