A trans-identified male has been secretly playing on a girls’ lacrosse team in Michigan. Branson “Sophie” Waitz, 17, is a junior at Dexter High School, where he also participates in girl’s cheerleading and may have roomed with female students during overnight trips.
According to a 2015 name change petition reviewed by Reduxx, Waitz’s parents legally changed his name from Branson to Sophie when he was just 6 years old. Significantly, the judge that approved their request ordered the State Registrar to re-issue a changed birth certificate and sealed the original, making it publicly impossible to know it was altered.
Waitz has been competing in girls’ sports without the apparent knowledge of the state’s governing body, the Michigan High School Athletics Association (MHSAA).
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit athletic body comprised of more than 1,500 public and private schools. The organization’s current policy allows boys who identify as transgender to participate on girl’s teams through a waiver process. However, Waitz has apparently been competing against girls without disclosing his biological sex, having not applied for a waiver.
Last year, Geoff Kimmerly, director of communications for the MHSAA, told CBS News that the MHSAA had not received a waiver application for neither the 2024-25 winter season nor the 2025 spring season.
In another report from last May, Kimmerly told local press that “no trans athletes played in girls’ sports” that season, and that only two trans-identified male students in the state of Michigan had received a waiver to play.
However, Waitz has been playing girls lacrosse since 2023, suggesting that he is doing so without the explicit knowledge of the MHSAA. He has been a top-performer on his lacrosse team at Dexter, which is currently just three regional games away from the Michigan state lacrosse championship.
As a result, Waitz’s participation on the girls’ lacrosse team may be a violation of MHSAA policies, as well as an Executive Order on female sports signed last year by President Trump. The Executive Order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” outlined measures that would be taken to enforce the protection of female sports within public education institutions, including at the high school level.
Despite this, Kimmerly has insisted, via a written statement, that the MHSAA has been in compliance with the laws.
“The MHSAA follows and will continue to follow all applicable state and federal laws. We are monitoring developments in this regard closely, including federal litigation challenging the recent Executive Order and potential changes to state law that have been introduced in the Michigan legislature. The MHSAA plays no role in either, however.”
Concerningly, Waitz appears to have been transitioned as a very young child by his parents. Posts on his father’s Facebook account from 2013 show him being referred to as a boy at age 3 or 4, but soon after he appears on his mother’s Facebook account wearing feminine clothing and bathing suits.
In 2017, Waitz’ parents signed an open letter to the Trump administration in collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign. The letter was described as being from “parents of transgender and non-binary youth” who wanted to condemned the “attempt to roll back critical protections for their children and young people across the United States.”
Waitz represents the latest in an emerging pattern of boys who were transitioned at extremely young ages and are attempting to go “stealth,” meaning they try to present themselves as being born female and may not have disclosed their biological sex with their teammates or athletic officials.
Speaking to Reduxx, Kim Jones of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports expressed concern about these cases.
“We are now seeing the first cases of boys who were subjected to medical intervention and puberty blockers excelling in girls’ sports,” Jones said. “Many of their parents have changed legal birth records, which are then used to deceive students, teachers, and coaches and to circumvent federal law.”
Jones noted that policies intended to protect women’s sports are falling short due to the extreme measures some families are taking to conceal their sons’ biological sex in order to allow them access to girls’ sports and girls’ locker rooms.
“Most of these policies rely on legal documents as a barrier to entry, such as the sex listed on birth certificates or passports. The problem is that, in most states and many countries around the world, those documents can be altered. Female students have rights and protections on the basis of their sex. These rights and protections can only be upheld if males cannot hide their sex. Calling this deception male ‘privacy’ simply removes consent, as well as federal and constitutional rights, from girls. This is why sex screening, such as the testing being implemented by the Olympics, represents the future of protecting the rights of women and girls and should become a necessary part of athletic registration and school enrollment.”
Sex screening through cheek swabbing involves collecting a small saliva sample from the inside of an athlete’s cheek using a sterile cotton swab to determine biological sex. The process is commonly described as quick and noninvasive.
“Until we have sex testing implemented across the board, female athletes cannot be truly guaranteed fairness in their sport, as we are learning from these increasingly common ‘stealth’ cases.”
Waitz is not the only “stealth” male known to be participating in girls lacrosse.
In Massachusetts, a boy named Michael “Millie” McDonald has been attracting accolades for his performance against girls. McDonald is a freshman at Winchester High School, and appears to have been transitioned by his parents when he was approximately 5 or 6 years of age.
Earlier this month, McDonald was highlighted in a Mass Live article calling attention to the top performers in the state’s girls high school lacrosse scene. In it, his coach, Suzanne Onto, noted that he had “one of the best freshman campaigns [Ontso] had seen in her three-plus decades on the sidelines.”
Ontso was quoted as saying: “Millie’s speed, stick skills and game sense set her apart … She’s already drawing face guards in games. Millie will be a name you’ll hear in the future.”
Winchester coach Suzanne Ontso: "For us, this senior class has just been phenomenal. They really set a tone for us. We finished 13-7. We hadn’t had a winning record in a couple years. They really put in the work."
— Trevor Hass (@TrevorHass) May 26, 2026
On freshman Millie McDonald, who had 6 goals: "She’s a phenomenal…
Ontso also praised McDonald as a “phenomenal player” who was going to be a “dominant player for [Winchester].”
McDonald is also known to be participating on a girls’ ice hockey team, and is a top performer on the girls cross-country team at Winchester. Last year, McDonald placed third at the sectional championship, leading the Winchester girls’ team to their first sectional title in program history.
A spokesperson from HeCheated, an independent platform that tracks male participation in female sports, clarified that it is a common mistake to believe that boys who are transitioned earlier, like Waitz and McDonald, have less of a physical advantage over their female counterparts when it comes to sports.
“Boys who are more effeminate looking and especially those who have blocked puberty tend to garner more sympathy than boys who are more masculine looking when it comes to girls’ sports. This difference in treatment is not based on any sort of merit or difference in character, and certainly not on a lack of competitive advantage,” the spokesperson said.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve seen multiple boys who have blocked puberty excelling in girls’ athletics. They’ve led their teams to state championships in softball and basketball, won national championships in volleyball, even taking a California Interscholastic Federation MVP award. They have been ranked in the top 10 in the entire nation in track and field and one boy just recently took a state title in the shot put. This mentality of lookism, where boys who are more effeminate receive more favorable treatment, is discriminatory even within the group of trans-identified boys themselves.
“Girls’ sports are not for or low-performing males or males who can occasionally pass themselves off as girls. The entry into girls’ sports is not based on how someone looks or how good someone is at sports, but on sex. This needs to be enforced.”
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