An Upstate New York college has been sued by a former student-athlete who accused the school of failing to protect players from an abusive coach.
Amelia Cunningham filed a lawsuit this month in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging Colgate University ignored warnings about women’s lacrosse coach Kathy Taylor. At least 20 players left during Taylor’s five years at the helm of the Colgate Raiders, Cunningham claimed.
Taylor “abused her student-athletes and treated injuries as moral failings,” Cunningham said, alleging that she and others were forced to play through injuries and illnesses.
Allegations of Taylor’s abuse first surfaced in a 2023 USA Today Network investigation. Taylor allegedly bullied players, made fun of their weight, dismissed mental health concerns and manipulated them into playing when they were injured, six players alleged in a 2022 letter from a New York law firm to university president Brian Casey.
The school reportedly hired a law firm in Buffalo to conduct its own investigation and decided to keep Taylor on staff in August 2022.
“Colgate knew the danger Coach Taylor posed. Students and parents sounded the alarm time and again,” Cunningham said in the lawsuit, believed to be the first against Colgate over Taylor’s alleged behavior.
Cunningham, 23, said she is seeking unspecified damages and compensation for her physical injuries and emotional distress.
According to USA todayCunningham was a standout goalkeeper at Rye High School and was named the 2021 Patriot League Rookie of the Year his freshman year at Colgate. Cunningham said she injured her wrist that same year and Taylor discouraged her from having surgery during the lacrosse season.
By the time she had the surgery, Cunningham said her injury was too severe to fully repair, ruining her dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Cunningham said she also injured her hip in the fall of 2022, and Taylor once again forced her to play through the pain.
Cunningham has now had a total of five surgeries for the injury, according to the lawsuit. She said Colgate eventually “kicked her off the lacrosse team and took away her scholarship,” but she was able to graduate in December 2024.
Taylor previously played lacrosse at Cornell University and coached the Fayetteville-Manlius High School girls lacrosse team for 18 years, winning multiple state titles. She then coached at Division III SUNY Cortland and Division II Le Moyne College, winning a national championship with the Dolphins in 2018 and joining Colgate in 2019.
Taylor resigned from Colgate in the spring of 2023 after a 3-14 season.
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