Editorial content warning: This story contains mentions of self-harm and attempted suicide. 

A former Colgate University women’s lacrosse player filed a civil lawsuit against the University alleging that coaching staff forced her to practice and compete through debilitating injuries, contributing to both physical harm and a mental health crisis that culminated in a suicide attempt. 

Amelia Cunningham ’24, who played goalkeeper on the women’s lacrosse team from 2020 to 2022 and graduated in December 2024, filed the complaint in New York Supreme Court on Dec. 22, 2025. The civil suit alleged negligent hiring, supervision and retention of former women’s lacrosse head coach Kathy Taylor, as well as violations of state and federal anti-discrimination laws. The 49-page complaint detailed what Cunningham described as a toxic environment characterized by excessive training, dismissal of medical concerns and targeted harassment.

According to the lawsuit, Cunningham arrived at Colgate in fall 2020 as a highly-recruited athlete with a 50% scholarship, a 4.0 GPA and dreams of attending medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon. By the time she left the team in fall 2022, she had undergone two major surgeries, developed severe depression requiring psychiatric treatment and was placed on academic probation.

Taylor was hired in summer 2019. The lawsuit states that in Taylor’s five years at Colgate, over 20 players left the women’s lacrosse team and at least three players on the team attempted suicide. Cunningham’s complaint details a pattern of alleged abuse beginning shortly after her arrival on campus. Despite injuring her right wrist in October 2020 and receiving a recommendation for surgery from a specialist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, Cunningham alleged that Taylor pressured her to postpone surgery until after the spring 2021 season, or else she would be “letting down the entire team.”

Although the injury allegedly became so severe that she needed special academic accommodations to take notes and use a laptop, Cunningham was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year. When she finally underwent surgery in May 2021 — after the lacrosse season was over — the complaint alleges that it was too late to fully repair the damage to her wrist. 

“Because the condition had progressed so much, surgery could not completely reverse the injury,” the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit added that this wrist injury made pursuing Cunningham’s dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon impossible.

The allegations also extended beyond physical injuries. The complaint described verbal abuse from the coach, including Taylor telling Cunningham she was “a terrible person” with “poor character” and questioning whether she had any friends. 

The lawsuit alleged that Taylor interrogated Cunningham about her sexuality, asking if she and another women’s lacrosse player were in a relationship and asserting that such a relationship would be “bad for the team.” Here, the civil suit alleged Title IX violations. 

According to the complaint, the University received multiple warnings about Taylor’s conduct before Cunningham’s injuries worsened. The lawsuit states that 10 players — approximately one-third of the team — quit within two weeks of Taylor’s first fall season in 2019. 

In March 2022, a civil rights law firm sent a nine-page letter to University President Brian W. Casey and the Board of Trustees on behalf of six women’s lacrosse players and their families. In the letter, the law firm warned that “Coach Taylor has bullied, manipulated, and psychologically abused numerous players, with severe consequences to their physical and mental health.” Taylor “pressures injured students to play and claims injury is ‘a mindset,’” the firm reported, adding that she “is dismissive of contrary medical advice from physicians,” and “pushes people to the extreme point where they exacerbate injuries or suffer new ones.”

The University hired an outside lawyer to investigate the allegations. In August 2022, after the investigation concluded — and after the NCAA transfer portal had closed — the University announced that Taylor would remain as head coach. According to the complaint, the University offered players the option to quit while retaining their scholarships, which led ten additional players to leave the team. 

Cunningham chose to stay on the team. In fall 2022, she suffered a hip injury that, she maintained, Taylor again forced her to practice through, despite receiving medical accommodations for reduced training. On Nov. 5, 2022, according to the lawsuit, Cunningham attempted suicide. A roommate found her in time to call for help, and Cunningham survived. The complaint alleged that just two weeks after the suicide attempt, Taylor emailed Cunningham asking whether she intended to return to the team.

Cunningham underwent hip surgery in December 2022 and has since had several additional surgeries for lacrosse-related injuries. She left the women’s lacrosse team in 2023. According to the lawsuit, the University canceled Cunningham’s athletic scholarship and required her to pay full tuition for the remainder of her time at Colgate. Taylor was never fired, and did not leave her job at Colgate until May 2024.  

