Air Force refuses to let fan wear ‘Keep Women’s Sports Female’ shirt at volleyball match vs San Jose State

Security at the Air Force Academy prevented a fan from wearing a “Keep Women’s Sports Female” shirt during a women’s volleyball match against San Jose State on Saturday. 

OutKick obtained video of the moment security officials told the fan, John Kopecky, that he had to unzip his sweatshirt to reveal what his T-shirt read underneath. Kopecky obliged, and after reading his shirt, security told him he couldn’t display that during the match.

Kopecky told OutKick that the reasoning was due to his shirt being a “political” message, which was not allowed.

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“They’ve never made me unzip a hoody to get in before, so that was unusual,” Kopecky told OutKick. 

The San Jose State women’s volleyball team has been the subject of national headlines, with several schools choosing to forfeit matches against the Spartans due to transgender player Blaire Fleming on the roster.  

Kopecky continued to explain the situation at the Air Force Academy match, saying that security allowed him into the game but warned him not to take off his sweatshirt or he would be asked to leave. 

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“I saw security pointing me out to the superintendent [and] the commandant,” he explained. “I could kind of see out of the corner of my eye, they were pointing at where I was sitting.”

Kopecky said there were other different procedures at this match against the Spartans compared to other Air Force home volleyball matches in the past. First, there was a banner telling fans that signs wouldn’t be allowed at all instead of the usual policy, which the Academy states that it will not allow “unapproved banners/signs (no signs later than 18″ x 24”). 

Kopecky also said that while he may have not noticed it before, there was a large board with the fan code of conduct that was hard to miss.

“They brought out a big board with all these rules about fan conduct that may have been there in the past, but I’ve never seen it [displayed] right at the door,” he said.

The Air Force Academy gave a statement to OutKick after hearing Kopecky’s claims, though they did not answer specific questions, including whether security requires fans to unzip their sweatshirts and take off jackets to reveal what they wore underneath.

“Air Force Athletics takes necessary measures to provide a safe environment at all home athletic events for players, coaches, staff and fans,” the statement read. 

San Jose State went on to beat Air Force, 3-1, in the match where Fleming led the Spartans with 10 kills. 

In a previous match against New Mexico, Fleming had went viral after one of her 18 kills in that match saw her nail the Lobos’ libero after the spike, raising eyebrows from social media users. 

It’s not uncommon for spikes during volleyball matches to hit opponents in the face, but many believe that Fleming’s jumping abilities and power creates more of a chance that those spikes will result in injury. 

Kopecky told OutKick that his view of Fleming’s jumping ability was “just drastically different” from the rest of the women players. 

“It was just like, ‘Wow, there’s something you don’t see every day at a women’s volleyball match.’ … [Fleming was] strikingly more athletic than normal,” he said.

Fleming’s presence on the Spartans’ women’s volleyball team sparked a lot of controversy this season, including a lawsuit from one of her teammates against the NCAA. 

Several scheduled opponents for the Spartans also chose to forfeit matches, including Southern Utah, Utah State and Boise State, understanding it would be a loss on the schedule.

Gloria Nevarez, the Mountain West Conference commissioner, recently described how heartbroken she was over the controversy. 

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

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