Minnesota State High School League

Yeah

... because we did, we had a very high-profile instance here of a Minnesota State high school league softball team win the state championship.

The pinnacle, right? This is what you g- You go to state, and if you win state, I mean, it's the crown jewel of, of most athletes in America, 'cause they're not gonna go on to play college or pro.

So this state tournament was won by a team that had a biological male as their pitcher and struck out everybody.

Yeah.

At board member Nelson's request, the board considered this letter to the Minnesota State High School League, which governs athletics in the state.

The letter essentially calls on the league to prohibit transgender students from playing on girls sports teams.

Other districts have done similar, including Brainerd Public Schools just last week.

I really like him.

And, uh, Johnny Blado, who's, uh, you know, came out of the US, uh, Minnesota High School-

Mm-hmm

... ranks.

So the fact that the league is, is down a bit, uh, it's good for those players.

Uh, you know, a kid like, uh, Wankus out of Minnesota High School out of Edina hit 26 minutes one night.

I mean, if you're an NHL scout, you're going to watch him play.

You're going to get a pretty good understanding of what that kid is, uh, than somebody who's playing, you know, seven minutes.

In fact, five of the top seven came out of the CHL.

Three came out of NTDP.

One came out of the USHL, one came out of Minnesota High School.

I don't see a huge flip from what I'm looking at.

Okay.

Now, is this an actual Minnesota State High School League sanctioned sport, or is that up to each school?

It is not.

No, we have not reached out to the high school league.

Jess Braverman of the Minnesota group Gender Justice says despite the national backlash, it's comforting to be in a state that fosters a welcoming tone.

The Minnesota High School League has been trans-inclusive for over a decade.

And during that time, Minnesota has led the nation in girls' high school sports participation.

Cunningham says her comments were misinterpreted as an attack on the entire trans community, while reiterating she wants to protect young girls in sports she feels shouldn't have to go against biological men.

I think it's a great starting point.

The heavy hitters at the Minnesota State High School League have probably already thought through way more of this than you or I have.

But If we're going to remain competitive in the association high school levels with these junior programs, we have to change what we're doing because the way we've done it for the last 50 years, while it's romantic and it's great and it's cute and it's fun, it's going to go away in a real hurry if we don't find a way to evolve and find a way to get better.

Really well stated.

This kind of came from me looking at how guys have done from getting drafted on New England Prep back in April or May I did that.

And then people were like, why don't you throw in Minnesota high school hockey and see what that's like? And I was like, oh, it's just more work, but sure, why not? But

we're not Minnesota Hockey Journal.

That's right.

But if they did, leave it to them.

It took a while, a lot of Google Sheets, a lot of elite prospects pages to look at.

But basically, for those who haven't read it, and I implore you to go read it if you haven't, it was a breakdown from 2010 to 2025 of kids who played in New England prep who were eligible and they were on central scouting versus kids who were in Minnesota high school hockey when they were on NHL central scouting from 2010 to 2025.

And I feel like the numbers were pretty similar.