Las Vegas is about to host one of the controversial girls’s faculty volleyball tournaments within the sport’s historical past this week.
This yr’s Mountain West Match will function San Jose State trans athlete Blaire Fleming, and a number of groups which have already forfeited to the Spartans this season amid a nationwide controversy over Fleming’s presence.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo condemned the notion of trans athletes competing in opposition to girls simply days earlier than Fleming will possible compete in his state below a nationwide highlight.
Lombardo launched a press release on Wednesday saying he believes that pupil athletes ought to “solely compete with and in opposition to members of the identical organic intercourse.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo speaks throughout a information convention after the nation music pageant mass taking pictures on Oct. 4, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Pictures)
“Each pupil, no matter gender, is entitled to honest and secure competitors in highschool and collegiate sports activities. For the well-being of scholars and the integrity of competitors, I consider college students ought to solely compete with and in opposition to members of the identical organic intercourse,” Lombardo stated, by way of the Las Vegas Assessment-Journal.
“As a father of two daughters, I firmly consider in defending the sanctity of girls’s sports activities. Regardless of makes an attempt to politicize this subject, my philosophy is easy: girls ought to take part in girls’s sports activities and males ought to take part in males’s sports activities. It doesn’t matter what sports activities group a pupil performs on or what extracurricular actions a pupil participates in, each pupil deserves to be handled with the utmost kindness and respect – on and off the sector, out and in of the classroom.”
Lombardo beforehand weighed in on the San Jose State controversy when it concerned girls athletes on the College of Nevada, Reno in October. The college’s volleyball group was scheduled to play San Jose State’s on Oct. 26, however Nevada gamers informed their athletic division that they did not need to compete in opposition to Fleming.
SJSU TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL: TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS, POLITICAL IMPACT AND A RAGING CULTURE MOVEMENT
Nonetheless, the college initially didn’t respect the gamers’ needs, and publicly said its intention to proceed with the match in opposition to San Jose State. A Nevada spokesperson beforehand informed Fox Information Digital that the college was doing this to keep away from violating Democratiic-passed state regulation that forestalls trans discrimination.
Lombardo praised the gamers for taking a stand in a press release on Oct. 15.
“As I’ve stated beforehand, I consider there are competitors and security considerations with this subject, and it’s irresponsible for the NCAA to place pupil athletes able of balancing their private security in opposition to the colleges, competitors and sports activities they love,” Lombardo’s assertion learn.
“The scholar athletes on the College of Nevada, Reno have decided that they don’t need to play in opposition to San Jose State, and I wholeheartedly respect the choice of the gamers. No pupil athlete ought to ever be pressured to play a recreation the place they don’t really feel secure – interval. The NCAA has a accountability to deal with this subject in a constant method that protects the integrity of girls’s sports activities and the scholar athletes who take part.”
The gamers then spoke out publicly and alleged the college was pressuring them to compete in opposition to the Spartans. Nevada then formally forfeited the match the day earlier than it was set to be performed, claiming it did not have sufficient gamers to compete.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans makes an attempt to dam a shot in the course of the Air Pressure Falcons match on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Pictures)
4 different groups, together with three convention rivals, forfeited video games in opposition to San Jose State this season. These forfeits yielded the Spartans six further convention wins, because it ended up incomes the No. 2 seed within the upcoming match and a first-round bye.
Now, San Jose State is assured to face a group that beforehand forfeited to them within the semifinal spherical of the match. Utah State and Boise State, which every refused to face the Spartans, will face off within the quarterfinals on Wednesday evening for the fitting to advance to the semifinals.
A San Jose State spokesperson beforehand informed Fox Information Digital that the convention is presently getting ready for all groups and gamers that certified for the match to compete, but it surely has a plan within the occasion of forfeits. That plan features a willingness to acknowledge San Jose State because the convention champion if its opponents forfeit en path to a victory within the closing.
Comply with Fox Information Digital’s sports activities protection on X, and subscribe to the Fox Information Sports activities Huddle e-newsletter.
