Colorado State women’s volleyball coach Emily Kohan signaled her virtue after the team’s victory over San Jose State and the team’s lone transgender athlete in the Mountain West championship game.
“We stuck together through a lot, against a lot of odds and a lot of negative energy, and we controlled our own destiny,” she said. “I think we made a statement in the process.”
“No one from (Colorado State) was negative in this whole thing,” she said. “Nobody came and blamed anyone else, and nobody tried to point fingers. We’ve tried to make this really difficult situation as neutral or as controlled on our side as possible. It’s been a dynamic that we’ve handled really well … and not be nasty humans in the process.”
The Rams beat the Spartans whose path to the final game was littered with forfeits for six “wins” that included four division teams.
Colorado State earned their spot and bid for the NCAA Tournament going 1-1 in the regular season. The California team just intimidated their way to the number 2 seed then lost by three sets to one.
Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times reports:
In doing so, the Rams did the NCAA a solid. The Colorado State victory means the NCAA’s annual volleyball showcase will likely avoid the uproar over San Jose State star player Blaire Fleming, a biological male who identifies as female, that engulfed the Mountain West Conference’s 2024 season.
San Jose State Coach Todd Kress was a bit bitter in his statement about the loss blasting the criticism of transgender men playing in women’s sports as hateful messaging and external noise.
“I will not sugarcoat our reality for the last two months. Our team was prepared and ready to play each match according to established Mountain West and NCAA rules of play. We did not take away anyone’s participation opportunities,” he said in a statement.
And yet, the San Jose State team did take away the participation opportunity of every player whose team took a stand to protect women against physical harm and forfeited their chance at the championship.
Those young women were robbed of a great many opportunities.
Meanwhile, congratulations to the Rams, and good luck in the tournament next year.