The “horror” of a area hockey participant being struck within the face by a shot from a male on the opposing workforce has one native superintendent calling on the MIAA to revisit its tips that permit boys to play a ladies’ sport.
Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey is making the push after a male member on the Swampscott High ladies’ area hockey workforce took a shot that hit the face of a feminine participant competing for his regional district.
The brutal harm, coming from a nook play within the third quarter throughout Thursday’s state event matchup in Swampscott, induced the D-R participant to be handled at a hospital for what Runey described as “significant facial and dental injuries.”
Males are allowed to take part on feminine groups in Massachusetts primarily based on the state’s Equal Rights Amendment, in accordance with the MIAA handbook.
“I understand that the Mass ERA legislation is voluminous; and therefore, is very difficult to modify in total,” Runey mentioned Friday in a letter to his college neighborhood. “However, seeing the horror in the eyes of our players and coaches upon greeting their bus last night is evidence to me that there has to be a renewed approach by the MIAA to protect the safety of our athletes.”
Video reveals the Swampscott participant taking the nook, capturing the ball and instantly, the D-R participant squatting to the bottom, screeching in ache. Her teammates are visibly shaken by the hit, with trainers dashing the sphere to take care of the participant.
Play stopped for roughly 10 minutes earlier than it resumed.
The similar participant taking the shot for Swampscott scored each objectives because the workforce defeated D-R in a 2-0 shutout.
Swampscott Athletic Director Kelly Wolff, in an electronic mail to the Herald, referred to as the incident “an unfortunate injury” that got here on a “legal play” and the shot “deflected off her teammate’s stick.”
“We are sorry to see any player get hurt and wish the Dighton-Rehoboth player a speedy recovery,” Wolff mentioned. “The Swampscott player who took the shot is a 4-year varsity player and co-captain who, per MIAA rules, has the exact same right to participate as any player on any team.”
Field hockey gamers are allowed to put on facial safety on offensive corners, however the gear will not be required.
A authorized be aware from the MIAA highlights how “boys have been competing on girls’ teams, and girls have been competing on boys’ teams, for more than 40 years,” primarily based on the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX.
FULL TEXT: MIAA area hockey memo
Boys’ area hockey will not be supplied in Massachusetts, permitting males to play the game on ladies’ groups, in accordance with the MIAA rule.
“We respect and understand the complexity and concerns that exist regarding student safety,” the MIAA states. “However, student safety has not been a successful defense to excluding students of one gender from participating on teams of the opposite gender. The arguments generally fail due to the lack of correlation between injuries and mixed-gender teams.”
In 2020, pissed off that their issues had not been addressed by directors and the MIAA, opponents of boys taking part in in opposition to ladies in area hockey took their trigger to the State House.
The Massachusetts Coalition to Preserve Girls Field Hockey, made up of oldsters, and 25 present and former coaches and officers, proposed both the creation of a boys’ league with regional groups and a 7-on-7 format just like the event of women’ ice hockey.
Runey identified how the development of kit and coaching that student-athletes obtain right this moment ought to require officers “to be more thoughtful about all of our rules and policies regarding safety.”
“To be clear, I have the utmost respect for the abilities of female athletes,” he mentioned. “I am the father of three and all three were very successful in their high school athletic careers. My two daughters remain in the athletic realm today due, in large part, to their positive experience in high school athletics. We have a responsibility to preserve that positivity for all of our athletes today and in the future.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com