Gender Equity? Not really
This caught me by surprise. A caller said he didn't want to "out" his son just yet, but he was wondering if his son could go out for the girls volleyball team at his high school (won't say which one) since they do not offer a boys volleyball team. He said his son is a club volleyball player and is willing to do this if can somehow force the high school to field a boys team. My first thought was he's joking, right? But hey, don't girls go out for football because there is no girls football team? Same with wrestling, and so on. I thought what's fair is fair, but after combing through the CIF blue book, it's not that simple. They've got a different set of rules for boys and girls, which is clearly spelled out on page 94 of the blue book, which is broken down into three parts.
(1) - Student Team - Whenever the school provides only a team or teams for boys in a particular sport, girls are permitted to quality for the student teams.
(2) - Boys' Team - Whenever the school provides a team or teams for boys and a team or teams for girls in the same sport, girls shall not be permitted to qualify for the boys' teams in that sport, nor shall boy be permitted to qualify for the girls teams in that sport.
(3) - Girls' Team - (This spells it out) Whenever the school provides only a team or teams for girls in a particular sport, boys shall not be permitted to quality for the girls' team in that sport unless opportunities in the total sports program for boys in the school has been limited in comparison to the total sports program for girls in that school. Permission for boys to qualify for a girls' team must be secured through petition by the school principal to the CIF State Federated Council.
Final thoughts: Well, looks like if this family forced this issue they might have a chance, but it looks like a real long shot. Anyway, it seemed like a nice try and would have been a great feature story. The SGV has three to four times as many girls volleyball teams than boys teams, so this could have started a trend. I'm glad it didn't. Even though I'm all for gender equity, CIF got it right on this one.
Comments
All states differ. Inmy home state, state law dictates if there is only one team the opposite gender can qualify. I was on a girls volleyball team and yeah some people made fun of me but nobody had a problem with it. Girls can play football then why can't a guy play volleyball? A lot of those girls were my friends, I like volleyball and I had a great time. I played baseball too (not softball). I played on the girls volleyball team cause ther was no boys team, I don't see the harm in that.
Posted by: Ryan | August 30, 2008 9:31 PM
This is totally stupid. How can you let boys on a girls volleyball team? Ok lets just put 5 boys and 1 girl on the court. It's still the school team right? Now lets have them play against an all girls squad and watch them beat the crap out of the girls. Title 9 is NOT meant to create this scenario. Get some brains. He should stick to club or transfer to another school.
Posted by: duh | August 5, 2008 8:37 AM
the ultimate hypocrisy of school sports. It's ok for girls to play on a boys team but not vice versa. If my son had a strong desire to play volleyball I would sue the district, this goes against title 9.
Posted by: kwed | August 5, 2008 7:05 AM
I know of a girl that played boys baseball at summit high out in the IE but she was on the JV team since it was her freshman year. She stated that she couldn't try out for the softball team because she had a broken hand or something of that nature, but anyways they were hesitant and made her earn it during conditioning
Posted by: hmm.. | August 4, 2008 11:46 PM
Fred,
This is interesting. I am curious if boys are allowed to play softball and/or girls allowed to play baseball? A lot of guys play softball once we are old and out of shape, but usually not before that.
Posted by: New York | August 4, 2008 8:03 PM
Call Charm Doyle and ask her if she ever had a boy out for her team.
Posted by: Don | August 4, 2008 5:20 PM