Keith West, former CSUN soccer coach of 22 years, has filed a lawsuit against the university and the Board of Trustees of California State University (CSU) claiming he was wrongfully fired in December 2022.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, West accused the Board of Trustees of whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment and breach of contract.
West spent most of his coaching career at CSUN as the women’s head soccer coach but began his career as an assistant coach of the men’s team for seven years.
In 2013, Brandon Martin was named the new athletic director for CSUN when he allegedly asked West to terminate one of his assistant coaches to accommodate space for a female coach to enter the scene.
According to the lawsuit, Martin also told West, “Every year I justify your existence, I am protecting you,” in response to why he had not given West a multiyear contract in 2015.
The discrimination allegations, West claimed, come from instances when he was told the school wanted a female in his position by Tom Ford, former senior associate athletic director for development.
The whistleblower retaliation claims likely come from an instance a few years later in 2018, when Michael Izzi, former CSUN athletic director, allegedly directed West to recruit a specific student athlete because they had family members who would most likely be donors, according to the lawsuit.
West claimed in the suit that Izzi made a comment towards West stating, “What’s a $20,000 scholarship for the $50,000 donation?” In addition to this, the lawsuit also alleges Izzi sent West a text message that read, “If you don’t get this kid I’ll fire you.”
West then went to complain about what he claimed to be a “scholarship for donation illegality” to Vice President for Student Affairs William Watkins, but he stated he was told to resign if he was not happy with the situation.
When West did not follow through with Izzi’s demands, the lawsuit claims West was then given a survey by a sports psychologist hired by Izzi. One of Wests’ players, according to the suit, told West the survey was about him being racist and homophobic.
In 2020, West came forward with more information about Izzi and the department administrators about alleged mistreatment of women in the Athletics Department over the course of the previous 15 years. West also reported to his supervisor that former CSUN men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried was allegedly violating NCAA compliance rules.
In June 2021, West was placed under investigation for alleged mistreatment of his players. He was then later placed on paid administrative leave during the time of his investigation.
According to the lawsuit, West was denied documents that he believed would be helpful in proving the allegations against him to be wrong, however, paperwork only provided by CSUN was considered by the hearing officer.
In July 2022, West was alerted that he would be fired later that year.
The defense attorneys for CSU presented evidence that West was allegedly fired for justifiable cause. The CSU attorneys filed court papers on Jan.13 where they stated, “Keith West was terminated as the women’s soccer coach… for violating a California State University policy prohibiting harassment of students based on their sexual orientation,” as reported by the Athletic Business.
The court papers also claimed West’s other allegations surrounding misconduct in the athletic department were “wild conspiracy theories.” However, there is not much information made public regarding the policy West violated.
Jean-Paul Jassy, the attorney representing the university, said, “We cannot provide comment given the ongoing litigation.”
Ricardo Hicks, the attorney representing West, has yet to respond to a request for a comment on the case.
The dismissal motion hearing for West is scheduled for April 7. This will be his last chance to fight that his termination was due to unjustified causes.
