The head coach of a girls’ high-school basketball team that remains banned from state competitions two years after forfeiting a match against a transgender rival has opened up on the devastating void it has left for their student-athletes.
Back in February 2023, the Mid-Vermont Christian School was slapped with a one-year athletics ban when its girls’ basketball squad refused to play a game against Long Trail due to a trans player lining up on the opposing team.
After filing a lawsuit against state officials over the astonishing suspension, which has prevented them from fielding its male or female teams in any sporting tournaments, Mid-Vermont was subsequently kicked out of the Vermont Principals’ Association and barred from competitions indefinitely.
Over two years on from their expulsion, on Wednesday the school took the legal battle to the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City after receiving setbacks in state and federal courts.
And Chris Goodwin, who remains head coach of Mid-Vermont’s girls’ basketball team, says it is vital for them to win the fight and ensure future players are not denied the same opportunities their predecessors have missed out on.
‘You know, most coaches coach to get their players to achieve things that they never thought they would be able to achieve. And if we can, just as coaches, contribute to their ability to win championships become more than they can or what they thought they could be, that’s a great satisfaction,’ Goodwin said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.
The Mid-Vermont Christian School’s basketball team is still banned from state competition two years after forfeiting a game against a transgender rival
Coach Chris Goodwin has opened up on the devastating impact it has had on their athletes
‘What’s been taken away from them through this whole thing is they’ve lost those opportunities to do that, and they’ve lost out on awards in scholarships and trips to the state semifinals and finals.
‘I really feel bad for the older kids who missed out on that. The juniors and seniors who played for me before, they didn’t get to experience that… and that’s a shame.
‘I just wish that it could be changed. But we are where we are now, and we’re looking forward to getting back into State Athletics in the near future.’
Goodwin and Mid-Vermont are being represented in the legal fight with state officials by Alliance Defending Freedom – a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that fights against threats to religious freedom.
For ADF attorney Ryan Tucker, the decision to ban every Mid-Vermont sporting teams from state competition is an ‘unprecedented’ one.
‘Certainly common sense [should] play into it,’ Tucker said. ‘At its core, Mid-Vermont Christian believes that boys are boys and girls are girls, and the state has differing beliefs. They don’t like the beliefs of Mid-Vermont and as a result have given the school the ultimate punishment in the sports space by kicking them out of all middle school and high school athletics across the board.’
He continued about the Vermont Principals’ Association: ‘This is unprecedented. In fact, they admitted as much during their argument.
‘I have seen a number of cases, gotten a number of calls on girls’ athletic issues, and I personally have never seen it, and we certainly have never seen it in the courts.’
Mid-Vermont’s refusal to face Long Trail and its transgender player came just under two years before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
State law in Vermont prohibits discrimination against student athletes on gender identity
Since his re-election, Trump has quickly looked to resolve the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports, after signing an executive order back in January banning biological males from competing.
Several states, including Maine and Connecticut as well as Vermont, have vowed to fight the president over the order while arguing that trans women should be free to compete in female sports.
In 2023, the VPA decided that Mid-Vermont’s actions had violated its ‘Commitment to Racial, Gender-Fair, and Disability Awareness and Policy of Gender.’
Those policies stated that students may compete on teams ‘consistent with their gender identity,’ and protect against discrimination ‘based on a student’s actual or perceived sex and gender.’ The association added that its policies reflected Vermont state law.
‘People that disagree with this school, with us, with people of varying faiths, I think all can look at this and say… this isn’t right,’ Tucker stressed. ‘This shouldn’t have happened. And the state of Vermont should do what’s right here. They should do the common sensical thing and allow girls to play other girls in athletics, and boys to play other boys in athletics. It’s common sense.
‘In this instance, what Vermont has done is also unconstitutional, and so we are looking forward to the second circuit’s decision and getting these fine girls back on the court.’
Donald Trump signed an executive order this year banning trans athletes from women’s sports
Goodwin, who revealed he had never encountered a trans athlete in girls’ high-school sports before the Long Trail forfeit, insists they are optimistic about coming out on top in the legal fight and secure an injunction from the US Court of Appeals that would see the school return to state competition.
If necessary, Mid-Vermont and Alliance Defending Freedom are prepared to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
‘I would love to be optimistic, and I’ve given this metaphor before. If this was a basketball game, I would love to think that we’re up by 20 points with 30 seconds left, and we can just dribble out the clock and get the W and move on,’ Goodwin admitted.
‘But it seems like in this situation, it’s more like we’re going into overtime and it’s anybody’s ball game.
‘But we think we have a better team, and we think we’re going to come out with a victory.’
