After weeks of forfeited games from their opponents, San Jose State University women’s volleyball played and won their match against the Air Force over the weekend. Prior to the victory, the commissioner of SJSU’s Mountain West Conference spoke out about the ongoing controversy surrounding one of the team’s players, Blaire Fleming.
Log in to view the full article
After weeks of forfeited games from their opponents, San Jose State University women’s volleyball played and won their match against the Air Force over the weekend. Prior to the victory, the commissioner of SJSU’s Mountain West Conference spoke out about the ongoing controversy surrounding one of the team’s players, Blaire Fleming.
According to New Castle News, Gloria Nevarez, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference said, “It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Nevarez’s comments are long-awaited, after several forfeited matches against SJSU have been met with public debate, but very little word from school or conference officials. Boise State University, the University of Wyoming, Southern Utah University and Utah State University have all forfeited their matches to SJSU because of the transgender teammate. The teams — and one of Fleming’s own teammates Brooke Slusser — claim they do not want to compete against the ‘unfairly advantaged’ SJSU.
Despite the media attention and forfeits over the transgender volleyball player, Nevarez and San Jose State University insist that “the student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard.”
Related: Will a Fifth Team Forfeit Women's Volleyball Match Against SJSU and Transgender Teammate?
Because Fleming is in compliance with NCAA rules, teams who forfeit against SJSU may not qualify for the conference tournament. Teams are required to play a minimum number of matches in order to compete for the league championship, set to be held in Las Vegas at the end of November.
The SJSU women’s volleyball head coach, Todd Kress, has also made some of his first public comments surrounding the issue. After the team’s recent victory against the University of New Mexico, Kress described the police escorts that are now needed to get his team onto the court safely. “I know that it’s definitely taken a toll on many of them. They’re receiving messages of hate, which is completely ridiculous to me. Some of those people are the underbelly of society.” Kress did not specifically mention Fleming in any of his interviews.
On top of interviews from school and conference officials, Fleming’s match-winning spike against the University of New Mexico also garnered the attention of presidential nominee Donald Trump as he discussed transgender athletes in sports during a Fox News town hall. Fleming’s spike hit an opposing team member in the chest or head, which is a standard risk in a collegiate match, but the move is being referenced by those opposing transgender athletes in sport as evidence for her removal.
Said Nevarez, “I’m learning a lot about the issue. I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”
