Former Division I golfer sues over traumatic brain injury, denied care

A former student-athlete on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's golf team is suing the school, board of trustees members and multiple athletic department employees, alleging she suffered a catastrophic and severe blow to the head, resulting in a traumatic brain injury during an unsupervised mandatory workout. The lawsuit, which the USA Today Network obtained, alleges the athlete was subsequently denied medical care.

Alexis Daniel, who competed for two years on the women's golf team and is representing herself Pro-Se, alleges she was injured during a workout on March 7, 2025, when she was required to complete a mandatory workout with no athletic, training or strength and conditioning staff present.

The lawsuit claims Daniel was forced into a "Catch-22" situation: if she skipped the workout, she could face severe punishment, including the loss of her scholarship. Or she would have to complete "high-risk athletic maneuvers in a dangerous and unsupervised environment."

Tennessee at Chattanooga is a Division I university that competes in the Southern Conference. Daniel started her collegiate career at Cincinnati before transferring to UTC before the 2023-24 season.

During the workout, the lawsuit says she suffered "a severe and catastrophic" blow to the head. The incident caused a traumatic brain injury.

The lawsuit indicates that Daniel attempted to contact an assistant athletic trainer the following day, telling the trainer she had experienced headaches alongside visible trauma, including a cut on her nose and enlarging contusions on her head. After not receiving a response from the assistant athletic trainer, Daniel had to drive herself to the emergency room to receive medical care. The lawsuit alleges Daniel didn't receive a response from the assistant athletic trainer for more than 30 hours after reporting the injury and 60 hours after it occurred.

The lawsuit continues, alleging Daniel had to return to her home state of Kentucky to receive medical care, covered out-of-pocket. Daniel continues, saying university staff failed to activate NCAA concussion protocols and required her to manage her symptoms remotely through self-reporting checklists for multiple weeks. She did not receive an in-person clinical evaluation from UTC medical staff until March 29th, 22 days after the injury, per the lawsuit.

In that 25-minute meeting, which Daniel recorded, the assistant athletic trainer allegedly admitted to intentionally modifying and restricting standard evaluation protocols, telling Daniel, "we don't need to do the whole stack," and confirmed she would rely solely on basic symptom logging.

After the injury, the lawsuit alleges Daniel's access to the athletic arena, training facilities, indoor golf team room and sports medicine care was revoked, asserting violations of Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit also alleges she was denied equal medical care and academic support compared to male student-athletes with head injuries.

Daniel alleges the university and golf team also intentionally isolated her from team communications and activities.

The lawsuit continues, alleging UTC applied an unsolicited “athletic housing scholarship” credit to her student account, though Daniel never accepted or signing any scholarship agreement.

Daniel is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief against UTC, requiring reforms to its sports medicine oversight and Title IX compliance procedures.

Daniel requested a jury trial. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 22, 2026, in the U.S. Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

UTC responded to Golfweek's request for comment, saying, "The University does not comment on pending litigation."

USA Today's Stephanie Kuzydym contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Former Division I golfer sues school over alleged TBI, denied care