Teenage Irish boy earns right to play field hockey with the girls

BrianO, he's been playing already, this was just an extension.

Comment of May 17 9:15 a.m. isn't mine. Mine is 2 hours later.

Ciaradexy he wants to play girls field hockey not hockey,

Bythebay, the kids wants to play hockey not lacrosse.

The consequence of such actions? perhaps coed teams only the best of both genders play and the ones that are only fair can paint.

Debate is moot, it's a fait accompli!

For the most part boys are more aggressive than girls, there are always exceptions, the problem I have is, you have a female who is talented, competes for a spot and is deemed talented enough to compete she will make most teams, the inverse is not true. The male player on a female team will have to show he will not dominate the competition, he must show in essence a lack of aggression or talent. The premise in this article is that field hockey is offered only for girls teams and this gives the boy no field hockey options. Will this boys goal be to be the best or will it be to be mediocre to not offend anyone, the parents are doing him no favors, unless there are limiting factors such as special needs or physical ailments, they would be better off teaching him lacrosse.

Murph46, If this boy were not the athletic equal, or close to it, of the girls on the team, the committee would not have let him play with the girl's team! You seem to think that there cannot be equality unless there is segregation by sex. Perhaps you should read the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, just to get some balance on the relationship between segregation and inequality. In the early days of Title IX, women coaches fought against the tide of civil rights decisions to have teams for women only--segregated by sex--as the only way to have equal treatment for female athletes. But now, a generation later, no one can question women's athletic ability, and we no longer need a sex-segregated environment to avoid being shoved out by men. Let the boy play!

Point being is they wanted EQUALITY,now please describe to me equality in the instance of a boy on a girls team.Period.

Murph, Title IX affects teams at post-secondary institutions-- colleges and universities-- not primary and secondary schools. While Title IX allows separate teams for women and men, I am not aware that it forbids sex-integrated teams. If you think it does, please quote and cite your source. Football has been exempted from the beginning for various reasons, primarily the money it produces for universities, which the male athletic associations are unwilling to share with female athletes. But Title IX has always been a struggle to enforce, ever since Weinberger published rules for it in the mid-1970s. It has restored some fairness for women who qualify for sports scholarships, which were once the exclusive preserve of college men, but female college athletes do not have anything like equal treatment yet.

Why eiramach do you think the US enacted Title 9? To give girls equality no where does it say boys can play on girls teams ,for a myriad of reasons -FEDERAL LAW!

Oh BrianO! you reminded me about an incident in my childhood, about age 7. I used to love to climb a large old dogwood tree at the top of a steep hill in the park. One day, I guess I was showing off to the other kids, and I did a fancy stunt leaping from one branch to another. A group of boys started mocking me. One of them yelled, "Anybody could do that!" Another boy dared him to do the same. He tried it, fell and rolled down the hill, and when they picked him up, he was bruised and had a broken arm. After that day, whenever a boy called me a "tomboy," I'd challenge him to take that leap. Pretty soon they all stopped teasing me.

eiramach you are insane if you think the inclusion of one boy into a girls league changes anything you listed,and I guarantee that if a girl is harmed by his hit,a lawyer WILL TAKE THE CASE &WIN!regardless of any waivers.

Actually eiriamach it was a little tongue in cheek remark referring to the romney bulling from earlier in the week, But a side note about girls in sport, I've played with some hell of athletic girls, We had one jerky guy playing ice hockey who thought he would intimidate a girl teammate of mine, she dislocated the guys shoulder with a nice check, it was a beautiful thing to watch. So lighten up.

Much Ado About Nothing: Keeling is being allowed to CONTINUE playing for the girls hockey team for another year. He already plays for the team. That's called equality.