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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 Minnesota resident, will go toward litigation over her home state’s refusal to keep men out of women’s sports.
Kotzmacher had to compete against a biological transgender pitcher in the Minnesota state playoffs in his final high school season in 2025. He had to watch the trans athlete dominate his team and finish his season. Now, as the state continues to allow that thrower to 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 shoulder some of that money to fund the legal battle to “save women’s 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 that shouldn’t have to do with something like this, you know, it’s going to these girls that I’ve worked with their whole lives and that I can’t do anything about,” Kotzmacher told Pak Gazette Digital.
“It’s definitely really frustrating, you know, and in an ideal world, this would never happen, and this money doesn’t need to go to a lawsuit, like what’s happening now. And all of this could easily be set aside if the state complied and if the Governor [Tim] Walz could 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 it is suing educational agencies in Minnesota Monday for their continued refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s mandate to keep biological trans male 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) violate Title IX.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a preemptive lawsuit last year, claiming the state’s human rights law supersedes President Donald Trump’s executive orders. The lawsuit said at the time that the state was already in compliance with Title IX. A ruling 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 involvement of transgender pitcher Marissa Rothenberger of Champlin Park, who led the school to a state title. The athlete will compete again this season at Champlin Park.
“My little sister played with me last year. She still plays, so it’s very difficult,” Kotzmacher said. “I’m lucky that it’s not allowed at the NCAA level. But there are all these girls that I don’t want to have to go through the situations that I went through, and I don’t want my sister to have to deal with what I had to do and what she had to deal with last year again.”
during a state of minnesota In the tournament semifinal last spring, Rothenberger held Kotzmacher’s White Bear Lake team to just two runs and seven hits. Rothenberger also doubled to lead off the final inning and set up a pinch-runner to win the game for Champlin Park.
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Kotzmacher previously told Pak Gazette Digital that once that game ended, he fell into his little sister’s arms and began sobbing.
“Honestly, I 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 man? How do you process those events that happened? And that was something all night, I still couldn’t do it…we lost to a biological man in a girls state tournament.”
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Now, as she tries to excel in her college career, Kotzmacher said she is also involved in the high school season in Minnesota as an activist.
“I hope people are really working to get this done before the high school season is over, because the last thing that should happen is for this to be a repeat of last year,” he said. “And I truly believe that Champlin Park’s championship title should be stripped and there is no reason that in high school league records or documents, Champlain Park’s name should be anywhere near the winning season and it was.”
