You Go Girl!

On Monday, my son and I ran into his basketball coach at mini dribbler's practice. John ran up to his coach with his big Johnny smile. "Coach, are we going to have a team this year?" The coach explained that they didn't have enough boys to make the team. I asked about the girls that played on the team last year. Weren't they going to play? "No," Coach Joey said, "the City won't let the girls play on the boys' teams anymore. They said it is a liability to let the girls play with the boys because the boys might hurt the girls."

Last year, my son John played on an under 10 basketball team at the Marty Robbins Center on the east side. They were undefeated. Two girls played on the team. The leading scorer was a girl. The other team that Coach Joey coached was under 8. They had a couple girls on the team. They were also undefeated. One of their best players was a girl. John's coach, who likes to win, is obviously very upset about losing some of his best players to a rule that doesn't make sense to him.

Johnny's real sport is baseball. He's been playing since he was four through t-ball, onto coach pitch and finally at kid pitch. There have always been girls on his team. One of the best players is a girl named Alisa who played short stop and was always dependable at bat. This was her last year to play on the team because her dad wants her to start getting used to girl's softball.

I played soccer most of my life but always liked playing football. The only opportunity I had to play football was neighborhood football that we used to play in middle of the street with one kid always posted to watch for oncoming traffic. In middle school, I spent a good ten minutes every day trying to convince the football coach to let me try out for the football team. I didn't ask him to put me on the team. I just asked him to let me try out. He refused even though he knew that I could kick farther than any of their punters and at that age, I was just as tough as any of them. Even though he knew that I could compete, he told me that I would not be allowed to compete because I was a girl. I would not have been able to compete in high school. By then, the boys had gotten a lot bigger and a lot stronger.

Studies show that there is little physiological difference girls and boys before the onset of puberty. Since more and more girls are encouraged to play sports from an early age, they have the ability and the skills to compete with boys. So, why won't we let them?

I asked our Parks and Recreation Department for an answer. Here is what I got back: "We do not currently offer co-ed youth sports leagues for programs managed by our Sports Section; we offer boys divisions and girls divisions. Girl players who are exceptional usually play up in age group. There are instances when girl age groups do not have enough players to make enough teams. When this happens, we do allow girls to play on boys teams, but staff also explains that if the girls division does make they would have to move to a girls team. Staff is guided by UIL and NCAA rules which are guided by Title IX. Paula states that she has been offering the program this way for 10 years with much success and has doubled the girls' programs."

I'm glad to hear that we are increasing participation in our girls' programs, but this still doesn't answer my question. If a girl under the age of 12 wants to compete and can compete on a boys' team, why can't she? The answer "because she is a girl" didn't seem fair to me in middle school and it doesn't seem fair to me now.

At Tuesday's meeting, I am going to ask City Council to reconsider the City's postion on this issue.