Transgender athletes participating in women’s sports has increasingly become a hot-button issue in recent years. Particularly at the high school level, there has been significant backlash amid numerous instances of transgender individuals winning female events at the state championship level, drawing into question the fairness of the current rules.
A high school girls’ track and field coach in Washington is speaking out after his team lost the state title to another team that had a transgender runner. Dean Vergillo, the coach of the Cedarcrest High School girls’ track and field team, raised concerns after one of his female athletes lost the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) state track and field meet to transgender athlete Veronica Garcia last month.
Vergillo attended an event hosted by the Independent Women’s Forum, where he claimed it was apparent that the athlete in question was undoubtedly a male. “As a cross country and track coach, everybody has a running style,” Vergillo said, as reported by Fox News. “It’s kind of like your fingerprint — everybody runs a little bit differently. In this case, it was obviously a male running.”
The coach’s athlete competed against Garcia in the 400-meter dash, where the transgender athlete won the race, earning East Valley High School 10 points. According to Vergillo, his team only lost to the opposing high school by 8 points, meaning this event ultimately decided the meet. “This would’ve been much easier if we had lost by 30 points instead of by just eight,” he said. “We can’t control what happened, so let’s make the most of it for us. Let’s enjoy this experience that we had.”
Despite losing the race badly to Garcia, Vergillo highlighted that his athlete set a school record in the race. Moreover, the coach pointed out that he and his team “had no idea that this was coming” referring to Garcia’s presence in the competition. “As a coach, I found out about it just through talking to other coaches from around the state,” the girls’ track & field coach said. “Then, in the [girls’] 400-meter open race, the individual from our school that qualified only found out about an hour before.”
Vergillo further blasted the WIAA for failing to prepare everyone for the situation at the state meet, where many coaches are frustrated. “It’s definitely going to be a bigger issue given that we’ll know what’s happening going into it. My biggest disappointment in this situation is how our state association [the WIAA] didn’t prepare us for what was coming,” he noted. “We’ve had many coaches, through text, emails, or just verbally, state their displeasure with the situation.”
Ashley McClure, storytelling assistant at the Independent Women’s Forum, told Fox News Digital about the incident while commending Vergillo’s courage to lead his team despite the unfavorable circumstances. “We all know how devastating it is to young girls to lose their deserved accolades to biological males, but when boys take girls’ titles, coaches—and schools—suffer too. Dean Vergillo’s determination to encourage and reassure the girls on his team, despite the impossible odds that they faced, is truly inspiring,” McClure stated.
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Conservative activist Riley Gaines, who has garnered a reputation for defending the sanctity of women’s sporting events, shared footage of the controversial 400-meter sprint. “Would you look at that…the thing that never happens happened again. Veronica Garcia (Donovan Brown) just won the Washington State Championship in the girls’ 400m in total domination. In Washington & Oregon this past week, the fastest “girl” in the each state has been a boy,” she wrote. Watch it below: