A Dublin born New York boy continue playing field hockey for a girls team for at least another year after an appeals hearing.
Keeling Pilaro, now 13, can play on for one more season with the Southampton High School team in Suffolk County.
An American athletics committee made the ruling after Pilaro appealed an initial decision banning him from playing with the girls.
The original hearing decreed that Keeling’s skills, learnt as he grew up in Dublin, had developed to a level superior to those of the boys.
Now the public schools athletics committee for Suffolk County has ruled that the teenager can play on with the girl’s team.
Keeling told reporters: “I was jumping up and down; I was so excited when I heard. I can play!”
Athletics committee attorney Kevin Seaman announced their decision that: “Keeling’s continued participation on the team ultimately would not have a significant adverse effect on girls’ opportunity to participate in interschool competition.”
The closed meeting heard that those are the same criteria used earlier this year when officials for the committee said Keeling’s skills had exceeded those of his female teammates and competitors.
The meeting, attended by 24 officials, was held behind closed doors. Seaman also confirmed that said the vote to allow Keeling to play was not unanimous.
The Southampton college coach and attorneys for both sides attended the meeting and heard that Keeling was named to an all-conference team after scoring 10 goals and eight assists as an eighth-grader last season.
His supporters noted that Keeling’s skills did not earn him the more prestigious all-county honors while Southampton’s squad finished in fourth place in its conference.
When Keeling moved to New York from Dublin he had to get permission from Suffolk’s mixed-competition committee according to website www.thejournal.ie.
Keeling is believed to be the first boy allowed to play alongside girls on Long Island according to the report.
The Pilaro family considered filing a federal civil rights lawsuit had the ruling not gone in their favour in a country where boys do not regularly play field hockey.
USA national men’s team coach Chris Clements backed Keeling’s bid to play.
He told AP: “Maybe by the time he gets to be a senior, it could be argued that there is a difference, but I would say right now he fits in just fine.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Bythebay | May 18, 2012, 10:17 AM EDT
BrianO, he's been playing already, this was just an extension.
Bythebay | May 18, 2012, 10:15 AM EDT
Comment of May 17 9:15 a.m. isn't mine. Mine is 2 hours later.
BrianO | May 17, 2012, 08:02 PM EDT
Ciaradexy he wants to play girls field hockey not hockey,
ciaradexy | May 17, 2012, 12:02 PM EDT
Bythebay, the kids wants to play hockey not lacrosse.
BrianO | May 17, 2012, 11:55 AM EDT
The consequence of such actions? perhaps coed teams only the best of both genders play and the ones that are only fair can paint.
Bythebay | May 17, 2012, 11:36 AM EDT
Debate is moot, it's a fait accompli!
Bythebay | May 17, 2012, 09:15 AM EDT
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.
eiriamach | May 17, 2012, 09:03 AM EDT
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!
Murph46 | May 16, 2012, 09:37 PM EDT
Point being is they wanted EQUALITY,now please describe to me equality in the instance of a boy on a girls team.Period.
eiriamach | May 16, 2012, 07:23 PM EDT
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.
Murph46 | May 16, 2012, 05:31 PM EDT
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!
eiriamach | May 16, 2012, 05:12 PM EDT
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.
Murph46 | May 16, 2012, 04:58 PM EDT
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.
BrianO | May 16, 2012, 04:09 PM EDT
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.
Bythebay | May 16, 2012, 03:33 PM EDT
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.
eiriamach | May 16, 2012, 02:44 PM EDT
Murph46, Usually, parents of children on sports teams sign waivers of liability to protect the school against the possibility of law suits if one child injures another. Take your message to the parents-- of the boy as well as the girls! I'll repeat a comment I made about the story of the SSPX school that forfeited a championship game because a girl was on the opposing team. This tells you what I think about boys and girls sharing the field in most sports: "It's not just about sports; it's about boys' psycho-sexual development. When men refuse to let boys share the field with girls, how can the boys develop normal relationships? Traditionalists like SSPX, Opus Dei, Society of JC the Priest ban girls from serving at the altar in Phoenix, Lincoln NE, Arlington Va, Platteville WI, etc...." Strict segregation by sex harms the development of boys, in particular, but ultimately it leaves both girls and boys unprepared for a world in which women and men must function as equals in the workplace, in the home, in clubs and organizations, and maybe even someday in the churches!
Bythebay | May 16, 2012, 02:44 PM EDT
Why didn't Irish Central call Keeling Irish American, like you do even with people born in the US. He was born in Dublin, Ireland!
Murph46 | May 16, 2012, 02:00 PM EDT
And by the way you big blow hard SeamusMor,I'm coming over if you want to try to knock me off my barstool.I'll make myself specially available for you!
Murph46 | May 16, 2012, 01:56 PM EDT
Pound salt eiramachm,eeven you in you idiocy must realize there is no place for a boy in girl's sports-Our title ( provision codifies this.This kid has no place being on the field with girls,there can only be trouble to come from it,Wait till he hits a girl hard,do you think her parents will just stand by and watch-it is a pure common sense issue(which most of you don't exhibit here)!
eiriamach | May 16, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT
Murph46's words are ugly American bigotry and the type of comment that can do great harm when aimed at young people. Murph46 is a grown-up bully who picks on youngsters. Because I oppose censorship, I don't recommend removing it even though it is clearly abusive. Instead, I'd like to see all other posters exercising our freedom of speech by telling Murph46 what we think of his/her comment. (Except for GD, of course, who gets off on abuse, and BrianO, who thinks boys who share the sports field with girls deserve to be mocked!) 'Looks like Obama's support for same-sex marriage has brought the gay-bashers out of the woodwork.
GeorgeDillon | May 16, 2012, 12:01 PM EDT
Stop your stupid threats, SeamusMor. You should be banned.
SeamusMor | May 16, 2012, 11:30 AM EDT
Murph46 You are a bigot and child abuser. Shame on you!!! The kid is going to have to read that ignorant and ugly remark unless IC acts on my abuse report. You don't say things like that to children. It's unfortunate that we're only connected via the internet because you need to get knocked off you bar stool.
BrianO | May 16, 2012, 11:02 AM EDT
careful he has blonde hair.