The state of Vermont has banned a girls' basketball team from future tournaments after the coach opted to forfeit a game against a team with a transgender player.
Chris Goodwin, a coach at Mid-Vermont Christian School, said that they had been notified about the transgender player, but did not end up competing against that team until the playoffs.
Goodwin said that he and the school decided to take legal action after learning the state had banned the team from future games.
"I've got four daughters. I've coached them all at one point in their careers playing high school basketball. I've also filled in for the boy's coach when he can't make a practice, and I run those practices, and boys just play at a different speed, a different force… than the girls play," Goodwin said during an interview with Fox & Friends.
"It's a different game," Goodwin said, adding that playing against a male student is "asking for an injury" for a smaller female player.
"After discussions with the administration and our players and parents, we decided that instead of going against our religious beliefs that… there are differences between male and female, we are created differently, we decided to forfeit that game and withdraw from the tournament," Goodwin said.And at that point, the state of Vermont governing body kicked us out of all athletic competitions in the state.
Fox News reports:The girls' basketball team forfeited the game against the team with the transgender player back in February 2023, which prompted the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) to ban the team from future tournaments.
Officials worried at the time about the safety repercussions stemming from a biological male competing against the female players.
"Mid-Vermont Christian School has every right to teach its beliefs to its own students. It cannot, however, impose those beliefs on students from other public and private schools; deny students from other schools the opportunity to play; or hurt students from other schools because of who those students are," the VPA said in a statement to CNN in November.
Ryan Tucker from the Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the school.
"The state is basically attempting to purge individuals like Chris and other family members in the state, from public discourse, from the ability… to speak out… on issues of significant, public concern," Tucker told Fox News.
"We're very confident that we're going to prevail," Tucker added.
