The Vermont high school girl’s basketball coach who forfeited a game when he discovered that a male playing as a girl was on the opposing team is defending his actions even after being banned from coaching by the left-wing state’s education officials.
Chris Goodwin, who was the coach of the Mid-Vermont Christian School girl’s basketball team, appeared on the Feb. 26 broadcast of Fox & Friends to speak of his experience and defend his decision not to play against a transgender opponent.
“I’ve got four daughters. I’ve coached them all at one point in their careers playing high school basketball,” Goodwin said on Monday.
“I’ve also filled in for the boys’ 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. It’s a different game,” he said.
Goodwin explained that he felt it would be “irresponsible” to let his girls’ team play against a male and added that it would be “asking for an injury” at the hands of the bigger, faster, and stronger transgender player.
Goodwin was a coach for the Feb. 21 game against Long Trail High School in a Division IV playoff game when the coach decided not to play because, as he said at the time, the male playing for Long Trail ” jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our player.”
The Vermont Principals’ Association banned Mid-Vermont from all athletic events after Goodwin’s forfeiture, claiming that the school violated state laws that allow male-born kids to play on any school girls’ team.
The governing body published a statement saying that Mid-Vermont “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.”
Goodwin is defending his move, though, telling Fox News, “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.”
Mid-Vermont says it has been “irreparably harmed by being denied participation” in state sports competitions and is “losing out on playing competitive sports as well as academic competition.”
The school is suing the state for the ban and, in its lawsuit, says, “The State is entitled to its own views, but it is not entitled, nor is it constitutional, to force private, religious schools across the state to follow that orthodoxy as a condition to participating in Vermont’s tuitioning program and the State’s athletic association.”
Ryan Tucker, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, accused Vermont of trying to purge Christians from the state.
“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,” he said on “Fox & Friends,” where he accused the state of failing to consider “the biological reality” and the health and safety risks to female athletes,” he said. “We’re very confident that we’re going to prevail.”
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