Ex-Fort Valley State coach considering his next move

FORT VALLEY, Georgia  --  Emory Lightfoot was the volleyball head coach at Fort Valley State from 2000 until the end of March. That’s when the school quietly eliminated the sport, to Lightfoot’s objections that such a move clearly violated Title IX and federal gender equity guidelines.

The university continued with the process, and Lightfoot’s contract ended March 31.

When civil rights law firm Public Justice took an interest in the case, the reinstatement seemed inevitable. What wasn’t inevitable was Lightfoot returning to the position he’d held since 2000, especially since, he said, nobody from the university had talked to him during negotiations to reinstate the program.

So he could only chuckle a little bit with Monday’s announcement by FVSU that assistant Dwain Powe had been promoted to head coach and the release sent to The Telegraph by Public Justice less than an hour later that FVSU had agreed to bring back volleyball.  He’s happy that the sport is back, but he can’t figure out why he’s not coming back with it.

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