A split vote among the University of Wyoming women’s volleyball team players was considered, but ultimately it was the choice of school leaders to forfeit matches against a California team with a transgender player, a UW spokesman said Monday.
“While the valued input of the Cowgirl volleyball team and coaches was taken into consideration, the final decision was made solely by UW leadership,” Chad Baldwin, UW spokesman, said in a Monday email to Cowboy State Daily.
UW now has forfeited two games (one scheduled for this Thursday) against San Jose State University, following court filings and public statements announcing that the California team’s outside hitter is transgender.
Neither UW nor most of the other four teams that have forfeited have stated publicly why they have done so.
Baldwin’s clarification came following a Cowboy State Daily review of about 100 pages of communications obtained through a public records request between, to and from UW staffers regarding the school’s first match cancellation against San Jose State University, an Oct. 5 game.
News reports about the transgender player, Blaire Fleming, first started going viral in mid-September.
‘In The End It Went Above Us’
In an informal minutes sheet that Assistant Head Coach Becky Baker kept for Head Coach Kaylee Prigge, who appears to have been on maternity leave, Baker said the Wyoming team tied when taking an anonymous-ballot vote on whether to play SJSU in the home October game.
UW Athletics Director Tom Burman, Deputy Director of Athletics Matt Whisenant and Associate AD for Internal Operations Taylor Stuemke met with the team about the situation Sept. 30, according to Baker’s notes.
“Tom essentially shared his personal opinions and acknowledged how hard of a spot the girls are in,” say the notes.
The women were told to write “yes” or “no” on nameless pieces of paper.
“Matt told me Tuesday morning that it was dead even at 9 and 9 and 1 person chose not to vote,” wrote Baker, adding that a rumor circulated that the one who refused to vote thought the women should simply “follow our lead as coaches.”
Also that day, Whisenant told Baker they wouldn’t be playing.
Baker didn’t want UW to blame or credit the student athletes for the decision.
“I asked him and Taylor very specifically to make this about the people up top and the political pressure essentially taking the decision away from us,” wrote Baker in her notes.
Whisenant and Stuemke spoke with the team the next day, Oct. 1, and told them UW would forfeit the match.
“Matt did a good job for the most part of presenting it,” wrote Baker. “I asked him straight up if our vote is what did it and he said that their vote was valued but in the end it went above us.”
After that, practice was rough.
The team already had women out sick. Baker worried some of the women would be upset at UW’s decision, and that a public comment by Burman made it look like it was the women’s choice.
“I imagine several girls are going to find me because they are pissed,” wrote Baker.
In Order Now
The volleyball coaches’ first email discussions of the San Jose State controversy started Sept. 16, according to public documents UW sent Friday to Cowboy State Daily.
Peter Prigge, UW Associate Athletics Director, sent an Outkick story link to his wife Kaylee Prigge. The story outlined Southern Utah State University’s cancellation of its Sept. 14 game against SJSU.
Kaylee Prigge forwarded the link to her assistant coach, Baker.
“Damn,” wrote Baker. “No way she gets to continue playing in the MW (Mountain West Conference).”
Baker did not respond by publication time to an email request for further comment.
Here Come All The Letters And Interview Requests
A sender whose name is redacted sent a strongly worded letter to UW, San Jose State and other conference athletics leaders Sept. 23, calling the situation “dangerous” and requesting comment back to him- or herself and two Daily Signal reporters who were copied.
Todd Kress, head coach of SJSU’s women’s volleyball team, dispatched a short don’t-be-a-stranger message Sept. 25 to other conference coaches, providing his personal cellphone number and encouraging them to reach out if they wanted to discuss the situation.
“For those of you that have reached out to me individually, I greatly appreciate your support!” wrote Kress. “For everyone else, I’d like to open the lines of communication if you’d like to speak.”
The prior night Kress’ team had travelled to Fresno and had “no issues at all,” he wrote.
One coach, Malia Shoji at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, sent back a reply-all encouraging everyone to work together “regardless of our personal opinions or beliefs.”
Conference Speaks
Bret Gilliland, deputy commissioner for the Mountain West Conference, sent a brief reminder to university leaders (including UW President Dr. Ed Seidel) on Sept. 27, reminding them that the conference allows transgender participation in women’s sports as long as the player meets NCAA requirements to compete.
That same day Burman and Baldwin touched base regarding a public comment to Cowboy State Daily in response to Boise State’s Sept. 27 decision to forfeit its match against San Jose State.
UW was still planning to play Oct. 5, Baldwin said at the time, reiterating the school’s earlier commitment to play the match.
Director Writes Alumnus
Letters urging the school to forfeit the game started pouring in.
Alumni, fans, donors and spectators called the situation unfair, unsafe and unjust to women.
A former female athlete at UW wrote to numerous staffers Sept. 26, urging them to consider “the future of my daughters and their peers.”
In a careful response indicating he knows the alumnus personally, Burman wrote back Sept. 28.
“I absolutely respect your position and agree with many arguments you made,” wrote Burman.
He added that the UW women had played Fleming for the past two seasons and the student-athletes felt safe in the previous matches.
“She is not the best or most dominant hitter on the Spartans team,” he wrote.
Fleming was roughly the second-best player at that time, SJSU’s stats indicated. But as of Monday, Fleming appears to be San Jose’s top player.
The outside hitter has scored 293 points this season compared to second-highest-ranked player Nayeli Ti’a, who has scored 226. Fleming also has the most kills at 252, compared to Ti’a’s 185.
