San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming will play for a conference championship at the center of a political firestorm over transgender inclusion.
San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming built a prosperous athletic resume en route to the epicenter of national controversy. Many of Fleming’s past competitors had to settle for losses along the way.
Fleming is the leader in kills for a San Jose State team that will compete in the Mountain West tournament final Saturday against Colorado State. The athlete’s spiking ability has been a competitive asset and a point of outrage by critics, including President-elect Trump, amid the controversy over Fleming competing against women as a transgender athlete.
But the team and coach Todd Kress have ridden the power of Fleming’s spikes back to the conference final for the second time since 2022, Fleming’s first season at San Jose State.
This time, they didn’t even have to play in the semifinal to get there after Boise State forfeited a semifinal match to the Spartans amid the controversy. But even when Fleming’s presence isn’t prompting other teams to give a match away, which has resulted in seven conference wins for San Jose State this year, Fleming’s natural physical ability is still there to help the team win.
That ability has been there since high school. Fleming broke records against female players as a teen
Fleming was born in 2002 at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, just south of Omaha. But Fleming grew up in Aldie, Virginia. Fleming has also been referred to as “Brayden Fleming” in reports from multiple media outlets. San Jose State’s official volleyball website lists the player’s birth name as Blaire Rene Fleming.
Fleming played girls’ volleyball at John Champe High School. At a listed height of 6-foot-1, Fleming is inches taller than the average women’s college volleyball recruit of 5-foot-9, according to NCSA College Recruiting.
The advantage in height and spiking ability coincided with Fleming being a game-changing player for John Champe and girls volleyball head coach Jasmine Jackson.
In November 2018, Fleming posted a highlight reel for college recruiters on the high school sports social media site Hudl. Fleming’s highlights showed multiple clips that demonstrated the athlete’s leaping and spiking ability.
Most of the clips show the same type of play over and over again: Fleming leaping high above the net, higher than any other player on the court, and slamming the ball down with authority as trap music blared in the background. Multiple opponents were seen diving to the floor in an attempt to reach Fleming’s spike on time but falling well short of where Fleming’s spike landed.
One year later, Fleming was the centerpiece of the best volleyball team in John Champe High School history with a historic 19-win season in 2019 – Fleming’s senior year. That year, Fleming was named first-team all-district and set the school’s single-season record for kills in a season with 266. Fleming set the school’s single-game record for kills with 30 against Battlefield High School in September of that year.
The Hudl video of that game showed Fleming with dyed blonde hair, leading the team to victory with 30 powerful slams.
Fleming’s finished as runners-up in the district tournament and made the regional playoffs that year, and Fleming was crowned the team’s MVP by teammates. Fleming left red South Carolina for deep blue California early in college
Fleming’s college career began at Coastal Carolina during the COVID-affected 2020 season. So Fleming’s college debut came a few months later than usual, in October that year. And even as a true freshman, Fleming averaged 1.86 kills per set, third on the team.
Fleming’s dominance came out even more when the game mattered most. After a staggering 19-1 regular season, Coastal Carolina reached the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Texas State. Fleming put up career-highs in kills with 12, three digs and two blocks, but Fleming’s team lost in the deciding fifth set.
That was the last match Fleming played for Coastal Carolina, and it would be another 22 months before Fleming played another college volleyball game after entering the transfer portal.
No reason has been officially given by Fleming, nor San Jose State or Coastal Carolina, for the player deciding to transfer. If Fleming had stayed at Coastal Carolina, it’s possible the player wouldn’t have been playing in a conference championship game this year without breaking state law.
South Carolina, where Coastal Carolina is located, passed the Save Women’s Sports Act May 16, 2022. The bill was prefilled Nov. 17, 2021.
No stats or games have been recorded for Fleming for the 2021 season. But Fleming got a chance for a new start in California at San Jose State.
According to a lawsuit against the Mountain West filed by a plaintiff list that includes suspended San Jose State volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, former head volleyball coach Trent Kersten allegedly targeted Fleming as a transfer recruit and gave the athlete a full scholarship, allegedly while knowing Fleming is a biological male.
“Prior to the 2022 season the then coach of the SJSU Team, Trent Kersten, recruited an outside hitter from Coastal Carolina University, a NCAA Division I program in Conway, South Carolina, named Blaire Fleming, who had entered the transfer portal”, a lawsuit states.
“Fleming was given a full scholarship to play for the SJSU Team. On information and belief, SJSU advised the MWC that Blaire Fleming was a trans-identifying male and would be participating in women’s volleyball on the SJSU Team.”
Kersten left the program after the 2022 season.
California is one of 24 states that allow transgender student-athletes to play for teams that match their gender identity. The Golden State’s law is one of the oldest of its type in the country, having been in place since 2013.
However, according to the lawsuit, when the program made the decision to recruit Fleming out of the transfer portal, the coaches involved allegedly didn’t go out of their way to inform all the players on the team.
San Jose State has confirmed to Fox News Digital the university never formally notified any of the opponents on its schedule of the ongoing controversy and lawsuits in which Fleming is named this season.
