Ex-SJSU star Brooke Slusser developed anorexia after trans volleyball scandal

Sunday marked one yr since Blaire Fleming and Brooke Slusser performed the final faculty volleyball match for San Jose State College.

That they had been enjoying collectively, touring collectively and doing crew bonding actions for months, even after Slusser took authorized motion as a result of she was by no means advised that Fleming was a organic male transgender athlete. Earlier than that, that they had already shared lodge rooms and locker rooms for a whole season in 2023 earlier than Slusser stated she even came upon.

Slusser now says that the panic and stress from that interval in her life induced her to develop an consuming dysfunction, which led to extreme anorexia that turned so dangerous that she misplaced her menstrual cycle for 9 months.

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Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans make a play towards the Air Pressure Falcons on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Pictures)

“Due to the stress and anxiousness I had every single day, I finished consuming altogether,” Slusser advised Fox Information Digital.

“I went from about 160 to 128 [lbs] in that one semester. It is positively not wholesome for somebody my dimension to be that heavy, and I ended up dropping my menstrual cycle for 9 months. So it was positively severe.”

Slusser is 6 ft tall.

Individuals at residence began to note the issue.

“After I acquired residence, a few of my family and friends have been very apprehensive about me,” she added. “A few of my mates have been like, ‘You all the time appeared drained. You all the time look useless…’ I used to be in a position to come residence for 3 days over the last semester of my senior yr, and later a buddy advised me that once I noticed her, she went residence and cried to her mom as a result of she was so apprehensive about me, simply because she observed that I appeared so unhealthily skinny.”

She stated some days she ate simply 400 energy, after which nonetheless went to the courtroom to compete together with her teammates, and a few days she went outdoors to do information interviews about her struggle to “save ladies’s sports activities.”

“On daily basis was actually exhausting… the toughest factor to do was some days I might get up and must do two to a few interviews with information media… after which prepare, go to apply, go to the elevator… get entangled in conferences with my coaches about how I’m such a horrible individual and all that stuff, after which proper again to interviews,” she stated.

However when the season and semester have been over, her dad and mom noticed the bodily affect the state of affairs was having on her and demanded she come residence to Texas.

“As quickly because the season was over, she got here residence for Christmas, and we have been like, ‘You are not going again,’” her father, Paul Slusser, advised Fox Information Digital. He advised his daughter, “You may go get your issues subsequent summer season when your lease is up and keep right here.”

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Former SJSU volleyball participant Brooke Slusser and her dad and mom Paul and Kim Slusser throughout a match on September 8, which Kim claims is “the final good reminiscence we have now of her enjoying.” (Courtesy of Kim Slusser)

The daddy was significantly involved about the best way the media portrayed his daughter, and the way that affected her friends’ notion of her.

“She was the enemy. The information slandered her. All media retailers defamed her. And the scholars learn issues like that about her.”

Her mom, Kim Slusser, stated she was “devastated” when she noticed her daughter’s bodily situation final Christmas.

“After I came upon how dangerous all the things actually was and truly noticed her at Christmas when she got here residence… I used to be devastated. I could not sleep. I had nightmares,” Kim Slusser stated.

Brooke herself additionally began having recurring nightmares when she moved again into her dad and mom’ home.

In a single dream, Brooke imagined herself again at apply in San Jose State’s gymnasium after which being known as into a personal assembly by head coach Todd Kress.

“I awoke in the course of the night time sobbing,” she stated.

“I positively had plenty of hassle with my sleep and having the ability to go to sleep and keep asleep at night time. I used melatonin to assist me sleep. On the time, I used to be solely getting two to 4 hours of sleep an evening.”

When winter break ended and what was purported to be her final semester started, Brooke tried to finish her coursework on-line.

Her dad and mom stated she began on-line lessons however stopped them shortly later. As a Division I scholarship athlete, the cancellation of lessons induced her to lose her scholarship, and her household needed to pay for the whole semester’s tuition and housing out of pocket.

