The San Jose women’s volleyball team has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. While they have missed a chance to make it to the NCAA tournament, things have taken a somber turn outside of the court too. The team has been accused of allegedly letting a transgender athlete play throughout the entirety of the season. Despite the repeated backlash, the team seemingly made no efforts to address the issue. 

It started when former NCAA swimming sensation Riley Gaines accused the program of allegedly ‘hiding’ a transgender athlete. Things soon flared up as co-captain Brooke Slusser, too, joined a lawsuit back in September against the NCAA. She claimed that the NCAA did not inform Slusser and her teammates about the true identity of the athlete. Enraged by the entire situation, Slusser recently voiced out her frustrations further in an interview with Fox. 

When asked about her experience of sharing the locker room with a trans athlete, Slusser made a heartbreaking confession. She stated, “Yeah, and just going back to the video of they’re still deciding and saying if you have an issue with this, you can go find another bathroom to use. And they’re going to be allowed to be in here because they identify as a woman. And so we have to allow them in here.” Slusser also mentioned that they were asked to keep in mind and be sensible enough to understand what would make the trans athletes comfortable. 

However, Slusser then lashed out by saying that having such an athlete left the other females terrified inside the locker room. She also mentioned that it was wrong to ask female athletes to find an alternative locker room when the same locker room was designated for them. Looking back at the entire situation, Slusser commented, “Like, it’s just not right. It’s crazy.”

Slusser has been an active advocate of the issue right from the beginning. She accused the program of favoritism, and if this was not enough, things flared up even further as the assistant coach of San Jose was suspended under mysterious circumstances. 

Melissa Batie-Smoose suspended from the San Jose Volleyball program

Back in November, the assistant coach of the San Jose women’s volleyball team, Melissa Batie-Smoose, filed a Title IX complaint. Smoose agreed with Slusser’s favoritism claims and even supported the spiking plot allegations from Brooke Slusser. Surprisingly, soon after these developments, Batie-Smoose was suspended from the SJSU program. 

Breaking her silence on Fox News, Batie-Smoose rang the alarm bells loud and clear. She said, “Safety is being taken away from women… Fair play is taken away from women. We need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women’s sports, as we know it right now, will be forever changed.” On the contrary, SJSU did not look keen on elaborating further on the matter. Their statement read, “We will not provide further information on this matter.” However, they did respond to OutKick, confirming the dismissal of Batie-Smoose from the program.