How trans AD Karleigh Webb would handle the boycotting players at Nevada. News flash: They wouldn’t like it.

Of the all stories building in the NCAA Division I volleyball season, a controversy in Mountain West Conference that hasn’t had a team get out of the first round of the NCAA tournament since 2017 is getting a good deal of attention.

The continuing forfeit crisis in the Mountain West Conference grew this week. The University of Nevada’s players, defying what their school athletic administration stated a day before, said they will sit out a scheduled October 26 home date against San Jose State.

The crux of their action centers around a player for San Jose State who is allegedly a transgender woman.

Once more for the willfully ignorant. The student-athlete in question has played college volleyball for three years. She has not publicly stated her gender identity at any time. If she is trans, she has already met the NCAA’s regulation and would be eligible.

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The Nevada players drafted a statement that was sent to OutKick, a well-known anti-trans media outlet.

“We, the University of Nevada Reno women’s volleyball team, forfeit against San Jose State University and stand united in solidarity with the volleyball teams of Southern Utah University, Boise State University, the University of Wyoming, and Utah State University,” The statement reads. “We demand that our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld. We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes.” 

In response, the university put forth a statement saying the match will be played and “the players’ decision also does not represent the position of the University.”

The university statement also noted Nevada state law and NCAA regulations, but it begs the question of how the Wolf Pack can play the Spartans if there may not be the numbers needed to field a team?

“Athletic Director” Karleigh Webb has an idea about that.

I’d start Thursday as the team leaves to take on Boise State that night. There would be an official announcement from me and a full-page ad in the Nevada Sagebrush, the campus’ independent newspaper.

All students of the University of Nevada-Reno who are interested in playing NCAA Division I Volleyball this year, please report to Virginia Street Gym at 6 a.m. Saturday morning for tryouts.

When the team returns from their Thursday night match against Boise State, I’d be waiting to meet with them.

I’d wear a Colin Kaepernick throwback Nevada jersey just to set the right mood.

The address to the team would start with a question: “Who’s playing against San Jose State next week?”

Most, if not all, hands would stay down.

I’d then let them know that each member of the team will have until Saturday 6 a.m. to reconsider their position. If they don’t, their season ends and some young woman who hasn’t spiked a Tachikara since high school, or are doing well in dorm-league volleyball, will represent our school in your uniform.

I’m sure one of the players choosing to sit out would ask, “Ma’am, what about the school statement saying there wouldn’t be discipline?”

“Oh yes,” I would reply. “True to our statement this week, there would be no disciplinary action. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences.”

The Nevada women’s volleyball has two seniors this year. The Wolf Pack have 11 freshman and sophomore players. That would mean that some of them will have played their last game.

But the team has to go on. The team needs to play all of its matches. And we’d replace the players to make sure the team could do just that.

Among those who have scholarships? Those would be honored, for this year. Remember, in the NCAA scholarships are year-to-year deals.

The players who survive the tryout would start play against Fresno State October 24, and finish the rest of the season. Those players will also have a guaranteed chance to earn a scholarship next fall.

For the current players who decide to take this dubious stance. They’ll have to earn their spot back next season or they may have to consider the transfer portal. Personally, I’d suggest you hit the portal.

This is a situation where no one wins, except maybe San Jose State senior setter Brooke Slusser. She’ll talk to every conservative anti-trans outlet, but balked at giving the San Francisco Chronicle an interview. Given her actions throughout this episode, why she is still on the SJSU team is puzzling.

I would hope that Nevada’s student-athletes would reconsider. They are making a decision based on fear, driven by people with a vested political interest in selling you that fear and they do not deny it.

Should those players follow through, it opens a door for a creative, positive solution that could galvanize a campus. There is an opportunity to send a message that the University of Nevada doesn’t act on bigotry and fear and wouldn’t want anyone who does wearing Wolf Pack dark blue and silver in competition.

That message will take fortitude to send. I have yet to see any from these universities, the conference, or the NCAA.

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