B.J. Smith, the fired head coach of the women's basketball team at Highland Community College, says what happened there "is one of those things that a lot of people will initially go, 'Well, that can't be true in today's world, that can't happen.' " Carlos Moreno / KCUR 89.3 By DAN MARGOLIESKansas News ServiceAn explosive lawsuit alleging a small northeast Kansas community college sought to reduce the number of its African American student-athletes follows disclosures that the president of the school compared a Black football player to Hitler, whom she praised as "a great leader."The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, last week, says that Highland Community College conducted a concerted campaign to discourage African Americans from attending the school, intimidated Black student-athletes into leaving and told its coaching staff to refrain from recruiting African Americans."The HCC administration acted in a concerted fashion to discriminate against Black student-athletes, and when challenged by coaches trying to do the right thing, reacted by smearing the reputations of those coaches, depriving them both of due process and future work possibilities," William Odle, the lawyer representing the three plaintiff coaches, told KCUR.The plaintiffs — B.J. Smith, the former women's basketball head coach; Bradford Zinn, a former assistant coach; and Jered Ross, also a former assistant coach — are suing HCC; its president, Deborah Fox; its athletic director, Bryan Dorrel; and a member of its board of trustees, Russell Karn.The suit says the defendants worked to transform HCC into "a racially homogenous campus with fewer African American athletes" and to "make Highland white again.""The Board selected both Fox and Dorrel despite their glaring lack of qualification for their positions because they enthusiastically agreed to execute the racially discriminatory policies alleged here by aggressively retaliating against coaches, including Plaintiffs, who resisted the administration," the lawsuit alleges.HCC has denied the allegations.In a phone interview with KCUR, Smith, who is white, said that what happened at HCC "is one of those things that a lot of people will initially go, 'Well, that can't be true in today's world, that can't happen.'"Smith said that shortly after Dorrel became athletic director, "he told me I had to recruit more players the culture of our community could relate to. And I actually said, 'I don't think I understand what you mean.' And he very aggressively said, 'You know exactly what I mean.'""And that's when I went, okay, hold on. I think they want to change the color of our school. And I don't mean the colors on the uniform."Smith became head coach of the women's basketball team, known as the Scotties, in 2011. Before his arrival, the team had not had a winning season in over 15 years. In 2017-2018 they compiled a 35-1 record, in 2018-2019 they went 24-5 and in 2019-2020 they went 21-3 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short. Smith, according to the lawsuit, is the winningest coach in the program's history, with a 228-35 record overall.He also graduated 100% of his players, some of whom went on to play at NCAA Division I schools such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Memphis, the lawsuit says.Campus communityHCC has about 3,200 students. Fewer than 6% are African American, according to the lawsuit. But half or more of the student-athletes at HCC, at least until recently, were African American, most of them recruited from out of state.Fox, HCC's president, was formerly a director of business operations in Independence, Kansas, and before that a vice president of finance and operations at HCC. She was hired as president in March 2019 after her predecessor of 38 years retired. The lawsuit says she circumvented the search committee to hire Dorrel, her friend, as athletic director.An unsigned Feb. 8 editorial in The Kansas City Star called for Fox to resign or be fired after she told a former assistant football coach in October that Hitler was "a great leader."The editorial was accompanied by a half-minute-long audio clip during which Fox is heard to say: "You know leadership, I mean for certain people that emerge as leaders, good or bad. You know, even though we don't like it, Hitler was a great leader. I mean, I'm not saying … I don't, to emulate in any way, but he somehow, even for evil, moved and were able to do these things, and, you know, it's terrifying. But that's what can happen when leadership isn't acknowledged and goes untapped or undirected."According to The Star's editorial, Fox made the remarks during a meeting about the alleged harassment of Black student-athletes. She reportedly had questioned a Black football player's leadership skills and his influence on other Black teammates.Asked to explain her remarks, Fox told KCUR in an email that she had apologized to the students, faculty and college "for my poor choice of words.""In trying to describe negative leadership in a lengthy conversation lasting over an hour, I used a horrible description," she said. "We were discussing our responsibility as educators to students in developing leaders in a positive way and steer clear of reinforcing negative leadership. I regret that it has affected the college, its students, and staff. I am deeply sorry to the college and its community." Ben Allen Field House is home to the Highland Community College volleyball and basketball teams. Carlos Moreno / KCUR 89.3 In a separate email addressing the allegations in the lawsuit, she said HCC "adamantly denies" them."Plaintiff Smith, Zenn and Ross's lawsuit in federal court paves the way for Highland Community College to explain the circumstances surrounding the departure of Smith, Zenn, and Ross; to explain the diversity of the student body, the student athletes, and the coaching staff; and it will give Highland the opportunity to demonstrate how proud the College is of the student athletes that have chosen Highland Community College," Fox said.Fox said the college had been aware of the plaintiffs' allegations "for some time" because of activity on social media."Unlike social media comments and postings, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas provides a procedure in which Highland Community College can 'set the record straight' regarding their allegations," she said.Dorrel, the athletic director, did not respond to a request for comment. Karn, the board of trustees member, declined to comment.Dorrel previously was an athletic trainer for Northwest Missouri State University's football team, where his brother was head coach, according to the lawsuit. It says he had been unemployed "for some period" before Fox tapped him to be athletic director. His bio on Highland's website says he completed a Ph.D. in athletic training from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in 2015.Karn was responsible for hiring Fox, according to the lawsuit, and falsely accused Smith of acquiring a car for a onetime player from a stolen car syndicate. The suit says Karn made that accusation to members of the community "with malicious intent" and that it "constituted defamation per se under Kansas law."Past allegationsThe lawsuit is not the first time HCC has been accused of pressuring its coaches to recruit more white athletes and singling out Black students for heightened scrutiny.In March 2020, the ACLU of Kansas filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of four Black students alleging HCC instituted a plan in late 2019 to reduce the number of its Black students. Like the lawsuit filed last week, it alleged that the college expelled Black students for minor or bogus infractions and singled them out for arbitrary searches, surveillance and harassment in their dorms and elsewhere on cam