Communications among Boise State athletics officials show they discussed a transgender women's volleyball player from San José State University multiple times one week prior to a head-to-head matchup – one they would eventually forfeit on Sept. 27.
Emails and text messages released to Boise State Public Radio through a public records request show the player was a focus of those discussions, including how student-athletes would feel competing against the player, who they've previously beaten.
Boise State swept SJSU's volleyball team last November in three straight sets in which the player, who has yet to publicly declare her gender identity, recorded six kills on 22 attacks, six errors and six digs. She's been a member of the SJSU team since 2022.
Boise State Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey asked to schedule a meeting a week ahead of the match with head volleyball coach Shawn Garus and two other athletics administrators.
Garus replied the following day.
“Want to make sure all players get the same message.
- a topic that’s getting a lot of attention involving San Jose vb.
- here is the NCAA rule.
- you may be contacted about the topic.
Team schedule:
Monday practice 2-4
Tuesday practice 2-4
Tuesday night team meal and watch FSU vs SJSU at 7pm.”
Christina Van Tol, the senior associate athletic director overseeing Title IX and other gender equity services, called that a “good starting point.”
“I think what is important to understand is that student-athletes may have feelings about the topic that they want to share, but maybe not in the group setting,” Van Tol wrote Sept. 22.
“I think the goal is to allow them to share whether or not they have hesitation or issues with playing against the SJSU player,” she wrote.
Van Tol then suggested following up with volleyball players through an anonymous survey to “give feedback on if they have concerns or not.”
Administrators and Coach Garus then scheduled a meeting for the next day, Sept. 23, which also included Matt Wilde, an attorney for the university.
Two days following that meeting, on Sept. 25, SJSU’s head volleyball coach, Todd Kress, emailed other coaches in the Mountain West Conference.
“I’m reaching out today for obvious reasons; to discuss with each of you our situation here at San José State,” Kress wrote, including his cell phone number for anyone who wanted to reach out.
“Last night we traveled to Fresno with security detail and there were no issues at all,” he wrote. “We will have security detail traveling with us for all matches moving forward.”
Malia Shoji, the head coach at UNLV, was the only one to reply-all to the email, saying, “If there are specific and actionable ways to support you, your team and your program, please [don’t] hesitate to share.”
“Regardless of our personal opinions or beliefs I think we can all agree that working together is the best way to support our teams and colleagues,” Shoji wrote.
The decision to forfeit the match appears to have been made Sept. 26.
Dickey sent text messages to Jeff Konya, the SJSU athletic director, Sean Harris, a Mountain West Conference administrator and Teresa Gould, the PAC 12 conference commissioner that Boise State is poised to join in 2026.
Dickey sent the texts around 10 p.m., asking each of the recipients if they had time that night to discuss an upcoming announcement.
The following day, Boise State said it would forfeit the match.
Boise State Athletics didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
NCAA rules allow transgender athletes to participate in sports that align with their gender identity as long as they’ve been taking testosterone suppressors for at least one year.
For women’s volleyball, transgender athletes’ testosterone is tested multiple times during the season to ensure it doesn’t exceed a certain threshold set by USA Volleyball.
So far, Boise State joins Southern Utah University, University of Wyoming and Utah State University in forfeiting matches to San Jose State.
The Spartans rank third in the Mountain West with a conference record of 4-3 and an overall record of 9-3.
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