In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle Wednesday, Trinity senior Heather Sue Mercer explained why she filed a lawsuit two days ago in the U.S. District Court in Durham against the University and head football coach Fred Goldsmith-they had repeatedly denied her a fair opportunity to hold the position of place kicker on the University's football team.
Mercer, who had pursued the position for the last three years, claimed she was a victim of gender discrimination and that the University violated Title IX. The provision states that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
Despite the fact that, according to Mercer, Goldsmith directed several discriminatory remarks to her throughout her efforts to earn a position, each year she made it through spring endurance practice-an accomplishment which, she said, should have secured her a position on the team. But each fall upon her return to the University, she explained, team officials denied her the right to "pad up."
According to a statement released by Mercer's attorneys, Mercer is seeking a judgment "declaring that Duke's practices violated Title IX, as well as compensatory and punitive damages."
Goldsmith could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs at the University, released a statement Wednesday supporting Goldsmith.
"I view [Mercer's] attorney's allegations, as reported in the news media, that Duke has discriminated against Ms. Mercer in violation of Title IX as frivolous," he said in the statement. "Fred Goldsmith is a two-time national coach of the year. He bases his assessment of who does or doesn't play on his team on a player's performance and ability. I am confident that will be borne out as this matter is resolved in the courts."
But Burton Craige, one of Mercer's attorneys with the firm Patterson, Harkavy & Lawrence, L.L.P. in Raleigh, disagreed, adding that the University is obligated to extend to Mercer the same opportunities it does to male athletes.
"Based on her performance, she earned a spot on that team," Craige said. "So they were obligated under Title IX to give her that place. She wasn't being treated the same way the others were being treated."
The complaint elaborates on Craige's explanation: "Despite [Mercer's] demonstrated qualifications as a place kicker, and the substantial effort she has made to earn a position on defendant Duke's football team, the defendants have unjustifiably refused, on the basis of [Mercer's] sex, to allow [her] to be a member of the team. At the same time, defendants have permitted male place kickers with skills no better than plaintiff's to be members of the team."
Based on her personal experiences, Mercer said, she is convinced that filing the lawsuit was the most proper action.
"There's wrong and there's right, and everything that happened here was wrong," she said. "They stripped me down for three years and I wouldn't have been able to live with myself without knowing that I did something about it."
Holding the University and Goldsmith accountable for their actions is one of Mercer's primary motives for filing the lawsuit.
"At some point, somebody's got to bite the bullet, and then [women football players] will be acceptable," she said. "I couldn't believe this was happening at a place like Duke."
Ron Santavicca, Mercer's football coach at her high school in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., said she was a determined individual who has a "very strong leg" and enough talent to play at the college level.
"She came out to be the place kicker for us and she kicked the field goal in the state [championship] in '93," Santavicca said. "She definitely could have kicked for someone in college as a short-yardish kicker."
Mercer, who was an All-State place kicker during her senior year in high school, spent her college years at the University committed to her quest of earning a place-kicker spot on the team-an accomplishment that would have made her the first female kicker to play Division I college football.
In the annual Blue-White spring football game in April 1995, as a freshman, Mercer kicked the 28-yard game-winning field goal-after which Goldsmith allegedly informed her that she would join fellow walk-on Ted Post and starter Tom Cochran as kickers the following fall.
"[Mercer's field goal] was something unique and special," Goldsmith said after the 1995 Blue-White game. "She has worked hard and has done well throughout the spring."
The following fall, she claims, Goldsmith denied her the opportunity he had promised her-and continued to do so as for the next two years. That following fall, when Mercer was a sophomore, Goldsmith cut her from the active roster and, referring to his comment the previous spring, explained that, "I shouldn't have said it."
The complaint filed alleges that "Goldsmith acted willfully, maliciously or in reckless disregard of plaintiff's interests and rights in failing to fairly consider her for a position on the team and in deliberately misrepresenting to [Mercer] his intentions to fully and fairly consider her."
Mercer emphasized that, despite suggestions to the contrary, she did not pursue a position with the team "to make a point."
"I think you should do what you enjoy," she said. "You shouldn't go ahead with it if you're doing it to make a point to everyone else. It's not in me to do it for a point."
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