San Jose State volleyball head coach Todd Kress provided a statement to
Fox News Digital Saturday after his team's loss in the Mountain West
Conference tournament final to Colorado State.

Kress addressed the national controversy surrounding a transgender player
on his team and seven forfeited conference matches, including a tournament
semifinal with Boise State.

"I will not sugarcoat our reality for the last two months. Our team
prepared and was ready to play each match according to established
Mountain West and NCAA rules of play. We did not take away anyone�s
participation opportunities," Kress wrote.

Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada forfeited a total of seven
matches against SJSU this season.

Kress said each of those forfeits resulted in the team's players, coaches
and staffers receiving "appalling, hateful messages."

"Sadly, others who for years have played this same team without incident
chose not to play us this season. To be clear, we did not celebrate a
single win by forfeiture. Instead, we braced for the fallout. Each
forfeiture announcement unleashed appalling, hateful messages individuals
chose to send directly to our student-athletes, our coaching staff and
many associated with our program," Kress wrote.

The coach, in just his second season with the team, admitted it was one of
the toughest seasons of his life.

"This has been one of the most difficult seasons I�ve ever experienced,
and I know this is true as well for many of our players and the staff who
have been supporting us all along. Maintaining our focus on the court and
ensuring the overall safety and well-being of my players amid the external
noise have been my priorities," Kress said.

SJSU TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL: TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS, POLITICAL
IMPACT AND A RAGING CULTURE MOVEMENT

Kress was named in a lawsuit filed by team co-captain Brooke Slusser and
several other Mountain West players against the conference and San Jose
State. The lawsuit alleges Kress has communicated with a private lawyer as
part of his effort to get Slusser removed from the team and has told
others he has filed Title IX complaints against Slusser based not on
comments Slusser has made in practice, but on communications Slusser has
made to the media and in public forums concerning her beliefs.

Slusser has also alleged the university has threatened to take away her
scholarship for speaking on the issues of sharing a team, locker room and
bedroom with transgender teammate Blaire Fleming.

Still, Kress thanked Slusser in his statement Saturday, along with Fleming
and the other seniors on the team.

"Our team played their hearts out today, the way they have done all
season. I want to recognize and thank our seniors � Alessia [Buffagni],
Chandler [Manusky], Brooke [Bryant], Brooke and Blaire � for their
tremendous efforts on the court all season long. They have all helped us
to get where we are," Kress wrote.

Kress also thanked San Jose State University Police Chief Michael Carroll
for his work protecting the team from potential threats this season.

A San Jose State spokesperson previously confirmed to Fox News Digital
that the program did not formally notify any of the opponents on its
schedule of the situation involving Fleming and Slusser ahead of matches
this season after Slusser joined her first lawsuit against the NCAA in
September over her trans teammate's presence.

However, that spokesperson also confirmed the university did coordinate
police protection for the players with the schools that hosted the team's
away matches after security measures had to be elevated due to the
attention the team was getting.

When Southern Utah became the first program to announce it would be
forfeiting a match against the Spartans in early September, that was the
first indicator of heightened security. That�s when the college brought in
armed security.

INSIDE SAN JOSE STATE'S POLICE BATTLE TO PROTECT WOMEN'S ATHLETES
THREATENED BY A TRANSGENDER CULTURE WAR

A San Jose State University spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital the
volleyball team was told it would be getting added security of some kind
after the first forfeit by an opposing program as news of Slusser�s
lawsuit spread.

Shortly after the first forfeit, the university�s in-house police
department was alerted to the situation and got involved. Police
protection was assigned for every game thereafter, and police departments
at other campuses were assigned to protect the team when it traveled.

Police presence was noticeably strong for the Spartans' first meeting
against eventual conference champion Colorado State Oct. 3. Multiple
officers were photographed on the court that night, looking alert in the
stands, entrances and at the players.

Slusser previously told Fox News Digital she had received a warning from a
teammate Oct. 2, the night before a match, to "stay away" during the match
because something "bad" was going to happen to her.

San Jose State University responded to questions about whether federal
investigators had been involved.

"The university has asked students and staff to share all concerning
communications with UPD to be evaluated and addressed appropriately,
including in conjunction with proper authorities where appropriate," San
Jose State said in a previous statement.

And Kress was tasked with coaching his team through all of it. Kress is
not the coach who recruited Fleming to SJSU. That was former head coach
Trent Kersten, who left the program after Fleming's first season in San
Jose State in 2022.

A lawsuit that includes former Spartans assistant coach Melissa Batie-
Smoose alleges Kersten recruited Fleming knowing the player was
transgender but didn't tell other players.

Kress took over the program in 2023 and expressed frustration with
Kersten's decision in an interview with OutKick.

"My frustration with Trent is an unfortunate situation," Kress said.
"[Kersten] obviously knows Blaire is in the crosshairs of this debate, and
yet he has not reached out to [Fleming] one time to check in on
[Fleming's] mental health. I find it sad, to be honest."

Before that, Kress suggested tension in the locker room because of
Fleming's presence on the team and Slusser's lawsuits "might not be a bad
thing."

"Sometimes tension is not necessarily a bad thing, and I'm not saying that
there is. But, you know, when you do have tension or you do have
confrontations, I mean, I'm a person that believes that, from
confrontation, good things usually happen. We settle our differences, and
we work through it," Kress told reporters Oct. 3 after the first Colorado
State match.

"The last thing that I would want is there's the white elephant in the
room, and there is no tension, we don't address it, and we never move past
it, right? So I think there may be tension, but it dies. If we're in a
meeting room and there's tension, it dies there. If there's tension on the
court, it dies there. We really don't let the boundaries cross over, and
that's how I think we've been so successful thus far."

Now the Spartans' tournament run is over. The players made it through
unharmed. But the lawsuits continue.

Conversation

ohioan13
5 hours ago

The coach says that no one lost an opportunity because of this. That
means:

They carried one more player on the roster than normal.

They gave out one more scholarship than normal.

Since Fleming was a starter and played most of each game, they would have
played one person short if he had not been on the team? No one lost
playing time because of him?

It is likely that someone did not get a scholarship because of Fleming,
and someone definitely lost significant playing time because of Fleming.
He CANNOT say no one lost an opportunity because of the decision to
include a man on the women's team.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/sjsu-volleyball-coach-trans-player-blames-
teams-forfeited-appalling-hateful-messages-players