How San Jose State volleyball players and parents deal with transgender volleyball players

San Jose State University volleyball coach Todd Kress didn’t know what to expect when he and his team arrived for their match at Colorado State on Thursday.

When he approached the opposing coach, “I was like, ‘Should I thank you for playing us tonight?’ And I was serious about that,” Kress told reporters.

In recent weeks, four college teams in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah have forfeited games against San Jose State to protest the participation of a transgender athlete who has been on the team for three years but was only recently banned by critics who say the player does not belong in women’s sports.

When the player’s own teammate, Brooke Slusser, joined a class action lawsuit against the NCAA on September 23, claiming the athletic association is violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete at San Jose State and elsewhere, the controversy exploded into the national debate. stage and has become as much a topic of conservative politicians as forums for women’s equality.

Governors of two states participated. Tennis legend and LGBTQ activist Martina Navratilova, who sided with transgender athletes at the Paris Olympics last summer, tweeted praise for Slusser. And anonymous online trolls have been making what Coach Kress calls “disgusting” comments to his players.

All of this has thrown the 19 San Jose State volleyball players into the maelstrom, trapping them between friendship, teamwork and their own sense of fairness as the drama swirls around them. They are watched by armed guards, their winning record is questioned and their upcoming season evaporates one game after another.

Coach Kress has started sending daily affirmations.

“This season,” he said, “we are more parents than coaches.”

It is unclear how many teammates support Slusser or the transgender player, and whether their concerns are mainly focused on the impact of the controversy on the game and their lives. Most players, discouraged by San Jose State officials, are reluctant to talk about it, the lawsuit said.

“These girls all love and care about each other. All. But they’re wondering, ‘what should we do?'” said the mother of one player, who did not want to be identified for fear her daughter would lose her position on the team. “This should have been their best season ever and now teams don’t even want to play against us anymore. It just invalidates 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 is also not identifying 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 sports teams adhere to the university’s nondiscrimination policy and, in particular, that everyone on the college volleyball team meets the NCAA eligibility requirements.

“We believe in promoting equity and gender equality in athletics,” Lim said, “and we want to ensure that every player who is eligible to play plays.”

The two also said SJSU adheres to NCAA rules, which meet USA Volleyball requirements. Those rules say 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.” Transgender athletes often inject testosterone blockers to qualify as part of their medical treatment, although studies are unclear whether this adequately reduces men’s natural physical advantage.

Tom Temprano of Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ civil rights group, said the controversy over the San Jose State player is “rooted in transphobia and not reality.” Only about 1.6% of all collegiate athletes identify as transgender or nonbinary, he said, and there are rules — including limiting testosterone levels — to level the playing field.

“A very vocal group of extremists has really managed to stir up an unreasonable amount of hatred and concern,” Temprano said. “But the reality is this is not a widespread problem.”

In 2016, there was little backlash when transfer student Chloe Anderson became one of the first transgender athletes to join a Division III volleyball team at UC Santa Cruz. The university even sent a press release about it.

Times have changed.

Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player from North Carolina, was spiked by a high school opponent who identified as transgender in 2022 and has since spoken out against transgender athletes in women’s sports, as has Macy Petty, a volleyball player at Lee University in Tennessee, which has spoken out against transgender athletes in women’s sports. claimed she faced 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 every NCAA Mountain West conference president on September 24 saying that student athletes were “distraught at the thought of playing the role of San Jose State,” and a Wyoming state lawmaker distributed a letter saying the Cowboy State “should not participate in the extremist agenda of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or must propagate 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, San Jose State lost with the player on the court to two of the teams — Utah State and Boise State — who are now forfeits, ostensibly because of an unfair advantage and risk to their players.

“She has a strong hit. But you know what? Honestly, I think some of the other teammates are just as strong,” said the mother of another Spartan volleyball player, who also did not want to be identified because she was concerned about her daughter’s position on the team.

A growing chorus of athletes and their parents have expressed concern that the NCAA rules will mean more coveted scholarships going to transgender players and more on-court injuries. As another Spartan parent put it, “What if the next trans player who wants to come in is 6 feet tall and weighs 250 pounds?”

Slusser claims in the lawsuit that her transgender teammate hits harder and jumps higher than the rest of the team and during a recent tournament “hit the ball in the face of a woman on the back line of the University of Delaware team, causing the opponent was knocked down. to the ground.”

In the lawsuit she filed along with a dozen other athletes, Slusser said she didn’t know her teammate was transgender for months, even though they were roommates and shared a room on road trips. Slusser had heard whispers on campus, but it wasn’t until a conservative news story was published last April that her teammate invited her for a sandwich to reveal she was transgender.

Slusser didn’t want the player to be “bullied,” she responded, but “wondered if it was safe or fair for the other women on the team and for the opponents” to compete against a transgender athlete.

Shortly thereafter, San Jose State officials called a meeting with the players, the lawsuit says, where they were told not to discuss the matter outside the team, that it was “the player’s information only.” NCAA rules prevented the school from treating the player differently than any other woman on the team, the lawsuit said, and Slusser said she feared she could be punished or removed from the team if she spoke out.

Lim, who oversees the university’s Title IX operations, refuted the lawsuit’s claims that the players were ordered to remain silent or threatened with discipline. Instead, he said, after Southern Utah was canceled in mid-September, the school’s communications officials “strategized how players might respond” while keeping teammates’ privacy and safety in mind.

The Spartans lost their match against Colorado State in three straight sets on Thursday, dropping their undefeated record to 9-1. With ESPN, The AP and the Denver Post in the hallway outside the Moby Arena locker rooms, Slusser tried to stick to the subject of volleyball.

“When we walk into that gym, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in your personal life, what’s happening with a teammate,” she said. “You go in there and you work really hard for each other.”

Still, she said, “At the end of the day, everyone has their own personal morals, their own personal opinions.”

Coach Kress described the forfeits as “unfortunate” and said he is disappointed that volleyball has become politicized. He said he’s focused on supporting his players and weathering the firestorm.

“We really try not to let that outside noise affect us so much,” Kress said. “It’s easier said than done.”

Bay Area News Group sportswriters Christian Babcock and Joseph Dycus and researcher Veronica Martinez contributed.