A former Kansas University softball player involved in a dispute with the athletics department has filed two police reports in recent weeks.
Jackie Vasquez, an outfielder, told Lawrence police someone keyed her car on Oct. 21 and let the air out of her tires while it was parked in the 3600 block of Lakecrest Court, causing about $2,700 in damage. She also reported receiving a harassing, unsigned letter by mail Oct. 8 at her home, police said.
Vasquez was kicked off the softball team in August. She is suing the university, seeking to be reinstated.
KU officials say Vasquez was kicked off the team for reading the e-mail of assistant coach Jennifer Sewell. Sewell had borrowed Vasquez’ laptop computer while on a team trip.
Vasquez claims she was kicked off for complaining to athletics director Lew Perkins about an incident earlier this year in which head coach Tracy Bunge ordered players to take a shower in their uniforms to “wash away the bad play.”
Vasquez claimed Bunge told players to remove their uniforms in the shower, lectured them as they stood in their underwear and said “great choice of underwear” to a player wearing see-through underwear. At least one other witness reported hearing the comment, according to a KU investigation.
After Vasquez filed suit in late September, senior second baseman Jessica Moppin was one of a handful of KU softball players who came to Bunge’s defense. Moppin said she didn’t hear the alleged comment about the player’s underwear and that she thought Vasquez was trying to make Bunge look bad.
KU officials have said Bunge’s idea for the team shower came from a U.S. Olympic softball team that did the same thing.
Leah O’Brien-Amico of Chino Hills, Calif., a member of the 2000 and 2004 Olympic softball team, has clarified that when her team took showers in their uniforms in 2000 in Sydney, it was an idea that came from within the team and not ordered by coaches.
“Everybody had said, ‘We’ve got to get rid of the bad luck,'” O’Brien-Amico said. “Everybody was fully clothed. It was more like kind of a funny thing.”
Bunge has not returned phone calls seeking comment.
