Jordan Webb suing University of Regina over women’s basketball coach job

Claiming it was a political, personal or gender-related decision, the man who was apparently hired to coach the University of Regina’s women’s basketball team before Michaela Kleisinger, is suing the school.

The statement of claim was filed at the end of June.

The documents say Jason Webb was hired by the school and signed a contract in mid-April for a salary of $81,985, plus expenses, benefits and a $6,832.08 moving allowance. He also says the contract included an express entitlement to severance in the event of a without-cause firing.

But within weeks, Webb says he was fired. It says he fairly won a merit-based competition for the job.

“For reasons which were entirely political, personal and/or gender related, the Defendant decided to breach the Subject Contract by terminating the Plaintiff and hiring another person for the underlying role,” read the statement of claim.

The court documents also claim the university hired a lawyer to deal with the situation’s aftermath, who sent a memo to Webb confirming the university breached the contract and owed damages, but also didn’t inform Webb that the lawyer was representing the university’s interests and not Webb’s.

According to the statement of claim, despite admitting it was liable and the severance entitlement, the university has refused to pay anything to Webb.

He’s suing the school for severance, punitive damages, costs, and interest.

Kleisinger was hired as the team’s head coach at the end of April, after an uproar about her being passed over for the job. She’s an alumnus of the school and team, and coached it to a successful season the year before on an interim basis.

“The biggest thing that kept coming up for me is immense gratitude. That was a crazy experience, but I’m so grateful for the people who made it work out,” Kleisinger said back in April.

“I have said this was always the dream, so grateful to make it happen.”