Trans-Led Minnesota Softball Championship Sparked A National Debate, So Why Was I The Only Reporter There?

It's just one player in a high school softball tournament. Is that really worth flying in a reporter?

That’s what someone asked me before I headed to Minnesota to cover the girls’ state softball tournament, where a male player — a 17-year-old boy who identifies as a girl — was set to take the mound for Champlin Park High School.

And yeah, on the surface, I get it. One kid. A couple of games. Just high school.

But that’s easy to say when it’s not your daughter on the field or your team in the dugout. It's easy to say when you haven’t seen girls walk off the field in tears after having their shot at a state title taken away by a biological boy. Girls who, by the way, are scared to stand up for themselves because certain media and politicians will paint them as bigots.

And that's exactly why OutKick sent me — to actually talk to these girls and their parents. To hear answers to questions that the rest of the media won't bother to ask.

And now I issue the same challenge to Nancy Armour. To the San Francisco Chronicle. To Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe. To every media pundit and athlete using their platform to grandstand and to shout down girls who dare to stand up for themselves:

Go to the dugouts. Go to the stands. Go sit with the girls who just lost everything they worked for. Don’t tweet. Don’t post. Don’t pontificate from the comfortable glow of your laptop screen.

Go talk to them. Then, look them in the eye and explain to them why they don’t matter.

It's Not One Kid. It's A Broken System.

I want to be crystal clear that I didn't go to Minnesota to demonize a teenager. I understood from the beginning that we were talking about minors and that it was important to be sensitive to that fact. It was never my goal to personally attack Marissa Rothenberger. 

In fact, every athlete and coach I spoke with, including those who played against Marissa, said the pitcher was a nice person. Kendall Kotzmacher, whose team lost a heartbreaker to Champlin Park in the semifinals, told me the same thing.

"She is a very nice, sweet girl," Kendall said. "But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not fair."

And that's exactly it.

Fairness is the issue here. And what I witnessed in Minnesota was the unraveling of fairness — in real time, with real girls paying the price. I witnessed a system that was failing not only these girls, but Marissa, too.

We can have compassion. But we also need to have an honest conversation.

The Impact Of The Male Player Was Impossible To Deny

Rothenberger pitched all 35 innings of the postseason (sectionals and state tournament) and gave up just two runs total on the way to a state championship. White Bear Lake was the only team who managed to score off Rothenberger, but Marissa returned the favor by blasting two doubles to rally Champlin Park to the win.

Kendall, a senior catcher for White Bear Lake, called that semifinal game "one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever gone through." She had dreamed of playing in the state championship since she was a little kid. Her team came close, only to lose in the final inning in walk-off fashion.

"I would be completely fine losing to a team that got there fair and square," she said. "But knowing that it’s essentially cheating, and I got cheated out of a state championship game, it was hard for me to deal with that."

Champlin Park celebrates after a walk-off win over White Bear Lake.

(Photo by Amber Harding)

A Western Michigan commit, Kendall has played for club teams at a high level. But she hasn't seen anyone throw the ball like Rothenberger. The physical advantages, she said, were evident.

"This ball is spinning crazy, because obviously her hands are so much bigger than any biological female's," Kendall explained. "And when she would come up to hit, I'd be looking up at her because she's 5, 6 inches taller than me, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, this isn't real.' I was calling pitches, and she could essentially hit everything. It was hard to see her as just another player, knowing what I know."

Kendall said her teammates were devastated after the game, and I can confirm. I saw the heartbreak firsthand. I saw moms and dads biting their tongues. I saw coaches shaking their heads. And I watched a player, with tears in her eyes, approach her father and say, "Why can't you do something?"

(Getty Images)

And before anyone attacks these girls or calls them "sore losers" (looking at you, Simone Biles), remember they signed up to play a sport against other females. It's not their fault that the adults in charge didn't create a fair playing field.

EXCLUSIVE: After Being Forced To Compete With A Male Athlete, This Minnesota Softball Player Is Fighting Back

I also spoke with another player — referred to as M.S. in a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom — who had a similar experience at the club level. When she learned she’d be competing for playing time with a male player, she decided to walk away from the team.

"I just started bawling right away," she told me. "I was like, all that work was for nothing, because the boy’s still gonna beat me no matter what."

Where Do We Go From Here?

Rothenberger is just "one player" in Minnesota. But this is an issue we've seen in multiple sports, across all age groups, across the United States and even the world.

RELATED: Male High School Athlete Proud Of Winning Two Girls' State Titles, Calls Protesters 'Weird'

Kendall, like many female athletes who have had the courage to speak up for fairness, is thinking about more than just herself. She's thinking about the girls coming up behind her — like her younger cousins, who have just started learning to play softball.

"Women worked so hard for Title IX," Kendall said. "Knowing how many opportunities it gave biological women like me to compete at the highest level, be on that stage and get the recognition that they deserve… Even now with softball, we're getting so many more opportunities at the collegiate level. And now it's like guys are coming back in and just taking that away again."

We're moving backwards in the name of "progress."

We’ve been told this is a fringe issue. That it's rare. That it doesn't matter. But it does matter — to the girls who lost, to the ones who were silenced and to the ones who are quietly quitting the sports they love because the rules no longer protect them.

RELATED: Even Democrats Are Sick Of Men In Women’s Sports

There's a ripple effect to this. It might be one softball player in one state tournament. But that one player changed everything for every girl in that bracket.

Champlin Park celebrates its state title while players from Bloomington Jefferson look on.

(Photo by Amber Harding)

The mainstream media won’t tell their stories. 

Instead, they’ll write glowing profiles about the "bravery" of boys in girls’ uniforms (ahem, San Francisco Chronicle) and dismiss anyone who objects as hateful. Because that’s easier than talking to girls like Kendall. Easier than acknowledging that "inclusion" has a cost — and that cost is being paid almost entirely by young women.