While Alabama baseball’s exhibition season began in October and first-year head coach Rob Vaughn looked to build off the team’s Super Regional run, two of his staffers dealt with an ongoing lawsuit from a former player.

The case of Johnny Blake Bennett v. former UA head coach Brad Bohannon, current associate head coach Jason Jackson and athletic trainer Sean Stryker continued after a Tuscaloosa circuit court judge denied the defense’s motion to dismiss. Bennett is alleging negligent medical care and is seeking damages.

Bennett, from Haleyville, Alabama, didn’t appear in a single game his freshman season in 2020 before transferring. His suit alleges he suffered emotional and physical distress following an undiagnosed case of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOC).

In his initial complaint, filed in September of 2022, Bennett sued for negligence, wantonness and breach of contract. Judge Allen W. May Jr. dismissed the latter count, according to court documents reviewed by AL.com. Within the last week, the defense’s responses to Bennett’s claims have been submitted through discovery.

Bennett’s lawyers argue that a broken rib suffered during a strength lifting program led to Bennett feeling numbness and pain. Bennett said Bohannon, Jackson and Stryker mistakenly identified his injury as the “yips”, commonly known as when an athlete can no longer perform routine tasks due to a mental block. In the case of Bennett, one of the best high school pitchers in the state his senior year, he couldn’t control his aim once he arrived in Tuscaloosa.

New court documents, however, did reveal a few differences in how Bohannon responded to the complaint compared to Jackson and Stryker. (Bohannon had to change counsel in May of 2023 after he was fired from the University due to his role in a gambling scandal.) Bohannon is currently being represented by Charles Hamilton and Stephen Shaw. Jackson and Stryker retained John McCall and Jay Ezelle of Starnes Davis Florie LLP.

Bennett’s updated complaint cites a Sept. 10, 2019 note from Stryker that stated Bennett arrived on campus with a clean “eval” or evaluation, “however (he) had the yips.” Stryker is then quoted in the note stating if Bennett still had symptoms in a week, he’d be referred to team physician Dr. Jeff Laubenthal.

Attorneys for Stryker and Jackson deny the note. Representatives for the entire defense denied the claim that anyone ever identified Bennett’s issues as the yips.

All parties agreed to Bennett’s assertions that the team developed a throwing program for Bennett which included Bennett throwing “alone and out of sight” from teammates with Jackson while Stryker observed. Bohannon and Bennett agree that on Nov. 7, 2019, Bohannon spoke with Bennett’s father, Jon, and invited him to watch Bennett throw.

Per the complaint: Jon Bennett drove up that day and threw alone with his son in the Tide’s indoor facility. Jon Bennett called Bohannon that night and expressed concern that Bennett showed symptoms of TOC — a compression of nerves or blood vessels that has threatened the careers of some professional pitchers and ended others. Later that week, on Nov. 13, Stryker referred Bennett to Birmingham orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lyle Cain.

Bohannon agreed that Jon Bennett mentioned TOC to him at some point, but he “does not recall when that conversation occurred,” according to court documents. Meanwhile, Jackson and Stryker only admitted to the Cain referral and denied the claim that Jon Bennett spoke to Bohannon or visited Bennett.

Among the many arguments Jackson and Stryker’s lawyer presented in one defense filing was the clean-hands doctrine, which states that parties asking the court for remedies must practice good faith.

“Gosh, I really wish I could talk about the specifics of it, I really wish I could. But unfortunately, I can’t,” Bohannon told reporters this past April, his lone public comments about the case.

The University released in a statement at that time it “looks forward to sharing the actual facts with the court.”

Jackson was named UA’s pitching coach in 2017 after nine years at Florida Atlantic University. When he became interim head coach after Bohannon’s firing, Alabama rallied to a 13-6 record and its best postseason run in 24 years. He was announced as a holdover on Vaughn’s new staff shortly after the season ended. Stryker has worked with the Baltimore Orioles and at Kentucky and Auburn before joining Alabama in 2017.

The sides are in the process of exchanging further documents and submitting them before the court. Alabama’s 2024 season begins in the Frisco Classic on March 1 against Indiana.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].