A Colorado Christian University softball player says someone threatened to come to her school and kill her after she began speaking out against transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
Kendall Kotzmacher, 20, a sophomore catcher and infielder, told OutKick the threat came as her public profile grew. “I had a person say that they were gonna come to the school and kill me. That one was a little scary,” she said.
Kotzmacher said she reported the threat to her school and had documented other troubling messages over the summer. No arrests have been made, she said.
“I’ve been getting a lot of people telling me to go kill myself or that I don’t deserve to be alive or that I should die, a bunch of stuff like that, which has been really difficult to hear,” she said.
She said knowing that strangers can identify her college has made the situation worse. “I think people knowing where I go to school has been a little bit scary just because I never know if someone’s going to show up or what’s going to go on,” she said.
The harassment has spread beyond her. Kotzmacher said one person has replied to teammates’ comments on her social media, visited their accounts, and looked up their names and statistics. She offered in the team’s group chat to remove their names from her posts to shield them from backlash.
Her teammates refused. “And they’re like, absolutely not. Like, we’re in this together. We’re going to be supportive of you,” Kotzmacher recalled. “Like, we’re all here for you, which has been so refreshing to hear because I didn’t really get that last year.”
From a Minnesota semifinal to a national debate
Kotzmacher, a Minnesota native who previously played at Western Michigan University, transferred to Colorado Christian this past summer. In a September Fox News op-ed, she said the move followed a lack of coaching support and pressure in her coursework at Western Michigan.
Her activism traces back to White Bear Lake High School’s 3-2 loss to Champlin Park in the 2025 Minnesota Class AAAA state semifinals. Champlin Park, whose roster included a transgender pitcher, went on to win the state championship. Kotzmacher had helped get White Bear Lake to that semifinal with a seventh-inning, two-run home run in a 3-1 quarterfinal win over Farmington.
More than a year later, she’s juggling college softball, daily classes, and a growing advocacy role that has taken her to Washington, D.C. “When I went to DC, it was really hard to miss class and go do something so important and work for these females. And then come back on Monday and go to school like any other day,” she said.
A Senate hearing, and senators who left
Kotzmacher took part in a Sept. 23 news conference on Capitol Hill following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on fairness, opportunity and safety for female athletes. The three listed witnesses were ICONS co-founder Kim Jones, former professional soccer player Carly Smolak, and attorney William Bock III. Democrats called no witnesses of their own.
Sens. Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar attended parts of the hearing before leaving. Durbin argued lawmakers should focus on other issues facing children and female athletes and raised concerns about invasive physical examinations to enforce sports restrictions.
Kotzmacher pushed back on the limited Democratic participation. “Even if they don’t agree with it, just sit in and listen. Like, listen to these real stories from these real girls that this happened to,” she said.
She has also joined Sophie Cunningham rallies in Minneapolis, where she has previously said a counterprotester told her she “should’ve been aborted.”
Kotzmacher, who is from Minnesota, said she plans to vote for Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya, who is running against Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for the seat retiring Sen. Tina Smith is vacating. Tafoya has made restricting transgender participation in women’s sports part of her campaign. “I mean, I’ve talked to Michelle a lot. She’s been super supportive of everything. We’re pretty close,” Kotzmacher said.
“I haven’t lost my voice yet”
XX-XY Athletics named Kotzmacher a Courage Wins Champion in an Oct. 2 announcement, a program that recognizes female athletes who take consequential stands on fairness, opportunity or safety and offers financial support and leadership programming.
“I’ve lost a lot of friends. A lot of people won’t speak to me anymore,” she said. “It’s just good to be noticed.”
Kotzmacher acknowledged the toll the past months have taken. “I think this summer I definitely reached my limit,” she said. But she said thinking about younger girls who may face the same pressure keeps her speaking out.
“I think the biggest thing is that I haven’t lost my voice yet,” she said. “It’s really easy to get scared back into the cave and to be scared into not speaking anymore. I think in this day and age, using your voice and your platform is going to be the biggest thing for change.”
