A playoff-bound high school girls’ basketball team in Massachusetts this season has received strong contributions from a male player who excels in three different sports.
Lazuli Clark, a male, is a senior at KIPP Academy Lynn. Clark is not only a key contributor to the girls’ basketball team at the school, but the athlete was also a league all-star in girls’ volleyball this past fall and set two meet records in track and field last spring.
Clark is one of the top players on the girls’ basketball team this season. Here are some stat lines for Clark posted in high school sports roundups in The Item:
16 points and 14 rebounds in a 48-36 win over Nashoba on February 6, 2024 (KIPP clinched a playoff berth with the win)
8 points and 8 rebounds in a 10-0 forfeit win over Collegiate Charter School of Lowell on February 8, 2024 (game ended at halftime with KIPP leading 31-14)
10 points and 10 rebounds in a 40-33 loss against Rockport on January 11, 2024
6 points and 8 rebounds in a 47-26 loss to Minuteman on January 2, 2024
10 points and 6 rebounds in a 48-16 win over Roxbury Prep on December 21, 2023
Clark led the team in three state categories: kills (171), aces (94), and blocks (97), according to MaxPreps.
KIPP’s girls’ volleyball team went 13-9 and made it to the second round (Round of 32) of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 5 postseason tournament. Mount Greylock, the eventual state champs, knocked KIPP out of the tournament, according to the MIAA’s postseason bracket.
Plus, last spring, Clark set two meet records for the KIPP Academy girls’ track and field team.
Clark competed in the Lynn All-City Track Championship meet on May 30, 2023. It’s a meet that features all five high schools in Lynn, Massachusetts: St. Mary’s, Lynn Tech, Lynn Classical, Lynn English, and KIPP Academy.
Clark set the meet record in the 400-meter hurdles (1:12:40) and shot put (41 feet, 2 inches), according to The Item.
Had Clark competed in the MIAA Division 6 state championship last spring (KIPP is in Division 6 in outdoor track), the athlete would have won the state title for shot put; none of the throwers at the meet cracked 35 feet, according to the MIAA.
Clark openly identifies as transgender. An article published in November 2023 by The 74, a news web site that covers school choice issues, describes Clark as a “transgender female” and a rising senior at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate. (“KIPP” stands for “Knowledge is Power Program.”)
In the article, Clark expresses opposition to conservative states that have limited their recognition of transgender identity.
“Going to school is the least of people’s concerns at this point for a lot of people,” Clark told the outlet. “There are days where I’m like, oh yeah, I have to worry about my AP U.S. history project and yesterday another state basically made it so that I can never exist in that state. And it’s like, how’s anyone supposed to think about anything at all when there’s all of that going on? Even if you’re not directly impacted by it. Most people in my generation know somebody who’s impacted in one way or the other.”
KIPP Academy athletic director Anthony Grimaldi could not be reached for comment on Wednesday or Thursday.
New to NewBostonPost? Conservative media is hard to find in Massachusetts. But you’ve found it. Now dip your toe in the water for two bucks — $2 for two months. And join the real revolution.
