Former Virginia Tech women’s soccer player Kiersten Hening accused head coach Charles “Chugger” Adair of benching her after she refused to kneel as part of a social justice protest during the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. Now, she will reportedly receive at least $100,000 as part of a settlement agreement to dismiss her federal lawsuit.
Hening filed her lawsuit in 2021 against Adair on First Amendment grounds, according to her attorney Cameron Norris, who spoke with the Roanoke Times last week. Norris added that the terms of the settlement included no admission of wrongdoing by either party.
Hening, who played midfielder for the Hokies between 2018 and 2020, claimed in her lawsuit that she lost her starting role on the team after she declined to kneel during a reading of a “unity statement” before a game in 2020. She claimed that Adair “verbally attacked her” at halftime, claiming she was “b–tching and moaning.” Per the lawsuit, Adair continued to berate Hening after the game and she eventually quit the team because of it.
In her lawsuit, the former soccer player said that while she “supports social justice and believes that black lives matter,” she “does not support BLM the organization” because of its “tactics and core tenets of its mission statement, including defunding the police.”
Attorneys for the school argued that Adair’s decision to reduce her playing time was based on Hening’s poor performance on the field.
In December, a federal judge denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, citing that Hening’s playing time diminished following the kneeling incident. Adair countered that two other players on the team also declined to kneel but their playing time was unaffected. The trial was expected to begin later this month but was canceled last Tuesday with the settlement.
On Jan. 4, Adair released a statement, saying “I am pleased the case against me has been closed and I am free to move forward clear of any wrongdoing… It’s unfortunate, but this ordeal was about a disappointment and disagreement about playing time. Today, we have clarity that this case lacked any standing, and without evidence, the truth has prevailed.”
— CoachChugger (@CoachChugger) January 4, 2023
