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A judge ruled that Hening, a defensive midfielder for the Hokies from 2018 until 2020, can move forward with her trial on First Amendment grounds after she was allegedly pressured to leave the team for declining to kneel during a social justice demonstration.
Hening alleges that after she refused to kneel in support of social justice initiatives, including BLM, prior to the team’s 2020 season opener against the University of Virginia, Adair retaliated against her in violation of the First Amendment, her lawyers said.
It is further alleged that in a separate incident Adair “verbally attacked her" at halftime, claiming that she was “b-tching and moaning" while jabbing a finger in her face.”
According to the lawsuit, the coach continued to make life hard on Hening until he benched her - despite being an important member to the team - and ultimately made things so insufferable that she felt compelled to quit the team.
Federal Judge Thomas Cullen, who announced that Hening's lawsuit can move forward, made note in his ruling that as a freshman, Hening averaged 76 minutes on the pitch per game, which rose to 88 as a sophomore before plummeting to 29 minutes and five minutes in the games immediately after she refused to kneel.
Moving forward, it will be up to Adair to convince a jury that the coaching decision was based on her poor play, according to Cullen
"Hening, who had been a major on-field contributor for two years prior to the 2020 season, also asserts that Adair removed her from the starting lineup for the next two games and drastically reduced her playing time in those games because she had engaged in this protected First Amendment activity,” Cullen wrote. “As a result, Hening resigned from the team after the third game of the season.”
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