Political Pressure Forced Wyoming Women's Volleyball to Forfeit to SJSU Against Player's Wishes

The University of Wyoming women’s volleyball team has decided to forfeit its second match against San Jose State University as the controversy surrounding SJSU’s transgender player continues. Despite a split vote by the team, the associate head coach for Wyoming, Becky Baker, expressed concerns in her emails to fellow coaches that the decision to forfeit was politically pressured and not in line with the team’s wishes.

Wyoming is joined by Boise State, Utah State, Nevada and Southern Utah University in forfeiting their matches against SJSU. The university’s statement did not provide a reason for the forfeit, instead, it said, “The University of Wyoming volleyball team will not play its scheduled conference match at San José State University on Thursday, November 14. Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Wyoming. The Cowgirls will play at Fresno State on Saturday, November 16 at 2 p.m.”  

Baker’s emails, which were sent shortly after the team’s decision to forfeit its first match against SJSU, cited that, “the school received immense backlash from Wyoming lawmakers and members of the public,” when they were considering playing the match.

Related: Conference Commissioner, Volleyball Coach Voice Support for SJSU's Transgender Team Member

She also detailed the team vote and meeting with athletic director Tom Burman, deputy athletic director, Matt Whisenant and senior women’s administrator Taylor Stuemky. The meeting occurred five days before the scheduled meet. During this meeting, players anonymously voted 9-9 on the issue of whether or not to play SJSU with one player abstaining.

“I asked him and Taylor very specifically to make this about the people up top and the political pressures essentially taking the decision away from us,” said Baker, noting that she did not want the team to know how their vote came into play when deciding to forfeit. Inevitably, players asked anyway and Baker said their practices were then, “out of sorts,” as players worked through their own feelings about the forfeit.

Baker also explained in emails how difficult the process was for UW’s athletic director, Burman.

According to USA Sports, Baker said, “the athletics director came in and is distraught about how this is going to impact the team and confirmed it would have been taken out of his hands regardless, but I think he is getting hit with how hard this is going to effect us.”

Despite the pressure from local and state-level lawmakers, Wyoming’s leadership acknowledged that the SJSU player in question, Blaire Fleming, is eligible per the NCAA guidelines. Wyoming has also played against Fleming and SJSU in several previous seasons without incident.