Girl Goalie at Center of Texas Gender Flap : Youth soccer: A 10-year-old plays so well that fathers from an opposing team charge she is a boy. They are suspended from attending games after allegations they demanded a ‘panty check.’

The star goalie of the Lewisville Blaze soccer team for girls under 12 played her position so well that she became the object of a gender check controversy that resulted in the suspensions of several people, including coaches and parents.

It all started Sept. 29 when 10-year-old Natasha Dennis was playing goalie for her undefeated team in a game against the Solhers, a Denton team.

“Two fathers from the other team went onto the field during halftime because they wanted proof that Natasha was a girl,” Linda Dennis, the goalie’s mother, who was one of the suspended parents, said Thursday.

The Blaze coach offered the men the team roster and birth certificates for each player, but the men were not satisfied, said Ronnie Dennis, Natasha’s father and the Blaze’s assistant coach.

“They expected her to go into the ladies’ restroom and take her clothes off in front of some stranger,” Linda Dennis said.

Ronnie Dennis said that during the game, he knew his daughter’s gender was being challenged.

“I knew the question they were debating, but I didn’t know they were insisting on a panty check until after the game,” he said.

His wife took Natasha to meet one of her accusers after the game.

“I said, ‘Excuse me, but I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to my daughter Natasha.’ He looked at Natasha real funny and said, ‘Good game, boy,’ ” Linda Dennis said. “I said no, it’s ‘Good game, girl.’ He said, ‘Good game, son,’ and started to walk away.”

Chris Farr, another Blaze mother who had followed the Dennises across the field, began arguing with the man, Linda Dennis said.

The North Texas State Soccer Assn. decided on the suspensions Monday.

“When she told me they asked for a panty check, I was appalled,” said Ross Stewart, youth commissioner for the association. “I’ve been working in youth programs for 20 years, and this has never happened.”

Natasha, a 4-foot-5 fourth-grader with short brown hair, admits to being boyish.

“I hate dresses,” she said.

But Natasha said she did not appreciate the men’s accusations.

“I think they should go somewhere and check and see if they have anything between their ears,” she said.

One of the two Solhers fathers accused of asking for the gender check, Jeff Gutkencht, was suspended from attending league games for one year, and the other, Randy Hill, for the rest of the fall season.

Linda Dennis and Farr also were suspended for two games, Stewart said, because “they should not have crossed the field.”

Ronnie Dennis, the assistant coach, was suspended for two games and put on a year’s probation because he did not stop the parents, Stewart said.