Girl athletes express fear over school district switching sports conferences to accommodate trans athletes
The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD) in Truckee, California, is leaving the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) to join the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).
The change will go into effect in Fall 2025 and comes after the NIAA voted to ban trans athletes from the girls' category during its April 2 Board of Control meeting. It was made in order to comply with President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order. However, California has continued to defy the order and enable trans inclusion in girls' sports.
Multiple TTUSD parents and girls' athletes pleaded with school officials not to make the switch to California's federation at the Truckee Unified school board meeting Wednesday night.
Not only did they speak out the notion of letting trans athletes in girls' sports, but many speakers also pointed out that other details of the switch would affect the district's sports teams' ability to conduct their seasons, including travel and scheduling changes that would bring about potential weather complications for outdoor events.
The current setup with Truckee competing in the NIAA allows its teams to travel east into Nevada for most of its away competition, as the town sits near the northern California-Nevada border. But with the coming change, the student athletes could soon have to travel west for most of their away competition.
This means that students will often have to travel through California's Donner Pass, a 7,056-foot-high mountain pass. During winter, the pass is known for being dangerous due to extreme weather conditions like heavy snowfall, strong winds and icy roads. The high elevation and frequent storms contribute to treacherous travel conditions, including the potential for avalanches.
Truckee high school girls' track and field athlete Ava Cochram expressed her fears of playing against trans athletes.
"Men generally have more muscle mass, higher lung capacity and greater bone density that gives them greater advantages, physically, in sports, and I think that it's very unfair to watch all of our hard work as women to go down the drain," Cochram said. "I do not have anything against trans people, but I think this is a violation of our privacy."
Truckee High School girls' soccer, track and basketball athlete Kenzie Zilstorf lamented the idea of changing with trans athletes in the same locker room, and having to increase the risk of travel with the change.
"It's even more bad if a woman has to go in the locker room with a man and change with them. There's two genders, a man and a woman," Zilstorf said. "And I think it's unfair that we have to take a dangerous drive to risk our lives over the summit when there's snow, all because of a privacy rule. This is wrong."
North Tahoe High School girls' soccer player Anna Holly said she isn't even going to be playing girls' soccer anymore because of the change.
"It's sad for me, because this is the only time I get to play soccer in my life, and I really do enjoy it, but I'm choosing basketball over that," Holly said. "And biologically, boys are born with greater speed and strength than girls, and having to play against them, they do have an unfair advantage, and I would not feel safe with them. There's also safety concerns about how much stronger they are than us."
TTUSD still defended its decision to switch to CIF in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
"A recent Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) policy change made on April 2, 2025, directly conflicts with California state law, specifically the California Education Code's mandate against discrimination and protection of student privacy. Given the direct conflict between the NIAA's recent policy changes and the mandates of California state law, TTUSD viewed joining a California athletics association as a necessary action to ensure legal compliance," read a statement from the TTUSD to Fox News Digital.
TTUSD also said it anticipates the new arrangements will lead to shorter travel times for its student athletes for away competitions, despite concerns over the Donner Pass.
"TTUSD is working with CIF on details related to league assignment, schedules, and travel distances. We anticipate that the overall mileage student-athletes travel within the CIF will be less than our current travel schedules," the district's statement read.
CIF is one of many high school sports conferences located in blue states to defy Trump's executive order since it was signed on Feb. 5.
It is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for its defiance of the order, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon has warned Governor Gavin Newsom that his state could be subject to federal funding freezes if it continues to defy.
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