A transgendered track and field star at Bates College is determined to earn a spot on the U.S. national team and compete in the 2008 Olympics.
There will be questions Godsey and school officials deny any serious repercussions thus far on campus or at competitions. That might be a credit to hate crime statutes, according to Hartshorn. It also may be a product of Coffey's proactive, off-season approach ("my homework," she said) and the school's choice to give the media selective, limited access to the athlete.
While objectors remain few, Godsey knows there will be questions about the apparent duplicity of representing as a man while competing as a woman.
"Not many people do what I'm doing, and I'm doing what I'm doing only because I still want to compete," Godsey said. "This was the only way I was going to do it, and the only way I could do it. There are no rules being broken. I'm not doing anything illegal, anything wrong. I'm not doing anything other than going by a different pronoun and a different name."
Little has changed about Godsey's appearance, which is notable for short, spiked hair and a tall, muscular build.
"(Other teams) probably don't even realize it," said Ashley Wentworth, a senior middle-distance runner from North Andover, Mass., and fellow captain of the women's team with Godsey. "He looks the same as he did last year. Right now, it's only the name that's different."
Everyday life has changed dramatically for Godsey, an English major who has applied to graduate schools as a male in hopes of becoming a physical therapist.
Transgender support groups offer limited help. Most of the members are in their 40s and 50s, Godsey said. Also, male-to-female procedures are more common in sports and the world at large than female-to-male transitions.
Reaction among family and friends runs the gamut from accepting to appalled.
"I lost a lot of friends over this," Godsey said. "With family, it's more like the relationships are gone. We don't talk about it at all. That's kind of how it's dealt with. Some members of my family are perfectly OK with it. Some people say stuff, yeah, but I just don't associate with those people. I essentially try to avoid them."
"People might be able to sympathize, but it's hard to empathize," added Hartshorn. "I think people can relate to it on the level that, 'Oh, that would be hard.' But they have no real basis in their life to compare it to."
Olympic dreamsGodsey's journey is not a case of the last player on the basketball or softball bench making a drastic change in college in order to ease transition into the professional realm. As a biological woman, Godsey has legitimate hopes of earning a spot with the U.S. national team and possibly reaching the Olympics in the hammer throw.
The IOC permits transgender athletes to compete in their new gender if reassignment surgery took place more than two years earlier, but again, Godsey hasn't gone that far. Passing a drug test would be the only obstacle to Godsey competing against women for a gold medal.
When the track career ends, the financial worries will begin. Medical insurance does not cover any aspect of a sex-change operation.
"I've heard over $1 million for female-to-male. It's kind of ridiculous," Godsey said. "I will not do everything. I'm hoping it will be cheaper than that for me."
Godsey fears discrimination in the workplace more than the possibility of bodily harm. As a woman, Godsey believed she lost out on jobs due to her androgynous appearance.
With the story now public knowledge, Bates hopes local reaction will mirror its disarming cool.
"My advice to people is to remember that it's so much the same person," Wentworth said. "He still likes all the same things, still thinks the same things are funny. Just take a look at the person."
"I don't anticipate anything negative," said Coffey.
Then she added, "Of course, we can't be sure of that."