Virginia Tech athletes, athletic director release statements after settlement

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia Tech athletic director and hockey athletes recently released a statement regarding the allegations against the Virginia Tech football coach.

Both statements were released Monday, Jan. 9, after a former Virginia Tech soccer player reached a plea deal alleging her coach kicked her off the team for not kneeling before a game.

[ORIGINAL STORY: Former Virginia Tech soccer player sues coach, saying he forced her off team for not kneeling before a game]

According to reports, Kiersten Henning filed a federal lawsuit against head coach Charles “Chugger” Adair on March 3, 2022, alleging that he “refused to kneel down, bent over her chair, repeatedly verbally abused her, and forced her to do so.” team”

We reported that the lawsuit alleges that Adair’s actions as a Virginia actor violated Henning’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

In a statement posted on Saturday’s Kids, 76 current and former players of the VT women’s soccer program came together and called the allegations in the lawsuit “baseless allegations” and “nothing more than solidarity.” Misrepresentation of facts”.

You can read the full statement below.

We are a group of current and former players of the Virginia Tech women’s soccer program. But we are more than that. We are teachers, doctors, nurses, professional athletes, mothers, engineers, lawyers, corporate leaders, scientists and more. And we stand firm against the baseless allegations leveled against our coach, Charles “Chugger” Adair. We have spent countless hours training, traveling and playing under him and we are devastated to see his character and integrity suffer.

As current and former players, we understand that women’s collegiate soccer is physically and mentally demanding, as well as exceptionally competitive. In this regard, we all believe that his conduct, both past and present, has been consistently highly professional. We believe that coach Adir has put the team in the conditions to compete at the highest level and will continue to do so.

Finally, we understand that a charge may be dismissed for a variety of reasons, none of which may be related to guilt or innocence. We firmly believe that these allegations are nothing more than misrepresentations of facts.

Today, we collectively declare that Coach Adir’s leadership has made each of us better players, teammates and people. We stand with Coach Adair and Virginia Tech, and what we believe is true. And under his leadership, we look forward to a bright future for the Virginia Tech women’s soccer program.

Current and former VT women’s soccer athletes

You can see who signed the statement here.

Virginia Tech Athletic Director Whit Babcock released the following, which referenced the above comment.