The University of Wyoming volleyball team came out swinging. After their first two tournaments, the Cowgirls were 5-0. They built a 16-match regular season, non-conference winning streak stretching back to 2023. Four weeks into the season, they entered Mountain West conference play with a strong 8-3 record.
But forces beyond their control changed everything. On Sept. 14, Southern Utah University canceled a scheduled match against San Jose State University after news broke that one of SJSU’s players was a biological male.
San Jose’s membership in the Mountain West conference meant that the issue of male athletes in women’s sports burst into the Cowgirl’s world. Like an 800-pound gorilla, it broke through the front door and plopped itself down on the sofa.
These talented girls signed letters of intent to play UW volleyball. But, suddenly and without warning, they were in a game of full contact, smashmouth politics. Months of training in the fundamentals of volleyball did not prepare them for this.
Worse still, no matter how well they might deal with the gorilla on the sofa, it would not count a lick toward their goals on the court.
In normal seasons, write-ups about Cowgirls volleyball always put their current season record in the opening sentences. Now, entire articles appeared that never even mentioned wins or losses.
Most readers already know that the Pokes have forfeited two games to San Jose State. But it’s a good bet that you would be unable to tell me their overall record, or their rank in conference play. That should infuriate you.
The numbers that will go down in the record books are as detached from reality as the claims of Wokeism themselves. For the girls who were forced into this impossible situation, it is reminiscent of the Covid cancellations that robbed countless athletes of their chance to step onto the field.
I grieve for the girls. It’s not fair. We have let them down.
With bated breath, the world is watching to see how the girls will respond. But they shouldn’t have to respond at all. That’s not their job. That job belongs to others.
We hire security guards to make sure that non-players don’t disrupt the game. We hire armed guards to keep violent threats out of the arena. We hire coaches to train the girls off the court and manage their play on the court. But none of these had the power to keep the woke gorilla from stomping on their season.
The NCAA could have stopped it. The Mountain West conference could have stopped it. Even the Wyoming Legislature could have stopped it. But they didn’t.
Sen. Wendy Schuler R-Evanston, a former Cowgirl, herself—and a girls’ basketball coach, tried to stop it in 2022. She introduced SF 51 “Fairness in women’s sports act” to prevent this very situation. It sailed through the Senate (24-5). But the Speaker of the House sat on the bill and wouldn’t budge. Everybody knew that if it went to a vote, it would have passed easily. But no vote was allowed.
While SF 51 was sacked in the Wyoming House, other states advanced the ball. South Carolina’s House did it with Senate Bill 531, “Save Women’s Sports Act,” As in Wyoming, it passed the Senate by a wide margin. But unlike Wyoming, their House was allowed to hear it. After passing 70-33, it was signed into law.
That is the reason why the 800-pound gorilla dominates the Cowgirls’ season, but the girls in South Carolina are playing volleyball unmolested.
Two of the organizations that could have prevented this circus, but didn’t, are being sued by the girls who have been harmed. Brooke Slusser of San Jose State has sued the NCAA. She alleges that she was deceived into sharing a room with a male.
This week numerous players and coaches from multiple teams sued the Mountain West conference for allowing this unsafe and unfair situation.
Unfortunately, the girls cannot sue the legislators who left them exposed. What happened to their season cannot be undone. It should, however, be prevented from ever happening again.
Last year Wyoming enacted laws to protect girls in grade school and high school. But declined to protect collegiate women. Now is the time for Wyoming’s lawmakers to enact what House leadership killed in 2022.
The SJSU situation proved two things that should have been obvious. First, the safety threats and unfairness of biological males competing against males will not stay out of Wyoming by some magical pixie dust. Second, it’s not fair to ask our girls to forfeit game after game because we are unwilling to make the court safe.
If the people with the power to protect the game will not step up. Who will want to step onto the court, at all?
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
