Wash. girls track coach says team blindsided by facing trans runner: 'Obviously a male'

DUVALL, Wash. (TND) — A Washington high school girls track and field coach claims the state did not "prepare" his team for facing a transgender runner at last month's state championships.

Dean Vergillo is the girls track and field coach for Cedarcrest High School in Washington. His teamtook second place at the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) state track and field meet last month. The first-place team, East Valley High School, beat Cedarcrest by just eight points.

The results were thanks in part to a transgender runner on East Valley's team winning the girls’ 400-meter dash, Vergillo told the Independent Women’s Forum.

As a cross country and track coach, everybody has a running style,” he said. “It’s kind of like your fingerprint — everybody runs a little bit differently. In this case, it was obviously a male running.”

“The male [runner] is going to be stronger and more powerful, so you use that to your advantage to get yourself around the track,” he continued. “As a woman, the level of strength and power is different, so you end up having to do it with more grace and finesse.”

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WIAA policy allows athletes to compete based on gender identity. The association also advises that the medical privacy of transgender athletes be protected and that any policies surrounding transgender participation be "informed by sound medical knowledge and scientific validity."

Vergillo claims WIAA did not "prepare" teams ahead of the state meet, according to the Independent Women's Forum.

As a coach, I found out about it just through talking to other coaches from around the state,” he said. “Then, in the 400-meter open race, the individual from our school that qualified only found out about an hour before.”

"This would’ve been much easier if we had lost by 30 points instead of by just eight,” the coach added. “We can’t control what happened, so let’s make the most of it for us. Let’s enjoy this experience that we had.”

WIAA has asserted its policy aligns with both state and federal law, pointing to Title IX protections.

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Reacting to the WIAA meet results was women’s sports activist Riley Gaines.

Would you look at that,” she said. “The thing that never happens happened again."

“In Washington & Oregon this past week, the fastest ‘girl’ in the each state has been a boy [sic],” Gaines continued.

Also chiming in was Minnesota state Rep. Walter Hudson, R-District 30A.

“It's not okay to erase women's achievements and snuff out girls' futures,” he said. “But that's exactly what we're doing.”

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