Female Kicker Files Discrimination Suit

Duke coach Fred Goldsmith has a new problem to go with the longest losing streak in major-college football: a sex-discrimination suit filed by a kicker who wanted to be the first woman to play in Division I.

“I have no response,” Goldsmith said Wednesday.

“At the proper time, any response will come from the attorneys at Duke University. That’s it. I’m a football coach, I’m going to stick to answering questions about football.”

Heather Sue Mercer filed a lawsuit in federal court in Greensboro on Tuesday. She contends she wasn’t treated fairly by Duke coaches after Goldsmith initially welcomed her to try out as a kicker in 1995.

Since denying Mercer a place on the team, Goldsmith has kept kickers whose skills were no better than Mercer’s, the lawsuit said.

“I’ve seen a lot worse on a lot of Division I teams,” said former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley, who ran summer kicking camps that Mercer attended in 1995 and 1996.

The school released a statement late Wednesday from John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs.

Mercer, a freshman walk-on, made the winning 28-yard field goal in the team’s spring scrimmage in 1995. Goldsmith said after that scrimmage that Mercer had made the team.

“I shouldn’t have said it,” Goldsmith said.