Major concerns about the women’s lacrosse program first became public in March 2023, when the Democrat & Chronicle reported on allegations of bullying and abuse by Taylor, detailing how 20 players had left the team during her tenure. The Maroon-News covered the story and the University’s response at the time. 

In March 2024, one year after those initial reports, another former player came forward publicly. Catie Lang ’24, then a senior who had left the team in August 2023, told Lohud — part of the USA Today Network — about experiencing a severe mental health crisis while she was on the Colgate women’s lacrosse team. Lang described inappropriate comments about weight and inadequate handling of struggles with mental health and physical injuries. Lang told Lohud that she did not hold Colgate or Taylor responsible for her mental health issues, but did say she felt that the University was ill-equipped and unable to help young student-athletes in crisis. 

Lang told The Maroon-News in April 2024 that one of her motivations for coming forward was that community members initially objected to the 2023 abuse reports by pointing out that no one currently on the team made allegations against Taylor. Eight of the nine players in Lang’s recruiting class had left the team by then. 

The Maroon-News reached out to several former women’s lacrosse players who were on the team during Taylor’s tenure. At the time of publication, no former player offered to comment. Colgate University also declined to comment directly on the pending litigation but agreed to discuss Colgate Athletics’ approach to student-athlete mental health and well-being more broadly. Athletics administrators described existing programs and support systems developed over multiple years prior to the lawsuit. Yariv Amir, vice president and director of athletics, said that the athletics department has invested significant resources into mental health support for student-athletes and has always taken athlete well-being seriously. 

“We have 120 people who work in athletics because we believe in college athletics, and we believe in supporting student-athletes, and that’s what we’re here for,” Amir said. 

Amir outlined a multi-layered approach to mental health support that has expanded considerably in recent years. At its center is a liaison from the Counseling Center at Conant House, Christy Reed, who holds regular office hours in athletics facilities and has a background in working with student-athletes.

Steve Chouinard, senior associate athletics director for health and performance, explained the importance of Reed’s role. 

“[Reed’s] presence in spaces makes it more comfortable and removes the stigma a little bit. Just her being seen down here can make a student-athlete more comfortable to use her as a resource. There can be a perceived stigma for any student seen walking into Conant House, which is just one of the reasons why an integrated health and wellness model is so important,” Chouinard said.

The department has also established what administrators informally called an “athletics wellness support team,” which includes representatives from across campus.

Along with Reed, the team includes Director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives Lyosha Gorshkov, registered dietitian Allison Bowers, Alcohol and Drug Services Counselor Stephen Elfenbein, Nicole Blidy, assistant director of Haven, Colgate’s sexual violence resource center and various other campus partners. Meghan Kovac, associate athletics director for leadership and inclusion, emphasized that destigmatizing mental health care has been a departmental priority. 

Meghan Kovac, associate athletics director for leadership and inclusion, emphasized that destigmatizing mental health care has been a departmental priority.

“It can be really intimidating as a college student to go find help, especially at a place like Colgate,” Kovac said. “You’re all such high achievers, and so the second that you have to tell yourself that you need to go get help can be really hard, and then saying it out loud to a different person, sometimes a complete stranger, is incredibly daunting.”

Beyond providing access to counseling, administrators have implemented systematic mental health screening. Every student-athlete now completes the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms from the national Center for Collegiate Mental Health, a 34-question assessment administered once per year with assistance from Reed. Additionally, athletes complete a brief six-question wellness questionnaire every two weeks through a computer program used for weight room workouts. 

“What we found from both of those is that a check-in sometimes is all that’s needed,” Chouinard said. “It seems to — a lot of times — head off bigger problems.”

Athletics administrators acknowledged that the mental health screening process for student-athletes required adjustment to account for power dynamics. The bi-weekly wellness checks were initially visible to coaches, but that changed after student feedback. Now, only athletic trainers can view the responses. 

Zach Osborne, a senior on the football team, offered an overall positive perspective on the support available to him. 

“The available resources provided for athletes are put in place for us to utilize when needed. That’s crucial not only from an athletic development standpoint but from an individual’s ability to grow throughout their four years of college — through career development, nutritionally, rehabilitation, academically and personal circumstances,” Osborne said. 

