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Amid a sea of girls in kilts charging forward, field hockey sticks crashing together, one player - Coatesville's No. 22 - stood out on this day, and it was not necessarily skill that caught the eye.

 

Brandon Thomas, a midfielder who sports a Raiders red kilt over black shorts, is one of two boys on the Coatesville Area High School girls' field hockey team. He and teammate Billy Ensor, sidelined by an injury, are among at least a half-dozen boys playing on girls' field hockey teams in the region.

 

"We're not out here to be bruisers," Thomas, who is about 5-foot-6 and 155 pounds, said after the Raiders fell, 3-1, to Spring-Ford this week. "We're taking the game seriously."

 

As boys such as him seek a spot in sports traditionally played by girls in America - field hockey, for example - they are clashing with more than wooden sticks.

 

At issue is not only safety - often bigger and stronger boys posing an injury risk to girls - but also the collision between equal rights and a level playing field.

 

The controversy is rising anew in the region because a West Chester Area school board member, Joseph P. Green Jr., introduced a proposal Monday night to exclude boys from girls' field hockey. It also would prohibit district teams from playing against teams that include boys.

 

In Michigan, a lawsuit filed last month by a family from Belgium - where field hockey is a popular sport for boys - challenged a school's decision to bar a boy from playing girls' field hockey.

 

Controversies also have surfaced nationally over boys' wanting spots on girls' volleyball, lacrosse and tennis teams.

 

Carol E. Tracy, who heads the Women's Law Project, a women's rights organization based in Philadelphia, said fairness questions exist for boys who want to play sports associated with girls. But the more compelling argument, she said, centers on the need to ensure that boys do not cut into girls' playing opportunities.

 

"We're about to issue a report about gender equity in college sports," she said. "The conclusion is that young women are greatly shortchanged."

 

Over the years, schools around the country have struggled to strike a balance.

 

In the proposal before the West Chester district, Green cited safety concerns and the "unfair competitive advantage."

 

"I think it's important to take action before a girl gets severely hurt by a boy," said Green, whose daughter plays goal for West Chester Henderson.

 

Supporters of the status quo argue that competition thrives on differences and that someone will always have a physical advantage, regardless of gender.

 

"You really have to keep an open mind," said Melissa Mertz, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). "Boys have to be given an equal opportunity."

 

Besides Coatesville, boys play girls' field hockey for several other area high schools, including Conestoga, Great Valley, Frankford and Jenkintown. West Chester's two high schools have no male field hockey players this season.

 

In New Jersey, state interscholastic athletic association rules prohibit members, which include most schools, from allowing boys on girls' teams.

 

In 1975, an appellate court barred the PIAA from prohibiting boys from playing on girls' teams and vice versa. "The only advice we can give schools is that you have to deal with it at the local school," Mertz said.

 

In 2004, the Lancaster-Lebanon Athletic League established a "gender equity policy" that urges its member schools to consider "prohibiting male participation in all sports identified specifically as female sports," said Richard Balderston, executive director of the league.

 

"We can only recommend it," he said. The league reasoned that boys on girls' teams - field hockey, volleyball, lacrosse - posed a health hazard and that their presence "would change the identity of the sport."

 

Many schools have adopted the policy or are considering it, Balderston said. "We've had no problems."

 

In West Chester, Green's proposal sparked a spirited debate - a hint of the review process, expected to take months.

 

Meanwhile, the sideline chatter at field hockey games has turned to the potential ban.

 

During a matchup Wednesday against Conestoga, Laura Lunardi, Unionville varsity field hockey coach, said she worried about the sport's future: "What's to say we can't all go and recruit 12 boys to play...?"

 

"Jonathan is a big kid," allowed parent Lisa Christy of Malvern during the same game. She was referring to Jonathan Geerts, the nearly 6-foot, 150-pound midfielder who grew up playing the game in Belgium.

 

He joined the team two years ago after asking the school board to allow him to play. "Is he our secret weapon?" Christy said. "No. No one person makes or breaks the team."

 

Nancy Vanore Fischer, whose daughter plays for Radnor, reacted differently to Geerts' size at a game Tuesday. "It was frightening," she said. "There's a physical difference. We need to acknowledge it and not pretend it doesn't exist."

 

The clamor for equal rights has created dangers, those who oppose coed athletics say. A female football player, they say, poses no risk to male opponents - unlike a male field hockey player, who could pose a risk. The threat of physical harm trumps gender equity, they insist.

 

Karen Gately, Conestoga's coach, acknowledged there can be a safety issue, but she said: "Jon plays responsibly. It's a ref's job to keep the game safe."

 

Research on injury rates when boys play on girls' teams is not available, said Michael Cordas, who chairs PIAA's medical advisory committee.

 

Safety aside, many groups contend girls are so underrepresented in sports that allowing boys onto those teams undermines gender equity, protected by Title IX, a federal mandate.

 

"A couple of boys here and couple of girls there, doesn't seem like a big deal," said Sharon Taylor, president of the U.S. Field Hockey Association. "If it really opened up, girls will find themselves sitting on the bench and boys getting a lot more playing time, because they can run faster, jump higher, hit harder."

 

In the Michigan suit, Maxime Goovaerts, a 100-pound, 5-foot eighth grader, wanted to play on an Ann Arbor middle school field hockey team. Last week, the district adopted a temporary resolution permitting him to finish the season, district spokeswoman Liz Margolis said.

 

His attorney, Marla A. Linderman, said the boy wants to play in high school - a position the district opposes, thus continuing the litigation.

 

David Schmoyer, a starter for Central Bucks West several years ago, can empathize.

 

Schmoyer, 22, of Houston, who went on to make the men's under-21 national team, said his stint at West "made my career."

 

But he said he prefers playing with the boys: "You can let loose and not feel as bad about people's feet."

Don't they have a boys LaCrosse team?

in my highschool we had a guy on the girls volleyball team

 

if girls must be allowed to play football and wrestle, then I have no problem with it working the other way

in my highschool we had a guy on the girls volleyball team

 

if girls must be allowed to play football and wrestle, then I have no problem with it working the other way

 

 

Why?

 

There's not an option FOR girls to play football or wrestle. I guess I can understand if there's no sport for the opposite gender they can use for an alternative. Like, if a dood wants to play volleyball, but there's only a girls team, then let him go out. But, if you're playing girls field hockey and there's a boys lacrosse team...

 

You're a big p***y.

 

But ONLY in the case of there being no alternative. Like, I, as a dood, couldn't go out for girls basketball because I don't make the boys team. That's stupid.

in my highschool we had a guy on the girls volleyball team

 

if girls must be allowed to play football and wrestle, then I have no problem with it working the other way

 

Agreed.

 

Can you imagine the crap those guys get in school. What punks.

 

:lol

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