“They’re almost gaslighting you into not thinking it’s okay to talk about it, and it’s not okay to voice your opinion,” she said.
When Slusser transferred to SJSU in her junior year in the fall of 2023, she had no knowledge that Fleming, one of her volleyball teammates and roommates, was transgender.
“They didn’t tell anyone. The school, the staff, they didn’t talk about it whatsoever,” she said.
According to the lawsuit, at no point during Slusser’s recruitment or the 2023 volleyball season did her coach, Todd Kress, or SJSU inform Slusser that Fleming was male, even when her coach and the athletic department frequently assigned her to room with Fleming on road trips.
“Slusser would not have roomed with Fleming or changed clothes in front of Fleming if Slusser had known Fleming was male,” the lawsuit states.
Slusser eventually found out Fleming was male toward the end of the season through other students.
“There was always just that little … elephant in the room, and because it wasn’t out yet, we didn’t know all the information, and we just kind of had to assume what we’d heard from other people,” Slusser said.
It wasn’t until a few months later when news of SJSU’s women’s volleyball team having a male player became public that the school finally addressed the situation to the players. Slusser said the school didn’t exactly confirm it but advised the players not to comment on the matter, suggesting it wasn’t their story to tell.
According to Slusser, Fleming was originally friends with a lot of the team, including Slusser herself, before the news of Fleming came out.
“A lot of people don’t agree with it, just because of the major power difference and strength difference; it’s not safe,” Slusser said. “After everything came out and I, specifically, joined the lawsuit, he kind of distanced himself from a lot of people.”
Slusser said she’s noticed the strength difference in the weight room and during practice. She said the speed of Fleming’s volleyball swing is on a “completely different level” from that of a woman.
She said even though Fleming is required to take testosterone-suppressing medication, she thinks Fleming’s strength is “still 100 percent there.”
“His testosterone has to be at a certain level to play based on the drugs that he’s taking, and that’s what they’re validating to say that this is OK, but they only do that test once a year,” Slusser said. “So who’s to say that this person isn’t taking those drugs until they take that test and then not doing it anymore? And no one would know that their testosterone is through the roof [and] back to normal.”
Slusser said that any man playing in women’s sports is so much stronger than any woman will ever be that it’s a danger, regardless of how good or bad they are.
She referenced Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player who was knocked unconscious and concussed after being struck in the head with a shot from a transgender player on the opposing team in 2022. McNabb experienced brain injury, partial paralysis, and severe headaches, among other injuries.
Slusser joined the lawsuit alongside SJSU assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and other volleyball players against the Mountain West Conference, three officials at SJSU, and others.
The suit requests that SJSU officials be prohibited from suppressing their women’s volleyball players’ freedom of speech and protest. It also requests an acknowledgment of Title IX violations and a “declaration that any male student-athlete is ineligible to compete in women’s volleyball,” among other things.
“I decided to join the lawsuit so this never had to happen to anyone else ever again,” Slusser said.
According to the lawsuit, Fleming and two teammates sneaked out the night before a match against Colorado State University and met with one of their players, Malaya Jones.
The students allegedly conspired to make a plan where Fleming would “throw the game” and not block hits from Jones aimed at Slusser.
According to the suit, assistant coach Batie-Smoose was suspended on Nov. 2 “in retaliation for filing her own Title IX Complaint and Request for Investigation.”
“She, for so long, had wanted to talk because she just knew that it was so wrong, and the school had been telling her, ‘You’re not allowed to do that,’” Slusser said.
Slusser said Batie-Smoose had always had the players’ back, and when news broke of her suspension, Slusser and a lot of other players broke down.
According to Slusser, Batie-Smoose had been coaching for 30-plus years with head coach Kress, who had “flipped a switch and is only here to support Blaire [Fleming],” she said.
“It can be scary because he controls if you get to play or not,” Slusser said.
They faced seven forfeited games this past season from Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State, and Nevada.
“I support and I encourage these teams to not play against us, because it is such a safety hazard,” Slusser said. “If I was in their shoes, I would do the exact same thing.”
