San Jose State University volleyball coach Todd Kress didn't know what to anticipate when he and his team arrived for his or her game at Colorado State on Thursday.
As he approached the opposing coach, I asked him, “Do you want me to thank you for playing against us tonight?” And I meant it,” Kress told reporters.
In recent weeks, 4 college teams in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah have forfeited games against San Jose State, protesting the participation of a transgender athlete who has been on the team for 3 years but was only recently outed by critics who said that claim players don't belong in women's sports.
When the player's own teammate, Brooke Slusser, joined a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA on Sept. 23, alleging that the school athletics association was violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete at San Jose State and elsewhere, the Controversy has taken the national debate stage and has develop into a subject of debate for conservative politicians, as have women's equality forums.
Governors of two states intervened. Tennis legend and LGBTQ activist Martina Navratilova, who spoke out against transgender athletes on the Paris Olympics last summer, tweeted praise for Slusser. And anonymous online trolls have spewed what Coach Kress calls “disgusting” comments toward his players.
All of this has thrown San Jose State's 19 volleyball players into the vortex, positioning them between friendship, teamwork and their very own sense of fairness as drama rages around them. They are watched over by armed guards, their track record is questioned and the season ahead evaporates with each game.
Coach Kress has began sending them day by day affirmations.
“This season,” he said, “we are more parents than coaches.”
It's unclear what number of teammates support Slusser or the transgender player, or whether their concerns center totally on the controversy's impact on the sport and their lives. Most players, discouraged by San Jose State officials, were reluctant to debate it, the lawsuit says.
“These girls all love one another and take care of one another. All of them. But they're type of like, 'What should we do?'” said the mother of one player, who didn't want to be named for fear her daughter would lose her standing with the team. “This was supposed to be their best season ever and now teams aren't even playing us. It just destroys everyone’s efforts.”
Because the player has not publicly come out as transgender, San Jose State has not confirmed that there is a transgender athlete on the team. The Bay Area News Group also does not identify her and the story has not been refuted.
In an interview Saturday, Spartan athletic director Jeffrey Konya and Peter Lim, interim vice president of San Jose State's Title IX and Equal Opportunity Office, said the athletic teams are abiding by the university's nondiscrimination policy and specifically that everyone on The volleyball team meets NCAA eligibility requirements.
“We believe in promoting equality and gender equity in athletics,” Lim said, “and we want to ensure that every eligible player plays.”
The two also said SJSU complies with NCAA rules, which adhere to USA volleyball requirements. These rules state that all athletes must provide appropriate documentation “upon request” and that testosterone levels must not exceed “the upper limit of the normal female reference range” for their age group. However, transgender athletes often inject testosterone blockers to qualify as part of their medical treatment Studies are unclear about whether this appropriately mitigates a natural male physical advantage.
Tom Temprano of Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ civil rights group, said the controversy surrounding the San Jose State player was “rooted in transphobia and never reality.” Only about 1.6% of all college athletes identify as transgender or non-binary, he said, and rules — including limiting testosterone levels — are in place to level the playing field.
“A very vocal group of extremists has really succeeded in stoking an unreasonable level of hatred and concern,” Temprano said. “But the reality is that this is simply not a widespread problem.”
In 2016, there was little backlash from the transfer student Chloe Anderson was one of the first transgender athletes to join a Division III volleyball team at UC Santa Cruz. The university even sent out a press release about it.
Times have changed.
High school in North Carolina Volleyball player Payton McNabb was knocked unconscious by a spike by a high school opponent who identified as transgender in 2022 and has since spoken out against transgender athletes in women's sports Macy Petty, a volleyball player at Lee University in Tennessee, who claims she faces unfair competition.
San Jose State's Saturday game against the University of Wyoming was canceled after the group supporting the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA – the Independent Council on Women's Sports – sent a letter to all presidents of the NCAA Mountain West Conference on Sept. 24 , which said the student-athletes were “distraught.” ” at the thought of playing San Jose State, and a Wyoming state lawmaker distributed a letter saying the Cowboy State “should not participate in the extremist Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda or spread the lie that biological sex can be changed.”
The transgender Spartan player is not the tallest on the team and is not considered the best athlete. Last season, when the player was on the court, San Jose State lost to two of the teams – Utah State and Boise State – who are now forfeiting, reportedly due to an unfair advantage and risk to their players.
“She packs a powerful punch. But you know what? “Honestly, I believe among the other teammates are only as strong,” said the mother of another Spartan volleyball player, who also did not want to be named because she was concerned about her daughter's standing on the team.
A growing number of athletes and their parents have expressed fears that the NCAA rules will result in more coveted scholarships going to transgender players and more on-field injuries. As another Spartan parent put it, “What if the next transgender player who wants in is 6-foot-1 and 250 pounds?”
Slusser alleges in the lawsuit that her transgender teammate hits harder and jumps higher than the rest of the team and at a recent tournament “slammed the ball into the face of a lady on the University of Delaware team's defensive position, knocking the opposing player to the bottom.” “threw it to the ground.”
In the lawsuit, which she joined with a dozen other athletes, Slusser said she didn't know her teammate was transgender for months, even though they were housemates and shared a room on road trips. Slusser had heard rumors on campus, but it wasn't until a conservative news story broke last April that her teammate invited her for a sandwich and revealed that she was transgender.
Slusser didn't want the player to be “bullied,” she replied, but “questioned whether it was secure or fair for the opposite women on the team and for the opposing teams” to compete against a transgender athlete.
Soon after, San Jose State officials called a meeting with the players, the lawsuit says, at which they were told not to discuss the issue outside of the team because it was solely about the “player's information.” NCAA rules prevented the school from treating the player differently than any other woman on the team, the lawsuit says, and Slusser said she feared she could be disciplined or removed from the squad if she spoke out reported.
Lim, who oversees the university's Title IX operations, rejected the lawsuit's allegations that players were told to remain silent or that they were threatened with disciplinary action. Instead, he said, after Southern Utah's cancellation in mid-September, school communications officials “suggested strategies for a way players could respond,” keeping teammates' privacy and safety in mind.
The Spartans lost their game Thursday against Colorado State in three straight sets, dropping their undefeated record to 9-1. With ESPN, The AP and the Denver Post within the hallway outside the Moby Arena locker rooms, Slusser tried to remain on the subject of volleyball.
“When we walk into that gym, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in your personal life, what’s happening with a teammate,” she said. “You go in there and work each other’s butts off.”
Still, she said, “At the end of the day, everyone has their own personal morals, their own personal opinions.”
Coach Kress called the losses “unfortunate” and said he was dissatisfied that volleyball had develop into politicized. He said he is concentrated on supporting his players and weathering the firestorm.
“We really try not to let the outside noise affect us as much,” Kress said. “That’s easier said than done.”
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