Ex-SJSU star Brooke Slusser developed anorexia after trans volleyball scandal

Sunday marked exactly one year Blair Fleming And Brooke Slusser’s final college volleyball game at San Jose State University.

They had been playing together, traveling together and engaging in group bonding activities for months even after Slusser took legal action, claiming she was never told that Fleming was biologically male. Transgender athlete. Before that, they had already shared hotel rooms and locker spaces for an entire season in 2023 before Slusser found out.

Slusser now says the panic and stress she experienced during that period of her life caused her to develop an eating disorder, resulting in severe anorexia that became so bad that she lost her period for nine months.

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Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Weavers/Getty Images)

“Because of the stress and anxiety I felt every day, I wasn’t eating at all,” Slusser told Fox News Digital.

“I went from about 160 to 128 [lbs] In that one semester. It’s definitely not healthy for someone like me to be that heavy, and I ended up missing my period for nine months. So it was definitely dangerous.”

Slusser is 5-foot-11.

People at home began to pay attention to this problem.

She added: “When I returned home, some of my friends and family were very worried about me.” “Some of my friends would say, ‘You look tired all the time. You always look dead… I was able to come home for three days in the fall semester of my senior year, and I had a friend tell me later that when I saw her, she came home and cried to her mother, because she was so worried about me, just because she realized I looked unhealthily thin.”

Some days, she said, she ate at least 400 calories, then went out on the court to compete with her teammates, and some days she went out to give news interviews about her fight to “save women’s sports.”

“Every day was really hard… The hardest thing to do is some days I would wake up and have to do phone calls for two or three interviews with the media… and then get ready, go to weight training… and get into meetings with my coach about how I’m just a terrible person and all this stuff, and then go straight from that straight into the interviews,” she said.

But once the season and semester were over, her parents saw the physical toll the situation was taking on her, and demanded that she return home to Texas.

“As soon as the season ended, she came home for Christmas, and we said, ‘She’s not coming back,'” her father, Paul Slusser, told Fox News Digital. “You can go get your stuff next summer when the lease is up, and stay here,” he told his daughter.

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Former SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser and her parents Paul and Kim Slusser at a Sept. 8 match, which Kim claims is “the last fond memory we have of her playing.” (Courtesy of Kim Slusser)

The father was particularly concerned about how the media portrayed his daughter, and how this affected how her peers viewed her.

“She was the enemy. The news smeared her. All the media smeared her. And the students were reading that kind of stuff about her.”

Her mother, Kim Slusser, said she was “shocked” when she saw her daughter’s physical condition last Christmas.

“When I found out how bad everything really was and I really saw her at Christmas time when she came home…I was devastated. I couldn’t sleep. I was having nightmares,” Kim Slusser said.

Brooke herself also began having recurring nightmares when she returned to her parents’ house.

In one dream, Brooke envisioned herself returning to training at San Jose State’s gym, then being called into a special meeting with head coach Todd Kress.

“I woke up crying in the middle of the night,” she said.

“I definitely am I struggled a lot with my sleep And the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep during the night. I was taking melatonin to help me sleep. At that time, I was only sleeping two to four hours a night.”

Once winter break was over and what was supposed to be her final semester began, Brooke attempted to complete the course online.

She started online classes, but quit soon after, her parents said. your Division I Athlete ScholarshipDropping out of classes resulted in her losing her scholarship, and her family had to pay the full semester’s tuition out of pocket, in addition to her housing.

“We had to pay, basically, her mortgage and her apartment for the rest of the semester. So it was a huge financial burden on us when that happened,” Paul Slusser said.

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The family will have to pay out of pocket again for the additional tuition fees, since Brooke has not yet completed her studies. She is no longer a student at SJSU, and will finish her education at another school.

Slusser, a former scholarship athlete, imagined that at that point in her life she would have a degree and license in dietetics and be preparing to start her own dietetics business.

But instead, she had to do it Focus on self-repair.

The family claims that they did not consult any doctor and that the daughter did not use any medication, except melatonin to aid sleep.

“My family, and I, too, don’t really believe in relying on medications for this type of thing,” Brock said. “The reason I recovered from everything is because of God’s grace.”

On one of her last Sundays in San Jose last fall, she randomly decided to go to church on Sunday, just because she wanted to get out of the house.

“I broke down in tears during worship, and that was the day I decided to give my life to Christ,” Slusser said.

She started going to church more when she returned home, and then was officially baptized the last week of June. And last summer, too He moved to North CarolinaHe works as a volleyball coach for young girls.

Kim Slusser said her daughter also had a romantic relationship with a man she went to high school with, which also helped her recover.

“He was a high school friend, and now they’re dating, and he was someone I leaned on during the tough times in San Jose,” Kim Slusser said.

By this Thanksgiving, Slusser and her parents say she has recovered physically and mentally from the situation, as they move toward completing her college degree.

“She just got back into her comfort zone, the weight came back on, she got back into her comfort zone, and her period came back,” Paul Slusser said.

None of the physical and mental damage done over the past year has stopped Brooke from fighting in the national struggle to “save women’s sports.”

She is the plaintiff in two cases Title IX claimsciting her experience at SJSU, including Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA, which partly filed previous motions to dismiss in September. Slusser is the leader of a lawsuit against the Mountain West and SJSU representatives along with 10 other current and former women’s volleyball players.

SJSU athletic director Jeff Cunha answered Fox News Digital in July about whether he was “satisfied” with how the university handled the controversy involving Fleming and Slusser in 2024.

“I think everyone acted in the best way possible, given the circumstances,” Konya said.

president Donald TrumpThe Education Department (ED) is in the midst of an investigation against the university over its handling. The department began the investigation on February 6, coinciding with a similar investigation against the University of Pennsylvania over its handling of the incident involving trans swimmer Leah Thomas in 2022.

ED reached a resolution with UPenn regarding this issue on July 1. US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told Fox News Digital that day that the department’s investigation into SJSU “will continue.”

Slusser is eager to see the potential outcome of this investigation, and its implications for university officials who oversaw the situation she was involved in at San Jose State.

“These people need some consequences,” Slusser said.

What about Blair?

Blair Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Weavers/Getty Images)

Fleming has rarely been active on social media in the past year. The athlete posted an Instagram Story in which he appeared to be celebrating graduating from SJSU in May, and shared two posts featuring exotic vacations.

In an April New York Times Magazine article, Fleming admitted that he felt “suicidal,” saying the season was “the darkest time of my life.”

“If that’s the case,” Slusser told Fox News Digital about Fleming’s suicidal thoughts [Fleming] “He was passing, it’s terrible.”

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The outlet also reported that Fleming would often receive hate or threatening messages, and would cry “almost every night.”

Fleming is not named as a defendant in any of Slusser’s lawsuits. Fox News Digital has reached out to Fleming to request an interview and to respond directly to Slusser’s statements.

Fox News Digital has reached out to SJSU for a response.

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