Elizabeth Rainey, a senior on the women’s swim and dive team, echoed this sentiment. 

“I think it’s very well thought out, and equally student and department run,” Rainey said. “There are Wellness Advocates who are athletes themselves who can voice concerns that they might have about schedules and busier or more stressful times of the year.”

A central point in Cunningham’s lawsuit was the relationship between coaches and medical staff. Administrators described a reporting structure designed to ensure that medical support and coaching remain independent: athletic trainers report through the Director of Sports Medicine to Chouinard, the primary athletic healthcare administrator, rather than to coaches. The department now employs nine athletic trainers for its sports programs, and all of them ultimately work under the license of the director of Student Health Services. 

Chouinard explained that NCAA regulations expressly prohibit athletic trainers from reporting to coaches, and that medical staff have what the NCAA terms “unchallengeable authority.” When asked directly whether coaches can overrule medical decisions, Amir and Chouinard were unequivocal: there are no grounds for a coach to overrule the medical team, and — although gray areas can exist — no student who is injured should, fundamentally, be playing. 

“If someone is injured, they shouldn’t play, or practice,” Amir said. “Our doctors have the final say.”

However, Cunningham’s complaint alleged that Taylor was repeatedly able to overrule medical recommendations, pushing injured players, including Cunningham, to continue practicing and competing. The lawsuit also alleged that Colgate cancelled Cunningham’s scholarship after her injuries forced her off the team, despite policies in the Colgate University Student-Athlete Handbook that appear to prohibit such actions. 

According to Amir, NCAA rules also explicitly protect athletes from having scholarships canceled due to sport-related injury. The NCAA even allows schools to designate athletes with career-ending injuries as “medical non-counters,” enabling teams to offer scholarships to new recruits without penalizing the injured athlete. Colgate’s own scholarship agreements clearly state that scholarships cannot be reduced based on athletic performance.

Athletics administrators acknowledged that, despite the systems they put in place, the unequal power dynamic between coaches and athletes remains a challenge. Student-athletes depend on their coaches for playing time, status and prestige on the team and may even perceive their coaches as influencing their scholarship funding. 

“At the end of the day, a lot of these people are here certainly for the degree, certainly for the experience, certainly for the network, but they really want to play their sport,” Chouinard said. “If they think any little thing may interfere with their playing time or their status on the team — sorry, you’re not doing it.”

Looking ahead, Cunningham’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as litigation costs and attorneys’ fees. It specifically includes nine counts: negligent hiring, negligent supervision and retention, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, disability discrimination under state law, sexual orientation discrimination under state law and sexual orientation discrimination under Title IX. 

Cunningham is represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP. The firm has not responded to requests for comment. 

For Cunningham, according to the complaint, the negative consequences of her Colgate experience have extended beyond her college years. At 23, she has had a total of five major surgeries, struggles with ongoing depression and anxiety that requires continued psychiatric treatment and has limited career prospects due to her wrist injury and academic record.

“Ms. Cunningham entered college as a healthy young athlete in peak physical condition,” the lawsuit read. “She was a bright, hardworking, resilient student with an excellent academic record. She had earned a scholarship at an elite college and was on her way to realizing her dream of becoming a surgeon thereafter. But because of Coach Taylor’s abuse and Colgate’s refusal to stop it, Ms. Cunningham left college an entirely different person.”

Amir offered a straightforward final comment about his department’s approach to student wellbeing.

“As a group, we really care for our students. We have chosen to work in this field because we believe in the power of athletics and we want to provide them the best possible experiences,” Amir said. “Sometimes things don’t go as we as a staff hope they would, and sometimes things don’t go as our student-athletes would hope. Balancing Colgate’s academic rigor with a Division I sport is incredibly difficult, and our staff is eager to help our student-athletes navigate that challenge. That might mean direct involvement related to an issue or a staff member knowing the warning signs of a larger issue and making the necessary referrals so a student-athlete can receive needed support from a campus partner. We encourage an open dialogue so that when there are issues that need to be addressed, we can work together to solve them.”