Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday that the forfeits volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing at San Jose State are “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that they are heartbroken is about what happened this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents. .
Four teams canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeited.
A group of Nevada players have issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” although their school reaffirmed Thursday that the competition is still scheduled and state law prohibits forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”
All of these schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, advanced to Thursday night’s home game, which the Spartans won 3-1, the team’s first win since September 24.
“It breaks my heart because it’s human beings, young people and student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. . “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Republican Governors of IdahoNevada, Utah And Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing the need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, referenced an unidentified volleyball match this week when asked about transgender athletes in women’s sports during a Fox News town hall.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I’ve never seen a ball hit that hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before being asked what could be done. ‘You just forbid it. The president forbids it. You just don’t let it happen.’
Following Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement saying: “It has been falsely reported that a San Diego State University student-athlete was struck in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the student-athlete’s shoulder, and the athlete was not injured and did not miss a play.”
San Jose State did not comment directly on the politicians’ references to “fairness,” and Nevarez did not elaborate.
“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know much of the language, science or understanding at the national level yet of how this issue plays out. The external influences are on both sides so far. We have an election year. It’s political, so yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”
The cancellations could mean some teams won’t qualify for the Nov. 27-30 conference tournament in Las Vegas, where the top six schools will compete for the championship.
“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team doesn’t play him, it’s a loss, which means they suffer a loss,” Nevarez said.
That wasn’t the case in New Mexico, where coach Jon Newman-Gonchar said his team discussed whether to play SJSU.
“We are a volleyball team that wants to compete and get better,” he said after Thursday night’s loss in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “There really wasn’t much of a conversation about the staff on the other side of the team. We just asked, are you comfortable playing, are there any concerns? Every athlete said they were excited to play and get better.”
San Jose State coach Todd Kress said playing was his team’s “safe haven” and noted that security and police escorts are now involved when his team takes the court. He has not publicly discussed specific players since the forfeit began.
“I know it’s certainly taken a toll on a lot of them. They’re receiving messages of hate, which to me is completely ridiculous,” he said in Albuquerque. “Some of those people are the underbelly of society that you attack an 18, 19, 20-year-old woman. And even more so if you’re a parent and you’re attacking 18, 19, or 20 year olds. Would you want your student-athlete, your daughter, to face the same kind of hate that you exude?”
The Spartans play at Air Force next Saturday, a week before the scheduled Oct. 26 game in Reno – if it goes ahead.
Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step, but any player who decides not to play faces no penalty.
“When we got our first forfeit, there was a lot of heartbreak. And now we don’t expect it, but we know the certain programs that can forfeit,” Kress said. “It still hurts our student-athletes when we don’t play a game, but I think they’ve come to accept it a little more and I’m very sad to say that.”
