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Women and girls are suffering unusual career-ending injuries in my sport of volleyball.
While it’s not uncommon to be struck in the head in volleyball, players from North Carolina to California continue to experience devastating effects due to a growing trend in female athletics, male-inclusion.
A high school senior volleyball player in California was in her final season when a male opponent, Aaron, who identifies as a female, tragically hit the volleyball into her head, causing a severe head injury and ending the young girl’s athletic career forever.
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In women’s volleyball, the nets are over seven inches lower than in men’s volleyball. Reportedly, this male athlete was taller and could jump higher than his female opponents, and he was playing on a net over seven inches shorter.
Macy Petty is an NCAA volleyball player and Young Women for America leader.
The female athlete’s father has watched his daughter’s volleyball career from the beginning. He recalls she "began practicing in the back yard. For hours at a time, she’d hit the ball on the sloped roof."
After watching her work her way up to the esteemed role of team captain, he painfully watched as a biological boy ripped away the end result of all of that work. Rather than finishing her career playing hard on "senior night," this female athlete left the volleyball court for the last time, escorted by medical professionals.
This event seemingly mimics one on the other side of the country just last year. The volleyball hit of a male who identifies as female participating on a women’s volleyball team struck a young Payton McNabb in the head, ending her volleyball career forever.
Payton serves as a tragic illustration of why states need to act to protect their female athletes. After her injury, North Carolina passed a bill that prevents men from playing in female sports and righted this wrong.
Three years ago, as a freshman NCAA volleyball player, I began testifying before state legislatures about my experience playing against a trans-identifying male athlete in what was supposed to be a female-only club league in high school. Some legislators dismissed the save women’s sports bill under the claim that it was not a worthy problem.
What was then labeled as a non-issue has now permeated every level of sports. At every age, in every sport, girls must take the court or the field, wondering if they will face the mockery of unfair competition. As a female with first-hand experience playing against a biological boy on a girls’ team, it is utterly humiliating to have your hard work and skill shadowed by the natural, biological advantages of a man.
Stories of trans-identifying men displacing female athletes continue to flood the news, and NCAA President Charlie Baker’s non-action on the issue is like gasoline on the fire, torching the future of women’s opportunity in sports.
We all know the story of swimmer Lia Thomas, who crushed female athletes in the 2022 NCAA finals. Many more are following in Lia's footsteps. But Baker’s pathetic excuse is that this happened before his time as NCAA president.
Riley Gaines, now a spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Forum, famously tied Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)
These past few years, I’ve petitioned the NCAA alongside other female athletes such as Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, but they are far more willing to celebrate the achievements of men, such as accepting a nomination for Lia Thomas as NCAA Woman of the Year, than to hear the cries of the actual female athletes their policies are hurting.
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The NCAA won’t fight for us, so I’ve joined with organizations like Concerned Women for America who celebrate and seek to protect women in athletics. But, despite the countless stories of women losing out to men, the NCAA continues toward a future where a woman’s place in the stadium is on the sidelines, watching the men compete.
Lest the girls fight for a spot, their career may come to a tragic and painful end due to the dangerous nature of biological men competing against women.
After watching her work her way up to the esteemed role of team captain, he painfully watched as a biological boy ripped away the end result of all of that work. Rather than finishing her career playing hard on "senior night," this female athlete left the volleyball court for the last time, escorted by medical professionals.
As the largest college athletic governing body, the NCAA has a decision to make; is there a place for women in athletics or are our roster spots open for male domination?
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Girls sports are for girls only.
Macy Petty is an NCAA college volleyball player and a leader of Young Women for America, the collegiate program of Concerned Women for America.