San Jose State volleyball head coach Todd Kress supplied a press release to Fox Information Digital Saturday after his workforce’s loss within the Mountain West Convention event last to Colorado State.
Kress addressed the nationwide controversy surrounding a transgender participant on his workforce and 7 forfeited convention matches, together with a event 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 complete of seven matches towards SJSU this season.
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Kress mentioned every of these forfeits resulted within the workforce’s gamers, 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 simply his second season with the workforce, admitted it was one of many hardest 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 mentioned.
Kress was named in a lawsuit filed by workforce co-captain Brooke Slusser and several other different Mountain West gamers towards the convention and San Jose State. The lawsuit alleges Kress has communicated with a non-public lawyer as a part of his effort to get Slusser faraway from the workforce and has informed others he has filed Title IX complaints towards Slusser primarily based not on feedback Slusser has made in follow, however on communications Slusser has made to the media and in public boards regarding her beliefs.
Slusser has additionally alleged the college has threatened to remove her scholarship for talking on the problems of sharing a workforce, locker room and bed room with transgender teammate Blaire Fleming.
Nonetheless, Kress thanked Slusser in his assertion Saturday, together with Fleming and the opposite seniors on the workforce.
“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 additionally thanked San Jose State College Police Chief Michael Carroll for his work defending the workforce from potential threats this season.
A San Jose State spokesperson beforehand confirmed to Fox Information Digital that this system didn’t formally notify any of the opponents on its schedule of the scenario involving Fleming and Slusser forward of matches this season after Slusser joined her first lawsuit towards the NCAA in September over her trans teammate’s presence.
Nonetheless, that spokesperson additionally confirmed the college did coordinate police safety for the gamers with the faculties that hosted the workforce’s away matches after safety measures needed to be elevated because of the consideration the workforce was getting.
When Southern Utah turned the primary program to announce it will be forfeiting a match towards the Spartans in early September, that was the primary indicator of heightened safety. That’s when the faculty introduced in armed safety.
A San Jose State College spokesperson confirmed to Fox Information Digital the volleyball workforce was informed it will be getting added safety of some variety after the primary forfeit by an opposing program as information of Slusser’s lawsuit unfold.
Shortly after the primary forfeit, the college’s in-house police division was alerted to the scenario and obtained concerned. Police safety was assigned for each recreation thereafter, and police departments at different campuses had been assigned to guard the workforce when it traveled.
Police presence was noticeably sturdy for the Spartans’ first assembly towards eventual convention champion Colorado State Oct. 3. A number of officers had been photographed on the court docket that evening, wanting alert within the stands, entrances and on the gamers.
Colorado State College Police behind the San Jose State College Spartans’ bench monitor Moby Enviornment throughout a volleyball match between the Spartans and the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle through Getty Photographs)
Slusser beforehand informed Fox Information Digital she had obtained a warning from a teammate Oct. 2, the evening earlier than a match, to “stay away” through the match as a result of one thing “bad” was going to occur to her.
San Jose State College responded to questions on whether or not federal investigators had been concerned.
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“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 mentioned in a earlier assertion.
And Kress was tasked with teaching his workforce by all of it. Kress just isn’t the coach who recruited Fleming to SJSU. That was former head coach Trent Kersten, who left this system after Fleming’s first season in San Jose State in 2022.
A lawsuit that features former Spartans assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose alleges Kersten recruited Fleming understanding the participant was transgender however did not inform different gamers.
Kress took over this system in 2023 and expressed frustration with Kersten’s determination in an interview with OutKick.
San Jose State College Spartans head coach Todd Kress speaks with reporters after a loss towards the Colorado State College Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle through Getty Photographs)
“My frustration with Trent is an unfortunate situation,” Kress mentioned. “[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.”
Earlier than that, Kress steered pressure within the locker room due to Fleming’s presence on the workforce 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 informed reporters Oct. 3 after the primary 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’ event run is over. The gamers made it by unhurt. However the lawsuits proceed.
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