“We mainly needed to pay her mortgage and her residence for the remainder of the semester. So it was a fairly large monetary burden for us when that occurred,” Paul Slusser stated.

EX-SJSU VOLLEYBALL COACH OPENS INTO LAWSUIT AFTER LOSING JOB AGAINST TRANS ATHLETE SCANDAL

The household must pay the additional tuition out of pocket once more, as Brooke has nonetheless not accomplished her research. She is not an SJSU pupil and can full her training at one other faculty.

A former scholarship athlete, Slusser had beforehand envisioned herself having a level and license in dietetics at that time in her life, making ready her to start out her personal dietetics enterprise.

However as an alternative, she needed to concentrate on self-healing.

The household claims that they didn’t seek the advice of any medical doctors and that the daughter didn’t take any remedy besides the melatonin for sleep support.

“My household, and I do not actually imagine in utilizing drugs for this sort of factor,” Brooke stated. “The explanation I used to be in a position to heal from something is due to God.”

On one in every of her final Sundays in San Jose final fall, she randomly determined to go to church simply to get out of the home.

“I burst into tears throughout worship, and that was the day I made a decision to offer my life again to Christ,” Slusser stated.

After returning residence, she attended church extra typically and was formally baptized within the final week of June. She additionally moved to North Carolina final summer season, the place she works as a youth ladies volleyball coach.

Kim Slusser stated her daughter was additionally in a romantic relationship with a person she went to highschool with, which additionally helped her restoration.

“He was a buddy from highschool, and now they’re relationship, and he was somebody she leaned on in the course of the exhausting occasions in San Jose,” Kim Slusser stated.

By this Thanksgiving, Slusser and her dad and mom say she has recovered bodily and mentally from the state of affairs as they work to finish her faculty training.

“She simply acquired again into her consolation zone, the burden got here again on, she went again into her consolation zone, acquired her interval again,” Paul Slusser stated.

Not one of the bodily and psychological injury of the previous yr has stopped Brooke from preventing within the nationwide battle to ‘save ladies’s sports activities’.

She is a plaintiff in two Title IX lawsuits, citing her expertise at SJSU, together with Riley Gaines’ lawsuit towards the NCAA, which partially cleared prior motions to dismiss in September. Slusser is main a lawsuit towards the Mountain West and representatives of SJSU, together with 10 different present and former ladies’s volleyball gamers.

SJSU athletic director Jeff Konya responded to Fox Information Digital in July about whether or not he’s “happy” with the best way the college dealt with the controversy surrounding Fleming and Slusser in 2024.

“I feel everybody acted in the very best approach, given the circumstances,” Konya stated.

President Donald Trump’s Division of Training (ED) is in the course of an investigation towards the college for its dealing with of the controversy. The division launched the investigation on February 6, similtaneously the same investigation towards the College of Pennsylvania following its dealing with of the incident involving trans swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022.

ED reached a decision with UPenn on July 1 on that subject. Training Minister Linda McMahon advised Fox Information Digital that day that the division’s investigation into SJSU “will proceed.”

Slusser want to see the attainable end result of that investigation, and its implications for the college officers who oversaw the state of affairs involving her at San Jose State.

“These individuals must face some penalties,” Slusser stated.

What about Blaire?

Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans in the course of the third set towards the Air Pressure Falcons on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Pictures)

Fleming has not often been energetic on social media over the previous yr. The athlete posted an Instagram Story celebrating graduating from SJSU in Might and has made two posts displaying off unique holidays.

In a New York Occasions Journal profile piece in April, Fleming admitted to feeling “suicidal,” saying the season was “the darkest time of my life.”

Slusser advised Fox Information Digital about Fleming’s suicidal ideas: “If that is what [Fleming] was going by way of, that is horrible.”

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The outlet additionally reported that Fleming, who typically obtained hateful or threatening messages, cried “nearly each night time.”

Fleming isn’t named as a defendant in any of Slusser’s lawsuits. Fox Information Digital has reached out to Fleming to request an interview and for a direct response to Slusser’s statements.

Fox Information Digital has reached out to SJSU for remark.

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