Transgender center helping Massachusetts girls’ basketball team in hunt for championship 3-peat

One of the best players on a powerhouse high school girls’ basketball team in Massachusetts is a biological male, according to recent reports.

Six-foot center Addie Ruter is the player in…

One of the best players on a powerhouse high school girls’ basketball team in Massachusetts is a biological male, according to recent reports.

Six-foot center Addie Ruter is the player in question, according to HeCheated.org and the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.

Ruter, a senior who reportedly went by “Eddie” as a child, helped the Foxborough High girls’ basketball team win back-to-back Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division state championships in 2023 and 2024

Foxborough head Coach Lisa Downs has referred to Ruter as the team’s “secret weapon.” 

“She’s the secret weapon I’ve actually never had in 12 years (as a coach),” Downs told The Sun-Chronicle previously, also reported by The Blaze. “Few teams have (players like her). To have the scorers I have and then you add an inside player, it makes a nightmare.

“You can’t go to a zone because you’ll shoot lights-out, and if you go to man, she’ll beat you,” Downs continued. “She’s fast, she’s tall and she can shoot. She does it all and can find the open player. She’s a weapon and I’m happy to have her for two more years.”

Foxborough could win another state championship this season. The team is off to an 8-1 start, and its only loss of the season so far came in a game where Ruter was out with an injury.

Ruter has received awards including Hockomock League All-Star, HockomockSports Second-Team and All Underclassmen Team, The Sun Chronicle All-Star team and Boston Globe All-Scholastic Honorable Mention. 

As a sophomore, Ruter averaged 14.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game, according to HockomockSports.  

Ruter continues to be a key contributor to the team; the center scored 15 points and had eight rebounds in a 62-39 win over Attleboro recently.

Ruter has also competed in girls’ outdoor track and field, finishing 10th in the triple jump at the spring 2023 MIAA Division 4 state championship meet.

Ruter isn’t the only transgender girls’ basketball player in Massachusetts in recent years. 

Last year, KIPP Academy of Lynn had a biological male who stood over six feet tall, had facial hair and injured three girls in one half of a game last season, causing the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell to forfeit at halftime. The boy was also a league all-star in girls’ volleyball and a standout in girls’ track and field. 

Since 2023, Massachusetts has also had males win state championships in girls’ track and field, gymnastics and field hockey.

Massachusetts has a law that allows boys to participate in girls’ sports if a male version of the sport isn’t offered, and vice versa. This applies to girls’ field hockey but typically isn’t the case in basketball since most schools offer both girls and boys teams. Foxborough does have a boys varsity basketball team.