Opinion: SJSU volleyball coach claims head coach Kress violated Title IX, silenced dissenting voices
San Jose State's women's volleyball associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose—who was suspended 11.2.24 without explanation—had filed with Title IX alleging unjust favoritism of a transgender player over other players. In Quillette, Batie-Smoose says she and her team had been warned (by head coach Kress) against voicing opinions different from SJSU's—and were labeled “bigots” if they did.
Batie-Smoose came to SJSU in January 2023 along with Kress, whom she’d known since 2006, when they worked together on the volleyball coaching staff at Florida State University. Both arrived as highly respected industry veterans with numerous NCAA accolades. Neither had any part in the original decision to recruit Fleming into SJSU’s women’s volleyball program—which was made under the auspices of former head coach Trent Kersten (who now serves in the same role at another Division I school, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles).
It was only after arriving in San Jose in early 2023 that Batie-Smoose learned that her new team had a male-to-female transgender player on its roster. …
In this regard, a name that comes up often in the Title IX Complaint is Laura Alexander, an Assistant Director of Student Wellness at SJSU with jurisdiction over the school’s volleyball program. According to Batie-Smoose, Kress told her that Alexander had said anyone opposed to Fleming’s inclusion on the women’s team should leave SJSU and seek “therapy.”
Batie-Smoose reports that Kress began bending over backwards to accommodate Fleming, who reportedly often took liberties with the team’s dress code and practice schedule, as well as the baseline behavioural standards that Kress applied to the rest of the team. This claimed double standard is one of the major themes of Batie-Smoose’s Complaint.
In one detailed case study she puts forward, Batie-Smoose contrasts the allegedly lax treatment afforded to Fleming with the far stricter standards imposed on a promising female recruit who was competing for Fleming’s position. Kress allegedly refused to renew the recruit’s scholarship. Being unable to pay her tuition out of pocket, the recruit was effectively pushed out of the program, and now plays in another state.
The climate that Batie-Smoose describes is one of fear and self-censorship. Until Slusser finally went public with her concerns in recent weeks, everyone involved with the SJSU women’s volleyball team seems to have been scared to even mention the fact that Fleming is transgender—despite also being required to pretend that Fleming’s biologically male status is athletically inconsequential.
By Batie-Smoose’s account, an official from the school’s central communications office was enlisted to repeatedly instruct volleyball team members that “this was Blaire’s story to tell” and “Blaire’s story alone.”
At first, Batie-Smoose followed along with these instructions. But she began to have second thoughts as evidence grew that Fleming’s presence on the court might not only be unfair to other athletes, but possibly dangerous as well.
In one notorious incident in mid-October, Fleming blasted a kill shot off the head of an opponent, knocking her to the ground. At a recent tournament in Iowa, Fleming downed a member of the University of Delaware squad in similar fashion. “It was clear to me that the [University of Delaware player] was very athletic and skilled, but simply had no chance to protect herself from the spike,” writes Batie-Smoose.
In her Title IX Complaint, the coach reports that even defenders on Fleming’s own team, concerned for their safety, now sometimes turn away during practice matches when Fleming is winding up for a kill—a fear response that she describes as “virtually unheard of in women’s volleyball.” …
By Batie-Smoose’s account, Kress began regularly instructing women that excluding trans-identified players such as Fleming should be seen as morally tantamount to homophobia and anti-black racism. In some cases, he reportedly speaks to the issue in deeply personal terms, suggesting that Fleming’s naysayers are betraying not just the cause of trans rights, but also the entire LGBT community. In effect, this head coach of a Division I women’s volleyball team was telling many of his own athletes that they’re bigots.
Read the whole thing here.
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