United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21-3336 WILLIAM GROVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH BEND COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division. No. 3:18-cv-00979 — Jon E. DeGuilio, Chief Judge. ____________________

ARGUED SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 — DECIDED OCTOBER 19, 2022 ____________________

Before WOOD, SCUDDER, and JACKSON-AKIWUMI, Circuit Judges. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge. After not receiving two athletic ad- ministration positions at public high schools in South Bend, Indiana, William Groves invoked Title VII and brought re- verse discrimination claims. The district court carefully re- viewed the evidence presented at summary judgment and saw nothing allowing a jury to find that the School District, in 2 No. 21-3336 offering the positions to a Black applicant, discriminated against Groves because he is white. We agree and affirm. I A South Bend Community School Corporation, which we will refer to as the School District, consists of 29 schools, in- cluding four traditional high schools: Adams, Clay, Riley, and Washington. William Groves is a longtime employee of the School District. He started in 1991 as a social studies teacher and in 2007 became the athletic director at Adams High School. In 2017 Groves applied to serve as Corporation Director of Athletics, a newly created, District-wide position. Superinten- dent Kenneth Spells interviewed four applicants and ulti- mately recommended Seabe Gavin for the position. Dr. Spells explained that Gavin interviewed very well, inspiring confi- dence in his ability to repair the School District’s strained re- lationship with the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Yet Groves interviewed poorly, with Dr. Spells finding it par- ticularly off-putting that Groves seemed to boast of firing 24 coaches during his tenure at Adams High School. And so too did Dr. Spells question Groves’s ability to restore the School District’s relationship with the IHSAA given that prior in- stances of noncompliance with athletics regulations occurred under Groves’s watch at Adams. The school board hired Gavin for the position. Groves responded to not receiving the job by invoking Ti- tle VII and suing the School District on a theory of reverse race discrimination. He rooted his claim in the contention that he was so much more qualified than Gavin for the Corporation No. 21-3336 3 Director of Athletics position that his not receiving it had to be the product of unlawful discrimination. He alleged that Dr. Spells, himself Black, wanted Gavin, who is also Black, in the role. Groves’s lawsuit further focused on a second position he applied for that likewise went to Gavin. In March 2019 the School District announced the elimination of the Corporation Director of Athletics position and the creation of a hybrid Dean of Students/Athletics position at each of the four high schools. Groves, Gavin, and seven other candidates applied for the four new positions. Although Groves received an in- terview, an offer never followed. Gavin, however, fared bet- ter. Principal Shawn Henderson offered the Riley High School position to Gavin, explaining that he earned the job in large part based on the quality of the answers he gave during his interview. Groves amended his original complaint to add a claim of race discrimination based on his not receiving one of the new Dean of Students/Athletics positions and a claim of retaliation for the elimin