San Jose State assistant coach away from team amid transgender controversy

The San Jose State women’s volleyball team won a match Saturday without its associate head coach on the sideline after she reportedly filed a complaint about how the team had handled having a transgender player on its roster.

Melissa Batie-Smoose, an associate under head coach Todd Kress, told conservative politics site Quillette that she had implored school and NCAA officials via a sworn declaration to investigate what she alleged was favoritism shown to the transgender player over teammates and the school’s measures to keep other players from speaking publicly about their concerns.

School spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald said the associate coach “is not with the team at this time” and the school could not comment on active complaints or reports.

“The University also has concerns about a number of inaccuracies in the article but is not able to comment further on those in light of those privacy laws,” a school statement provided by McDonald read. “In addition, the University has significant concerns about apparent breaches of student and employee privacy and will be addressing those, as appropriate.”

The assistant coach’s declaration, according to Quillette, alleged that the player in question had planned with an opponent from Colorado State to allow for the Rams to target Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser with spikes during the teams’ match early last month. Slusser joined a lawsuit in September against the NCAA that outed the player as transgender, alleging that cisgender women are disadvantaged by competing against trans women in sports.

The player in question has not stated publicly that she is transgender, so this news organization has not identified her.

The declaration is the first indication of disunity among coaches over the handling of the situation. Kress denied the allegations of inter-team collusion in an interview Saturday with ESPN, saying the interaction the night before a match in Fort Collins, Colorado appeared to be a joke.

The Rams swept the Spartans in the Oct. 3 match, but Kress told ESPN that SJSU did not share its scouting report with players until the day of the match, so there was no inside information to give away. A Spartans player who witnessed the discussion thought it was a joke but reported it anyway a few days later.

The Spartans’ coach said he and Colorado State coach Emily Kohan both reviewed film of the match. “Neither one of us saw anything that brought to our attention that there was any foul play at hand,” he told ESPN.

Batie-Smoose arrived at San Jose State in February 2023, a month after the school hired Kress.

Students from San Jose State’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society attended Thursday’s match — a win over Air Force — in support of the transgender player.

“We’re seeing that someone in our community is getting harassed and we just want to show up and support them by watching the volleyball game,” SDS chapter president John Duroyan said.

There was also a voice supporting Slusser’s view of the situation, as fan Beth Bourne watched the match with a sign that read “Protect Women’s Sports”.

“I think it’s amazing, they’re on the same team, they’re still playing together and she’s able to speak truthfully what she believes is fair and right and still be a good team,” said Bourne.

The Spartans next play on Thursday at UNLV and their next home match is Nov. 14 against Wyoming, though the Cowboys forfeited a match in Laramie earlier this year. Five teams have forfeited matches to the Spartans this year, some under pressure from legislators in their states with laws against trans participation in sports.

Boise State, which forfeited a match earlier this season, announced Saturday that it will not play the Spartans as scheduled Nov. 21. The forfeits count as wins in Mountain West play, but do not count toward the Spartans’ overall record. They are second in the league at 10-3, with a 13-3 overall record and must play 19 matches to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. With Boise State’s forfeit, they have five regular-season matches remaining.

Freelance reporter Christian Vieyra contributed to this story.