North Cook News

New Trier Athletic Director and IHSA Board member Augustino “Augie” Fontanetta is refusing to comment on the Illinois High School Association’s stance regarding transgender athletes in girls' sports—even as records show he financially supports a national group actively opposing restrictions on male participation in female athletics.

Fontanetta’s silence comes amid a national debate ignited by President Donald Trump's Feb. 5 executive order, "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," which mandates that only biological females participate in women's sports. 

Notably, Fontanetta has financially supported the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), a national organization that advocates for the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

According to the WSF’s 2024 Impact Report, Fontanetta donated between $1,000 and $2,499 to the group, which has actively opposed state-level bans on transgender participation.

Ironically, the foundation’s report features the tagline: “All girls. All women. All sports" despite advocating “for the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports, with a particular focus on fighting against proposed bans of transgender athletes at the state level.”

“The Women’s Sports Foundation has engaged in a multi-faceted approach to push for inclusive policies for transgender athletes to play sports,” the WSF’s Impact Report reads. 

In 2021 the WSF advocated to keep biological males in girls sports by condemning legislation aimed at disallowing boys from playing girls sports. 

“The false rhetoric taking hold is a distraction to the real threats to girls and women in sports, such as lack of Title IX understanding and compliance; inequity in compensation, resources, sponsorship, and media attention; harassment and abuse of female athletes and women working in sports, the list goes on,” the group said in a statement at the time. 

Trump’s executive order has prompted several state-level investigations, including those in Illinois, where complaints have been filed concerning biological males changing in girls' locker rooms. 

Despite these developments, Fontanetta has not publicly addressed the IHSA's policy allowing transgender biological males to compete against females. 

Multiple media requests for comment have been met with silence from all 10 members of the IHSA Board of Directors, who have declined to share their individual positions.

This includes principals and administrators from schools across Illinois who serve on the board and are tasked with guiding policy for thousands of student-athletes statewide. Their refusal to comment comes as federal and state tensions escalate over how to define eligibility for female athletic categories.

In a letter dated March 17, 40 Republican state lawmakers urged the IHSA to provide clarity on whether it would comply with the executive order. 

Matt Troha, Assistant Executive Director of the IHSA, told Prairie State Wire the IHSA is complying with state law and has not changed its rules since the Trump executive order. 

“There has been no recent vote by the IHSA Board on this matter,” Troha said. “Per our letter, there is a law in Illinois that has existed for many years that allows participation by transgender student-athletes in IHSA State Series (post-season) competition. President Trump’s Executive Order obviously conflicts with that, and we have reached out to state lawmakers seeking clarification on remaining in legal compliance.”

A New York Times/Ipsos poll released in early 2025 found that a significant majority of Americans—including 67% of Democrats—oppose allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. 

Among all respondents, 79% disagreed with such participation, showing strong bipartisan concern about the issue. The topic has become a central theme of the 2024 election cycle and an early legislative priority for the new Trump administration.

Conservative advocacy group Awake Illinois has also condemned the IHSA’s refusal to adopt the executive order, accusing it of “allowing boys to invade girls’ sports.” 

One of the most high-profile voices in the debate has been Abbigail Wheeler, a former YMCA swimmer who was removed from her team in 2023 after expressing discomfort sharing a locker room with a transgender girl. Wheeler has since become an activist, advocating for what she calls “biological fairness” in youth sports. 

“I was made to feel as though I was in the wrong,” Wheeler said at a press conference. “I was made to feel as though there was something wrong with me feeling uncomfortable changing in the women’s locker room where biological men were being allowed to undress in the same space as me and my underage teammates.”

Fontanetta's tenure as New Trier's Athletic Director began in the 2016–17 school year, following a career that included roles at Fremd High School and District 211. 

In 2020, Fontanetta became the first athletic director elected to the IHSA Board of Directors after a bylaw change allowed athletic administrators serving as their school's IHSA representative to run.

Fontanetta’s tenure as New Trier’s AD has seen turmoil. 

The New Trier High School's boys' varsity lacrosse team was placed on probation for the 2022 and 2023 seasons following an off-campus hazing incident. Under Fontanetta’s oversight, the team was barred from out-of-state competitions and social gatherings, with further disciplinary actions pending based on the ongoing investigation. 

In 2023 New Trier High School also completed a $79.5 million athletic facility upgrade—funded by taxpayer-backed bonds and district reserves—raising concerns about fiscal priorities amid broader educational budget constraints.

Meanwhile, New Trier as a whole has been a hotbed of “wokeness.” From 2011 to 2016, New Trier High School District 203 paid $108,583 to the equity consulting group SEED, which trains educators to recognize white privilege and systemic oppression, with many payments obscured in financial records under non-educational categories.