Earlier this month, Nebraska hosted 92,003 fans for a women’s volleyball game, breaking a world record for attendance at a women’s competition. Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA, said the event was “a big statement about the growth and the popularity of women’s volleyball.”

It is true that women’s sports have continued their tremendous growth in viewership and increased exposure on national sports broadcasting channels. However, this growth in popularity has been accompanied by a deceptively sinister attack that threatens female athletes’ safety and fair competition.

As an NCAA volleyball who has been denied fair competition because of my sex, I understand how important it is for Baker and the governing body of college sports to stand up for female athletes’ rights and keep women’s sports for females only.

While competing in club volleyball and working to be recruited for a college scholarship, I was forced to play against a male athlete in what was supposed to be a female-only league. There were plenty of opportunities in men’s club volleyball, but USA Volleyball decided to include this athlete in the women’s category anyway, stripping every female of fair play.

I can also attest to this invasion at the collegiate level, where men identifying as transgender are not questioned about their true sex. Coaches and administrators don’t want to go there.

This has unfortunately become standard practice in most competitive female leagues. As the growth in female athletes leads to more opportunities, including NIL deals and professional sports leagues, men are sabotaging this success by overtaking roster spots and scholarships specifically designated for females under Title IX.

Though many public policy organizations, such as Concerned Women for America, have amplified the voices of female athletes such as me and relentlessly fought for legislative fixes, there is a deafening silence from NCAA administration and coaches. They’ve fallen captive to the left-wing narrative that transgender participation is merely “inclusion” and any objection to this unfair competition is bigoted.

But some coaches have begun to push back. Deion Sanders, or “Coach Prime,” is a breath of fresh air with his leadership of the Colorado Buffaloes. His program is far from “inclusive;” it’s all about grit and grind. If you can’t handle it, you won’t last in his program. Sanders has stressed , “We don’t want everybody to feel good. That’s not the way life is.” He recognizes that life is hard, and you must do what is uncomfortable. In this, he expects the best and will not allow his players to fall below the set standard.

Sanders also clearly and unapologetically stands for the truth. He refuses to allow politics and ideology to stand in the way of true competition. He notes , “We’re so busy lying we don’t even recognize the truth.”

Kim Russell, the former head coach of Oberlin College’s women’s lacrosse team, has also demonstrated what true leadership looks like. After publicly stating that men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sporting events, Russell was vilified by Oberlin administrators and reassigned to a desk job. But despite the backlash, Russell said she is committed to upholding the truth. “I would not and will not apologize for saying a biological male does not belong in women’s sports and spaces,” she said. “To me, it is common sense.”

The truth is that God created male and female. The truth is that a man cannot become a woman. The biological, scientific fact points to a man’s superior lung capacity, bigger heart, and denser muscle mass.

As the girls sports arena continues to fall to left-wing ideologues, many could learn from Sanders and Russell. Athletic leaders need to return to the grit of the game, protecting fair play and winning through hard work rather than bending to the whims of gender ideology. And at the very least, they should have the courage to stand up for the truth.

If they did, I bet we’d have far fewer cross-dressing men winning women’s titles.

Macy Petty is an NCAA volleyball player and a leader for Young Women for America, the collegiate leadership program of Concerned Women for America.