Reduxx has learned that a trans-identified male high school student has been quietly participating in girls sports, earning accolades intended for young female athletes. Charlie Rothenberger, who now goes by “Marissa,” was transitioned by his parents at an extremely early age and is now drawing ire from his female teammates as more are becoming aware that he is biologically male.
Rothenberger is a 17-year-old student at Champlin Park High School in Champlin, Minnesota. He currently plays as a starting pitcher for his girl’s high school fastpitch team, where he has been credited with helping the school dominate softball competitions. Earlier this month, the first game of the new softball season kicked off against the Minnesota State Champions, Rogers High School. Rothenberger, who stands 6′ tall, was able to easily lead Champlin to victory against the defending champions with a “shut out” via 14 strikeouts and a double base hit of his own.
In an interview last year when he was a sophomore, one of the coaches said that Rothenberger had been doing a “phenomenal job,” with the pitcher himself suggesting his biological advantage was merely him “mixing different speeds” of the ball and “keeping [the other team] off-balanced.”
Another softball account on X dedicated to “highlighting the next generation of softball players” praised a “really hard hit to the outfield” by Rothenberger.
MSHSL section playoff softball already starts next week. Champlin Park enters the postseason red hot, winners of 14 in a row.
— Chaz Mootz (@ChazMootzCCX) May 17, 2024
The Patriots closed out the regular season last night with a 2-1 win over Chaska. Marissa Rothenberger threw 10 k’s, only allowing 3 hits in 7 IP. pic.twitter.com/gYnl0UlHzG
Rothenberger has also played for Midwest Speed Softball, an elite-level softball club team that travels around the country for competitions. On his player profile, he brags about having attained an All State Award last season due to his pitching.
“From watching college pitchers and trying to emulate them, to now striving to become one,” he writes. “I am passionate in doing what it takes to be the best I can be.”
In July of 2024, Rothenberger was named Player of the Month by the Heart of America Elite Fastpitch League. In his biography on the site, he lists one of his goals as playing “Division 1 softball in college.”
While Rothenberger has participated in girls sports from an early age and has never publicly stated he identifies as transgender, Reduxx has obtained documents showing that his mother, Heather Rothenberger, applied to the Hennepin County District Court to alter his birth certificate shortly after his 9th birthday.
The petition was approved, and Rothenberger was issued a new birth certificate showing that he was born “female” and altering his name from “Charlie Dean” to “Marissa.” Minnesota is one of many states where altered birth certificates do not need to signify that the original document was altered.
But while Rothenberger has managed to conceal his sex throughout most of his school history, his teammates and competitors have recently become aware. One anonymous female softball player from Minnesota, who played on the same team as Rothenberger in 2023, spoke to Reduxx under the condition of anonymity.
The girl noted that it took years before she realized Rothenberger was a boy, believing at first he was simply just an “awkward” girl.
“We were never really that close because I never had anything in common with him. I never thought he was a boy, but after finding out he was a boy and then looking back on a lot of things I wouldn’t have looked at before, [it] definitely shows he is a boy, and I felt dumb for missing the clues,” she told Reduxx. The player said she initially discovered his true identity in July of 2024 during the 2023/24 season when “no one was really talking about it,” but added that by November of that year, “lots of people from the softball community found out the truth and were openly talking about it.”
According to the player, Rothenberger regularly used the female bathrooms, even rooming with other girls when the team travelled across the country, while none of the girls he shared facilities or bedrooms with was aware that he is male. “Looking back now, it disgusts me and is just scary,” she said.
The player described Rothenberger’s athletic performance compared to the other girls as being “completely unreal,” saying he is able to do “so much more” than girls who train with the exact same coaches. “He is able to be relied on as a pitcher, and took opportunities away from girls who deserved them most,” she said.
She told Reduxx that she felt “upset” and “uncomfortable” that males are being allowed to play on the same team as women, especially being told that “as a girl I just have to learn to accept that men can take advantage of you even if they just want to identify as a female.”
The girl adds that she is frustrated and hurt by the whole ordeal.
“Many players and I work so hard to achieve something through this sport and we find it unfair that our spot can be stolen from us,” she continued. “This shouldn’t be allowed and boys can stay in boys sports and leave us girls alone. I shouldn’t have to learn this lesson that girls don’t matter or that we need to just be silent while we lose out so a boy feels okay.”
The revelations have drawn concern from the Independent Council On Women’s Sport (ICONS), which is now raising the alarm about a concerning phenomenon involving a new wave of male athletes who were socially and medically transitioned as young boys. As some of them may have had their birth records falsified at an extremely early age, there may be no public record of their true sex, making it possible for them to participate in women’s sports virtually undetected and beyond the reach of many of the current policies intended to protect women’s sports.
Rothenberger is just one example of many trans-identified males who have managed to slip under the radar in women’s sports after transitioning at a young age, with legal records of their true identity often hidden away.
In 2023, Reduxx learned that Tate Drageset, a 17-year-old volleyball player from California, was set to become the first known male recipient of a women’s Division 1 (D1) athletic scholarship after having falsified his identity from the age of 6. Prior to the Reduxx exposé, no record existed that Drageset was biologically male. Following our report, Drageset’s mother e-mailed Reduxx and stated that the University of Washington had informed them that they would “no longer honor their verbal commitment” to him.
Speaking to Reduxx, Kim Jones of ICONS said it was “frustrating” to hear people argue that “so long as women and girls don’t know they are being replaced by a boy or competing against a boy or undressing next to a boy, then it’s ok, the girls shouldn’t care.” Jones compared tolerance for the deception to those who “hand-wave away voyeurism or sexual assault” when a victim is drunk, asleep, or unaware.
“It makes these young girls learn early in life that it is acceptable for them to be abused and taken advantage of by boys so long as everyone looks the other way and it’s hidden to a certain level of satisfaction,” Jones said. “These girls need to know they are important enough to be treated fairly in public while they play sports, as well as in private and that protection is incumbent upon leadership in sports and in schools to ensure.”
On the issue of boys like Rothenberger, whose documents were falsified at a young age to conceal their birth sex, Jones says the problem is bound to get worse.
“We are seeing the first drips through the faucet of young boys who were subjected to gender ideology from a really young age and there are thousands more of these boys out there now who are even younger and will impact girl’s sports for the next decade in increasing numbers,” she says.
Jones notes that current policies being drafted with the intention of protecting female athletes fail to address this growing problem.
“Policy makers need to think beyond men like Lia Thomas. Looking at birth certificates and enrollment history is not enough. We need sex screening so that girls and women aren’t left with an even more difficult situation in ten years. Sex is not private information and can be screened through already universally required pre-participation physicals, which include medical history, or a simple cheek swab.”
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