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Western Michigan freshman softball player Kendall Kotzmacher is in the process of filing her taxes for the first time. She does so knowing that her federal and state taxes, as a resident of Minnesota, will go toward lawsuits over her home state’s refusal to keep men out of girls’ sports.
Kotzmacher had to compete against a biologically male transgender pitcher in the Minnesota State playoffs in her final high school season in 2025. She had to watch the trans athlete dominate her team and finish her season. Now that the state continues to let that pitcher compete against girls, she may have to watch her younger sister compete against that athlete again this season.
Kotzmacher, who earned income as a part-time youth softball coach and through NIL deals, including one with activist sportswear brand XX-XY Athletics, will have to foot some of the money to fund the legal battle to “save girls’ sports.”
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Champlin Park celebrates winning the State Championship as Bloomington Jefferson looks on. (Amber Harding)
“I feel like I can justify spending that money more knowing that it’s going to these young girls who shouldn’t have to deal with something like this, you know, it’s going to these girls that I’ve worked their whole lives and can’t do anything about,” Kotzmacher told Pakinomist Digital.
“It’s certainly really frustrating, you know, and in an ideal world, that never happens and this money doesn’t have to go to a lawsuit like the one that’s going on right now. And that could all be easily pushed to the side if the state complied and if Gov. [Tim] Walz could just use some common sense. And fight for women and take our side for once when we’ve all been pushed to this side.”
The DOJ announced that suing Minnesota education agencies on Monday for its continued refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s mandate to keep biological male trans athletes out of girls’ high school sports in the state. The DOJ alleged that the state Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) are in violation of Title IX.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a preemptive lawsuit last year, saying the state’s human rights law supersedes President Donald Trump’s orders. The lawsuit said at the time that the state was already in compliance with Title IX. A decision is pending on the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case.
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Much of the conflict between the state and the administration centered on the participation of transgender pitcher Marissa Rothenberger for Champlin Park, who led the school to a state title. The athlete will compete again this season for Champlin Park.
“My little sister, she played with me last year. She’s still playing, so it’s really hard,” Kotzmacher said. “I’m fortunate that it’s not allowed at the NCAA level. But there are all these girls that I don’t want to ever go through the situations that I did, and I don’t want my sister to deal with what I had to do and what she had to deal with last year again.”
During a state of Minnesota tournament semifinal last spring, Rothenberger held Kotzmacher’s White Bear Lake team to just two runs on seven hits. Rothenberger also hit a double to lead off the final inning and plated a pinch-runner to win the game for Champlin Park.
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Kotzmacher previously told Pakinomist Digital that when that game ended, she fell into her little sister’s arms and began sobbing.
“I honestly just wanted to leave right away. I didn’t want to do anything else,” Kotzmacher said. “I couldn’t even process what just happened.
“How do you acknowledge that you lost to a biological male? How do you process the events that happened? And it was something all night, I still couldn’t do it… we lost to a biological male in a women’s state tournament.”
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Now, as she tries to excel in her college career, Kotzmacher said she is also invested in the Minnesota high school season as an activist.
“I hope people really, really work to get this done before the high school season ends, because the last thing that should happen is for this to be a repeat of last year,” she said. “And I really believe that Champlin Park’s championship title should be removed and there’s no reason that Champlain Park’s name on the high school league records or documents should be anywhere near the winning season and that they had.”
