Volleyball player who committed to SJSU trans athlete opens up about ruined season after suffering ‘unfair’ losses
University of Wyoming women’s volleyball player Macey Boggs testified at a state Senate hearing that her team lost two games to San Jose State in 2024 during a controversy involving a transgender player Blaire Fleming.
Boggs, one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players committed to the lawsuit against SJSU and the conference, spoke in support of a bill that would require participation in athletics to be limited to an athlete’s biological sex at birth in the state.
But for Boggs, no amount of legislation will give her another chance to compete in the volleyball postseason. Wyoming’s two losses to SJSU on Oct. 5 and Nov. 14 cost the team a chance to go to the Mountain West Tournament, and her career is now over.
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“My team was penalized with two forfeits for refusing to play against a male athlete from the opposing team, an injustice that ultimately prevented us from competing in Mountain West Tournament.” Boggs said. “I was denied the opportunity to play my last varsity matches because we were faced with a situation that no woman should have to face, whether it’s competing against a team that has a male athlete on a women’s scholarship or losing the rest of the season. No woman should have to face such a decision.
“We deserve to compete against athletes whose biology matches ours, not against the male standard.”
Sacrificing an opportunity to compete for a championship to ensure the safety of herself and her teammates left a lasting impression on Boggs that she won’t soon forget.
“My team was told that we didn’t deserve safety on the field, that we weren’t important enough to compete fairly and that the women should keep quiet for the sake of the men,” she said. “This issue is about more than just winning and losing. It’s about whether we respect women and girls.”
Wyoming Republican state Sen. Wendy Schuler, a former track and field athlete, is the bill’s sponsor and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. Boggs urged state lawmakers to pass legislation to protect future female athletes from similar situations. The law was adopted with 4-1 votes.
There are already 25 states with laws preventing transgender athletes from competing in women’s and women’s sports. A bill that would prevent it at the national level has already passed the House of Representatives.
Boggs hopes her experience will help lawmakers make sure it doesn’t happen anywhere else.
“While it may be too late for me to end my career on the terms my team earned, it’s not too late for the young ladies coming up behind us,” she said. “Forcing women to compete with or against biological men is fundamentally unfair, unsafe and a violation of women’s rights.”
Boggs expressed her belief that gender is determined by birth, not “by feelings.”
Other plaintiffs in the suit include SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser, Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Sia Li’ili’i, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after she filed a Title IX complaint alleging the university gave favorable treatment to a trans player, is also a plaintiff.
Former NCAA swimmer and prominent conservative influencer Riley Gaines, who regularly organizes with other female athletes affected by transgender inclusion and is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA over the issue, revealed her account of what the players went through, based on interviews with them, during the hearing in Idaho on January 9.
“They were emotionally blackmailed into believing they were the problem,” Gaines said of the players, adding that Boise State was the only university that showed administrative support for players who wanted to drop out.
“The vast majority of them didn’t want this to happen to them. Nobody asked for it. This is not a situation they wanted to be in,” Gaines added. “These girls were terrified. They were terrified to stand up. They were terrified to stand up for themselves. They were terrified of the things that could potentially happen if they just said ‘men and women are different.'”
Marshi Smith, co-founder of the legal advocacy group, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, testified that female athletes who joined the lawsuit felt threatened by their university’s retaliation if they spoke out against transgender inclusion.
“What will it do to make us talk?” players often asked, according to Smith.
Smith elaborated on these players’ questions in a follow-up statement to Fox News Digital.
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San Jose State Spartans players before the game against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court in the East Gym on Oct. 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“They’re often terrified of losing their scholarships or being kicked off their teams. At San Jose State, administrators exploited those fears by telling them to shut up because it’s Blaire Fleming’s story, not theirs,” Smith said.
Louisiana Tech head volleyball coach Amber McCray confirmed to Fox News Digital that her team was unaware of the situation involving Fleming’s natural gender at birth, and did not find out until the day after the match through a rumor from her parents.
LA Tech athletic director Ryan Ivey suggested in emails obtained by Fox News Digital that if officials had known Fleming’s natural gender, the team “would have sought a ‘different outcome.’
Slusser, who claims she had to share bedrooms and trade spaces with Fleming in the lawsuit, told Fox News Digital the experience was “traumatic.”
“This season has been so traumatizing that I don’t even have the proudest moment,” Slusser said.
SJSU also acknowledged the recent exodus of volleyball players entering the transfer portal. Almost every remaining player who is still eligible wants to leave the program.
“Student-athletes have the ability to make decisions about their athletic careers in college, and we have the utmost respect for that,” the statement said.
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