Sports
California school board meeting descends into emotional clash amid trans volleyball player controversy
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A school board meeting in California descended into explosive debate after a girls’ volleyball team forfeited to an opponent with a transgender player.
The players on the Riverside Poly High School girls’ volleyball team chose to forfeit last Friday’s game against Jurupa Valley High School. Multiple parents previously told Fox News Digital the forfeit was in response to the presence of trans athlete AB Hernandez on the Jurupa Valley team.
Local parents showed up to the Riverside Unified School District board meeting on Thursday to speak out in support of the girls who forfeited and against the school district for its current gender policies, while others spoke in support of trans athletes in girls’ sports.
Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, showed up to defend AB’s right to play in girls’ sports, and condemned board member Amanda Vickers for previously interviewing with Fox News Digital about the forfeit last week.
“Amanda Vickers, you interviewed with Fox. You actually entertained and welcomed harassment to my child. You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs,” Hernandez said.
“When you allow or tolerate targeted harassment, whether online, in person or allowing false narratives to be spread at board meetings, you are only failing morally.
“My daughter is not the problem. The problem is coordinated external efforts often led by individuals that travel from district to district… to spread fear and put parents against each other using religion as a shield for discrimination. This has nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children.”
One mother, Maria Correo, spoke in support of the Riverside Poly players and condemned parents enabling male children to play in girls’ sports.
“The girls, great job. Poly girls, we stand with you. Keep fighting, because these parents that support their confused child are the problem,” Correo said. “If my child was on drugs, I would love him, but guess what? I would tell him the truth; drugs are bad for you. I would not feed him more drugs.”
Riverside became a hotbed of controversy involving trans athletes in girls’ sports last year during Hernandez’s highly-publicized season and after a lawsuit was filed by two girls at Martin Luther King High School that alleged a trans athlete took one of the girls’ varsity spots on the cross-country team.
TRANS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER INCIDENT UNLEASHES PARADE OF ANGRY PARENTS ON ILLINOIS SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
The students at the school then began wearing the “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts every week in response after school administrators allegedly compared the shirts to swastikas, according to the lawsuit.
One mother, who only identified herself as Sandy R., urged the board members to adopt their own resolution to ban trans athletes from girls’ sports, breaking from state law. One school board in California has already done this – the Kern County Board of Education, earlier in August. Sandy R. referenced the lawsuit that had been filed by the two students.
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“I will be so proud and so honored that an RUSD family will be the ones that take down an unlawful and unconstitutional California law,” she said.
President Donald Trump warned California and Gov. Gavin Newsom about the state’s transgender policies in a post on Truth Social on Thursday.
“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote in the post.
Riverside Unified School District board meetings featured several tense moments that went viral last fall amid the controversy at Martin Luther King High School.
Meanwhile, AB Hernandez was the focus of a national media firestorm in May during the athlete’s run to a California girls’ track and field championship. The postseason meets that Hernandez competed in were met with protests by female athletes and their families, who often wore the “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts.
In July, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education (CDE) and CIF for its policies that have allowed biological males to compete in girls’ sports across the state despite Trump signing an executive order in February to prohibit it.
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A bipartisan survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found a majority of California residents oppose biological male trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
That figure included more than 70% of the state’s school parents.
“Most Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex they were assigned at birth,” the poll stated.
“Solid majorities of adults (65%) and likely voters (64%) support requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with. An overwhelming majority of public school parents (71%) support such a requirement.”
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Star LAFC recruit Son Heung-Min is settling into life in Los Angeles brilliantly.
After netting his debut goal for the club last Saturday — a stunning 30-yard free kick against FC Dallas no less — the South Korea captain capped a fine week by throwing the ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
Ahead of the Dodgers hosting Cincinnati Reds, the former Premier League star stepped up to the plate and launched a finely arced right-handed strike, much to the delight of the fans at the stadium.
Son’s pitch comes just days after BTS star V also threw the ceremonial first pitch in LA. We’ll leave it up to you to decide which Korean superstars’ throw was best.
Sports
Travis Kelce calls for Shedeur Sanders to start for Browns amid controversy: ‘Give the people what they want’
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Travis Kelce has spoken out about the ongoing controversy over Shedeur Sanders‘ role with the Cleveland Browns.
During his “New Heights” podcast this week, the Kansas City Chiefs star said he believes the Browns should start Sanders, who is third on the team’s depth chart behind veteran Joe Flacco and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.
