Oklahoma Soner’s softball coach Patty Gasso defended his players after some attended an event hosting women’s sports lawyer Riley Gaines last week.
Gaines has advanced fairness in women’s sports since Lia Thomas tied with her at the NCAA championship in 2022. Thomas also became the first transking athlete to won an NCAA woman’s swimming championship. Since then, current and former female athletes have been gathered to keep biological men out of women’s sports.
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Oklahoma Head Softball coach Patty Gasso is depicted under the college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Soners and UCF Knights at Love’s Field in Norman, Oklahoma, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Sarah Phipps / Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imag images)
Soners Pitchers Audrey Lowry and Sam Landry were present for Gaines’ speech at Turning Point USA event, according to OU Daily. The women were far from the only Sooner’s athletes at the event.
Gasso told OU daily that she didn’t hear Gaines’ praise for her and her team and wouldn’t comment.
“But the fact that our team is there is their right, whether they want to go or not,” she said. “I support them and whatever they choose.”
Peyton McQuillan, a Soners Track Athlete, defended Gaines’ message in an interview with Studentavisen.
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Riley Gaines speaks at a University of Oklahoma Turning Point USA Chapter Speaking Event in Norman, Oklahoma, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Nathan J. Fish / Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imag images)
“She just wants to make sure everyone has a reasonable opportunity, and it’s clear that she doesn’t care,” she said. “It’s very easy to relate to it.”
Haley Bergstrom, a beet for Oklahoma, supported keeping biological men out of girls and women’s sports. She pointed to the biological differences between men and women. “Biologically, men just have an advantage over women, no matter what,” she said. “So we just want to keep so simple, but there’s no problem against transgender people in general.”
Gaines received Pro-Trans protests at the school.
“I am really disturbed by the kind of panic that I have seen developed in the last few years – the proposal that transgender people are dangerous, that they harm society, that letting transgender people participate in everyday life is somehow a risky thing that should be avoided,” librarian Cynthia Tea told Oklahoman.
“Especially with sports, there are so few trans athletes at any kind of elite level, and participating in sports is something that I think trans -teenagers, in particular, should be able to do.”
Kay Holladay has a sign that protests at a University of Oklahoma Turning Point USA Chapter Speaking Event for Riley Gaines in Norman, Oklahoma, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Nathan J. Fish / Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imag images)
NCAA changed its policy to keep biological men out of women’s sports. However, women’s sports lawyers have said that the organization has left logging holes in its policy to keep it dying open.
