Volleyball uprising: female players try to stimulate the influx of transgender athletes

It turns out that San Jose State athlete Blaire Fleming isn't the only male volleyball player to get headaches from playing on a female team.

A growing number of volleyball programs across the country are drawing the line in the sand when it comes to the fight against biological males, sparking an uprising at both the college and high school levels this season despite the threat of sanctions from the sport's governing bodies.

That includes Stone Ridge Christian Academy in Merced, California, which forfeited its Nov. 16 girls high school playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf School after learning the team was going male-to-female -transgender player.

“We do not believe that sex is fluid and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message,” Stone Ridge said in a Nov. 15 memo. “We also have a duty and responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our athletes. “So after consultation with our students, coaches and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday's game.”

Since then, the California Interscholastic Federation has acknowledged that Stone Ridge faces sanctions for forfeiting the competition — and the school has filed a lawsuit.

The Alliance Defending Freedom represents the Christian Academy, the conservative Christian legal foundation with 15 Supreme Court victories to its name.

“Alliance Defending Freedom will always stand with Christian schools and ministries for Biblical truth,” the ADF told The Washington Times. “Girls' teams should be for girls, and we will always defend the right of schools to protect their students. No girl should be forced to choose between competing as a male athlete or not competing at all.”

Courage breeds courage – and that's happening in women's volleyball right now. After years of being pressured to pretend gender differences aren't real, female athletes are starting to stand up and say “no more.”

We applaud @icons_women for coming alongside these brave young people… pic.twitter.com/ox1aLTsldh

— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) November 27, 2024

Another private religious school in California, Notre Dame High School Belmont, also could face penalties after canceling a non-league game against Half Moon Bay because of its transgender player, according to Steve Sell, Aragon athletic director and co-chairman of the Peninsula Athletic League Athletic Directors. .

That wasn't the only problem. Some Notre Dame Belmont fans booed a transgender player on the Half Moon Bay High School team during an Oct. 12 girls volleyball tournament hosted by Aragon High School in San Mateo.

Notre Dame Belmont sent a letter apologizing for the fans' “unsportsmanlike conduct,” as seen on ABC7 in Los Angeles.

Mr Sell said he was “shocked” by the booing. He also took issue with Notre Dame's decision to cancel the game.

“I thought this was a serious error in judgment by the leadership of Notre Dame Belmont because I think it sent a message to their community that it was okay to treat children in a discriminatory manner,” Sell said on Friday. interview with ABC7.

All-male volleyball teams?

The mounting tensions come as the women's sports world watches as Fleming prepares to compete in the Mountain West Conference championship in Las Vegas.

The redshirt senior is expected to appear in court Friday after the conference rejected a legal challenge filed by 11 female players, a coach and Utah State University that sought to prevent the male-born player from competing in the finals .

Four Mountain West teams suffered losses this season after forfeiting games to San Jose State, helping the university take second place in the NCAA Division I conference tournament.

SJSU athletic director Jeff Konya said the “team looks forward to starting Mountain West Conference tournament competition on Friday” after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the conference on Tuesday.

“The university maintains an unwavering commitment to the participation, safety and privacy of all students at San Jose State and ensures that they can compete in an inclusive, fair and respectful environment,” Mr. Konya said in a statement.

For those keeping score, that's at least three male players in girls' and women's college volleyball in California, but Mr. Sell said such athletes are not common enough to raise concerns.

“We don't see any prevalence of it,” he said. “It still happens at a very low level and very rarely, and it certainly doesn't happen enough to justify the exclusion of transgender girls from athletics.”

California has some of the most transgender-friendly laws in the country — the state requires public schools to allow students to participate in sports based on gender identity — but at least one other state is also under scrutiny over a biological male in girls volleyball.

The Massachusetts Volleyball Coaches Association was ripped off by same-sex sports advocates for naming a male-to-female transgender player to the 2024 Girls All-State Team for Divisions 3, 4 and 5, which includes the state's smaller high schools .

The student does not break any rules. The state prohibits discrimination in education based on gender identity, while the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association allows boys who identify as girls to play in girls' sports.

Yet there are advocates of women's same-sex sports blasted the association for awarding all state honors to the player.

The transgender athlete “led the team in virtually every possible statistic, delivered them a conference championship title this year and recently stole a Massachusetts Volleyball All-State award from an actual female athlete,” says He Cheated, a website that tracks male athletes. born athletes in women's sports, on X. “This is shameful.”

The Washington Times has reached out to the association for comment.

The NCAA has deferred the issue of transgender eligibility to individual sports governing bodies, including USA Volleyball, which allows biological males to compete on the basis of gender identity as long as they keep their serum testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least a year. competition.

That's still as much as 20 times higher than the testosterone level for women, which ranges from 0.5-2.4 nmol/L.

San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser, one of 11 former and current players who filed a lawsuit to block Fleming's eligibility, said the end result is no more women in women's volleyball.

“If we continue at the pace we are going now, what will stop people from not recruiting women anymore?” she said on OutKick. “If they are allowed to have men on their teams, that is obviously the better option. They will become stronger, they will jump higher. So what's stopping coaches from having an all-male team?”