Travis Kelce spoke about Shedeur Sanders’ role with the Browns on the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast, which aired before the official start of the NFL season. (Imagn)
“Give the people what they want, in terms of the Browns fans. Start Shedeur. … Put him in coach,” Kelce said. “Give the people what they want. The world wants to see him go out there, and not only play, but have success. At this point, guys are rooting for him. This isn’t anything against Dillon. This isn’t anything against Joe. I’m just saying the excitement is there for [Sanders] to go out there. He’s going to put eyes on the screen. He’s going to bring people to the game.
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“I would love to f—ing see it, man.”
On the contrary, Kelce’s brother and co-host, Jason Kelce, defended the team naming Joe Flacco as the starter.
“[Browns head coach Kevin] Stefanski and the Browns are trying to do the thing that they feel gives them the best chance to win football games,” Jason said. “If the Browns and Kevin Stefanski felt their best option and the most confident option they had to win games was Shedeur Sanders, they would be playing him.”
Still, Jason conceded that he “wants” to see Sanders play.
“What do I want? I want to see Shedeur Sanders,” Jason said.
Jason also rejected the “conspiracies” surrounding the situation as to why Sanders is as low on the depth chart as he is.
Criticism and conspiracy theories directed at the Browns reemerged after the team’s preseason finale on Saturday.
Sanders entered the game in the third quarter and completed three of six passes for 14 yards, while taking five sacks for a combined loss of 41 yards against the Los Angeles Rams. He netted minus-27 yards for Cleveland before being pulled from the game on the final drive and replaced by veteran Tyler Huntley.
Huntley led the Browns’ offense on a game-winning field goal drive, and the Browns won 19-17.
It was a far cry from Sanders’ first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers Aug. 8, when he threw for two touchdowns and was praised by fans and sports stars, including LeBron James and Dawn Staley.
However, many fans and pundits were quick to defend Sanders for his rough outing on Saturday and blamed the Browns’ coaching for putting Sanders in a position where he had to rely on backup teammates while also calling questionable plays.
EX-NBA PLAYER MAKES SHEDEUR SANDERS-LEBRON JAMES COMPARISON AFTER QB’S PRESEASON DEBUT
Jason Kelce on the ESPN postseason countdown set during the 2025 Pro Bowl Games at Camping World Stadium Feb. 2, 2025. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Former NFL quarterback Derek Carr questioned why Sanders wasn’t left in the game to finish the final drive.
“I need to understand why we don’t get to see Shedeur Sanders run this 2-minute drill? Wouldn’t you want to see your young QB operate in this situation? Get him more reps for the future? I didn’t see the whole game so maybe he already showed enough? Help me understand this…” Carr wrote on X.
Sports talk show host Skip Bayless posted a 16-minute rant in defense of Sanders on X, while condemning the Browns for their handling of the quarterback.
“They sabotaged it. They rigged it against him today, putting him in with third- and fourth-stringers, fifth-stringers. You got no shot at quarterback,” Bayless said.
Other users on social media leveled similar criticisms at the Browns, with some speculating that the obstacles being put in front of the quarterback are intentional.
Prior to that game, NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson stoked conspiracy theories related to Sanders in a recent interview, claiming that NFL teams were “told not to” draft Sanders to “make an example” of the quarterback when he fell to the fifth round of the NFL Draft in April.
“I tell you this much, what I heard from someone that’s in the NFL [is] that the NFL told [teams], ‘Don’t draft him, do not draft him,'” Dickerson said in a recent interview on the “Roggin and Rodney” show on AM 570 LA Sports.
“‘We’re going to make an example out of him.’ And this came from a very good source, a very good source. They were going to have him not get drafted to basically show you, ‘This is what happens when you do this.’ I mean, look, the NFL’s got all kinds of power. They do all kinds of stuff.”
Sanders’ slide out of the first round shocked many, including President Donald Trump, who condemned the league’s owners for passing on the quarterback in a Truth Social post.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith revealed a text message from an associate who compared the situation to Colin Kaepernick being out of the NFL since 2016, suggesting “collusion.”
“‘This is a bad look for the NFL. This feels like Kaepernick-level collusion,'” Smith said of the content of the text, adding the situation goes beyond “talent evaluation.”
“All the hard work the NFL League Office puts in to eradicate these kinds of perceptions, only to turn around and watch as the OWNERS look like they’re colluding, messing up everything. What has been done to Shedeur will outshine everything else in this draft. We’ll never believe this is about just talent evaluation again.”
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders against the Philadelphia Eagles during a game at Lincoln Financial Field. (Kyle Ross/Imagn Images)
Sanders was eventually taken by the Browns on the third and final day of the draft with the 144th pick. The quarterback was initially considered a possible contender for the first overall pick early in the draft process after finishing his final season at Colorado.
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