“Having said that it doesn’t make it OK,” Burman continued. “We have made our position known to the MWC and San Jose State that we think this is inappropriate, but she does meet all the NCAA standards for competition and is eligible.”
Burman said the athletes weren’t in favor of forfeiting two matches, but that school leadership would “continue to chat with our team and if some choose not to play, we will absolutely support that decision.”
At that point it appeared all the other conference teams (not including Southern Utah) were still on track to play San Jose State, Burman added.
In a Monday email to Cowboy State Daily, Burman said he does not want to add any comments to this exchange, but wanted to clarify that “this was early in the process.”
Indeed, Baker’s notes indicate that the number of girls voting not to play rose from a rough count taken prior to the Sept. 30 vote.
Pivotal Day, Oct. 1
Oct. 1 was a pivotal day for UW.
Baldwin had stated at least twice in late September that the women would play San Jose, as the first two Mountain West teams canceled games.
Spectator emails kept pouring in. At first, the writers were unanimously in favor of forfeiting the match.
At 3:10 p.m., the athletics department dispatched a one-paragraph statement saying it had changed course and would forfeit.
The decision came “after a lengthy discussion,” the statement noted, but it offered no further explanation.
People wrote athletics staff to laud the announcement after it was made.
One detractor of the decision missed the tipping point, and had sent an email at 3:57 p.m. urging UW not to cancel.
When the writer realized that he or she wrote too late and that UW had already changed course, the writer sent a follow-up email to athletics department leaders: “Nevermind, just saw the news. You’re both cowards. Wyoming deserves better.”
A Scolding
Another writer, whose email reached the Athletics Director’s Office at 4:04 p.m., scolded Burman and Whisenant over the terseness of the announcement, saying it put the team in a tough spot.
“In my opinion this is a no-brainer and should have never involve (sic) the team,” wrote the sender, who identified herself as “a concerned athletic biological female.”
The department should rather have taken a stand on “the safety and security of our women athletes,” the writer chided.
A vast majority of emails to athletics leaders following UW’s forfeiture were positive, however.
UW had received at least 13 emails (not counting duplicates) in support of forfeiting the game before it announced the decision to do so. It received another 12 in support of its decision to do so after the announcement was made. Some staffers indicated they were also receiving phone calls.
Some writers specifically asked for their praise to be relayed to the women of the volleyball team.
One praised Burman and Whisenant for standing up against societal “groupthink.”
“I’m proud to be a Wyoming woman when I see our state’s premier university take a principled stand to defend women’s sports,” she wrote.
UW athletics leaders received three emails condemning the decision, according to the public records file.
OK, Now For The Reason
Reporters kept pushing for UW’s reasoning, the documents show.
Dana Cronin at KQED News asked outright “where did the decision stem from?”
CNN asked Coach Prigge to appear on Jake Tapper’s show that Friday. It does not appear UW accepted that offer.
Athletics leaders specifically chose not to respond to a comment request from Outkick.
News Nation, Wyoming Public Radio and The Associated Press all reached out for comment, among others.
UW did not explain why it canceled.
“No comment on that question, Clair,” confirmed Baldwin in his most recent Monday email to Cowboy State Daily.
The One From Lingle
While pressure from alumni and other watchers of the volleyball program is evident, it is unclear what role, if any, pressure from the university’s purse-string holders played in this saga.
The Wyoming Legislature already slashed UW’s budget for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming this year. Multiple Republican legislative candidates who support more conservative stances on social issues unseated incumbent Republicans in the Aug. WHAT primary election.
And on Oct. 1, one day after the volleyball players’ split vote and in the hurricane of spectator emails, state Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, started circulating a petition urging UW not to play SJSU.
She gave potential signers until 5 p.m. to sign the letter.
Baldwin was aware of the letter at least as early as 2:41 p.m., when Cowboy State Daily informed him of a leaked early copy and asked if he had comment.
“Just emailing you a statement,” answered Baldwin, referring to the 3:10 p.m. announcement that UW had decided to not play SJSU.
Mike Smith, vice president of Governmental Affairs and Community Engagement at UW, would later ask Baldwin to clarify to The Associated Press that UW never received Steinmetz’s letter.
In a nearly-illegible text message feed between Wyoming Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and Seidel, Driskill wrote “Thanks- hardest – but right move,” and added a thumbs-up emoji.
“Thanks Ogden, I appreciate it,” wrote Seidel.
Losing Record
Blaire Fleming, who scores at or near the top of San Jose University’s player stats, had played for the team for two seasons prior to this one, and didn’t garner much national controversy. But after Fleming’s teammate Brooke Slusser joined a women’s -rights lawsuit against the NCAA in September, the controversy exploded into public view.
To date, Southern Utah, Boise State, UW, Utah State University and University of Nevada-Reno’s team have all canceled games against SJSU.
None of the schools gave any official reasoning. But the women of UN-Reno authored a statement in October without the backing of their school, saying, “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.”
UW now has a losing record at 6-9 and is ranked seventh in conference.
SJSU, conversely, has a winning conference record of 11-5 and is ranked second. Four canceled matches (so far) count as wins for the Spartans. The team is slated for at least two more forfeit wins this month, as both UW and Boise state have pledged not to play Nov. 14 and 21, respectively.
The Spartans are headed to the Mountain West championship playoffs later this month.
Colorado State University is ranked first in conference at 12-2.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
