Bump, set, speak up

VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS: Yes, Abigail! Kelsey!

MYRNA BROWN, CORRESPONDENT: Meet the Elite Eight: Abigail, Kelsey, Annie, Jaycee, Madison, Caitlyn, Sophia and Chelsea. The girls are 12-year-old student athletes who know a thing or two about serving, bumping, setting and spiking a volleyball. Today, they’re honing those skills inside an indoor volleyball court.

CHELSEA DEROOY: It helps if you can jump and also everytime that you spike it, you have to flick your wrist.

That’s Chelsea DeRooy. Officially she’s the team’s left-hitter. Unofficially, she’s their biggest cheerleader.

CHELSEA: Yes, Annie! Guys! Abigail! Good try, Jaycee!

Well, like this year my team was really nice because I knew all the girls on my team, but it’s also just fun to play volleyball and we made it to state.

On March 25th DeRooy and her teammates joined hundreds of other student athletes in Marshalltown, Iowa, the site for the 2023 Amateur Athletic Union or AAU state Volleyball Tournament.

TODD DEROOY: They were excited about it. They practiced a lot.

That’s Todd DeRooy, Chelsea’s father. He and his wife Chantelle remember the moment they realized something was off about this tournament.

TODD: So our first real glimpse of what was going on was when we had to ref a game.

In AAU volleyball, parents share referee responsibilities during the round robin part of the tournament. That’s when they noticed a boy on the other side of the net.

TODD: I didn’t even know that he was on the team. I thought that he was kind of with the team and maybe helping out or a manager or something. So it was a surprise.

Chelsea and her teammates didn’t know what to make of it either.

CHELSEA: Like this is girl’s AAU volleyball, so we were a little surprised to see that a boy was playing and we don’t think that’s very fair because it gives them an advantage. Because not only is he taking that spot from another girl, but also boys are just naturally stronger. That’s just how God made them.

At the end of the day-long tournament, the Elite 8 got a respectable, but disappointing third place in the silver bracket. The opposing team, with the male player, placed second.

CHANTELLE DEROOY: So, when our girls saw what they thought was unfair, we said, is it unfair? Let’s look and let’s see if they can play. Let’s look into the rules before we just make a big deal.

The 2022 edition of the AAU Volleyball Handbook states clearly only females may participate as players in the AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championship. The regulations also stipulate only males may participate as players in the boys’ competition. Armed with that information, the team’s next move surprised and pleased their parents.

CHELSEA: Our team was not upset because we understand that boys want to play volleyball. My dad played volleyball even, but he played on an all boys team. So me and a few of my team members were thinking we could write a letter.

But none of the team members had ever written a formal letter to the head of a national organization before.

CHELSEA: So, my mom actually helped me a lot with the letter.

CHANTELLE: I said, well you guys said you wanted to do this. So let’s sit down tonight. We have the time, let’s sit down and do it. She was like, when? Right now. Let’s do it right now. Now? Now!

CHELSEA READING LETTER: My name is Chelsea DeRooy. I am a sixth grader in Iowa.

Chelsea says both her parents helped her organize her thoughts and tweaked the grammar a bit. But her parents say she did the heavy lifting.

TODD: The major content was Chelsea’s. The research was hers. She came up with the quotations.

CHELSEA READING LETTER: This past year, Iowa made a new law, HF2146 stating that boys playing with an all- girls team is banned.

In her research, Chelsea found an advocate in Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. In March of 2022, Governor Reynolds signed a bill into law protecting girl’s sports programs at all school levels in Iowa. Here’s an excerpt from the governor signing the bill into law.

GOVERNOR REYNOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE: Thank you all for being here as we celebrate a victory in girl’s sports in Iowa. Only students who are female according to their birth certificate will be eligible to compete in girl’s sports.

Along with that quote from the governor, Chelsea included one more argument in her letter.

CHELSEA: God made males and females different. We think that you should please consider addressing this issue for future years.

Despite her hard work, Chelsea says she wasn’t sure where her letter would end up. But in a matter of days, Chantelle DeRooy got a phone call from a representative from the national AAU office in Florida.

CHANTELLE: He said I just received your letter and I wanted you to know we hear you. My team and I agree. We’re working all we can.

While thankful for the immediate response, the DeRooys say no one ever explained why boys were permitted to play in that all-girl volleyball tournament in the first place. Our calls for answers to the AAU were ignored as well. But the DeRooys say, that’s okay. Their mission was accomplished.

TODD: Well the two most important things to us in the entire situation is number one, male and female are both in His image and image bearers of God. So we took this opportunity to bear witness to that truth. And the other thing that we were really aiming at is for the girls just to say to them, when you know something is true, that’s not being upheld and you take whatever means that are available to you and you use those means to try and communicate that truth and stand up for what is right and for what is just.

SOUND: [VOLLEYBALL GAME]

The Elite 8 say they’ll be back next season. But Chantelle DeRooy says she’ll be looking for action both on and off the volleyball court.

CHANTELLE: You asked her if she could be a writer. I absolutely think so. She’s got a book in the works. She just won’t say it. (laughter)

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Orange City, Iowa.

If you’d like to see the Elite 8 in action, Myrna produced a companion piece that airs today on WORLD Watch, our video news program for students. We posted a link in the transcript.

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