California volleyball players speak on refusal to play trans athlete in playoffs

An Oct. 22 highschool women volleyball playoff sport in California gained nationwide consideration for the presence of a transgender athlete. Two feminine opposition gamers who refused to return to the pitch that night have now come ahead to talk about their resolution.

Jurupa Valley Excessive College, which included trans athlete AB Hernandez on the ladies staff, misplaced in straight units to Valencia Excessive College in entrance of a crowd of protesters sporting “Save Women Sports activities” gear. It marked the tip of Jurupa’s controversial season, which was marred by a minimum of 10 forfeits, and Hernandez’s highschool volleyball profession.

The mother and father of two feminine gamers for Valencia who selected to not play that night time launched a joint assertion written by the 2 women to Fox Information Digital on situation of anonymity.

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Followers sporting “Save Women Sports activities” shirts pose throughout a CIF Southern Part Division 5 women playoff sport in opposition to Valencia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Placentia, California. (Kirby Lee/Getty Pictures)

“On October 18, our staff was knowledgeable that we might be taking part in Jurupa Valley Excessive College in Spherical 1 of CIF. Once we scouted the staff, we shortly realized that they’d a transgender participant who we might be competing in opposition to on October 22. Ten different groups had beforehand misplaced to Jurupa, which alarmed our staff and led us to think about whether or not we must always play or not,” the assertion started.

“Due to our beliefs and values, we’ve got determined to not attend and attend our CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) First Spherical match. We consider that permitting males into ladies’s sports activities is unfair, creates security dangers and is opposite to our beliefs. We worth honest competitors and integrity in volleyball, and our hope is to proceed taking part in the game we love with out having to be able the place we all know the state of affairs is fallacious.”

The 2 women then cited their Christian religion as a purpose for not taking part in, emphasizing that their actions weren’t instantly geared toward Hernandez.

“As Christians, our resolution to not play was not a troublesome one, however it was uncomfortable to be the one ones doing so. We selected not solely to not play, but additionally to not attend the sport, as a approach to reveal our place and our variations. Our purpose was to not single out AB Hernandez, however to specific our perception that organic males shouldn’t be allowed to take part in ladies’s sports activities,” the assertion continued.

“Our resolution was not made out of hatred or discrimination in opposition to anybody, however reasonably out of our perception in equity and religion. It’s our hope that the integrity of ladies’s sports activities is honored and preserved.”

INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS

The Oct. 22 match wasn’t even Hernandez’s first highschool playoff volleyball match. Hernandez had competed for Jurupa Valley every of the previous three years and in addition went to the postseason in 2024.

However the added nationwide consideration and controversy befell the staff this 12 months after Hernandez discovered himself on the heart of a political battle between President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the finish of the spring athletics season.

Hernandez ran to the ladies state finals in lengthy soar, triple soar and excessive soar, prompting Trump to ship out a Reality Social publish within the days main as much as the occasion warning Newsom and the state in opposition to permitting a trans athlete to compete within the women’ occasions. Trump signed an govt order in February banning faculties from permitting organic males to take part in women’ sports activities, however the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has constantly defied this.

As an alternative, the CIF modified its guidelines to offer any feminine athlete who competed in the identical occasions as Hernandez a spot within the competitors or a spot larger on the medal podium in the event that they completed behind a organic male athlete.

Hernandez went on to take first place within the excessive soar and triple soar, and second place within the lengthy soar.

The rule change resulted in Hernandez sharing podium spots with feminine athletes who completed behind the trans athlete within the state finals.

Then, shortly after this 12 months’s volleyball season started, two senior gamers from Jurupa Valley, McPherson and Hadeel Hazameh, stepped away from the staff in protest in opposition to the trans athlete.

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McPherson and Hazameh have accomplished that too has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Jurupa Unified College District, citing their expertise taking part in and sharing a locker room with Hernandez the previous three seasons. McPherson’s older sister and former JVHS women volleyball participant Madison McPherson is the third plaintiff in that lawsuit.

The U.S. Division of Justice filed a lawsuit in opposition to the CIF and the California Division of Training in July for refusing to alter their transgender insurance policies to adjust to Trump’s Maintaining Males Out of Girls’s Sports activities govt order, weeks after Hernandez’s monitor and subject championships.

And with the autumn sports activities season coming to an finish, Hernandez continues to be eligible to take part in one other women monitor and subject season within the spring.

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