HS Male field hockey player knocks out teeth of female player

Better late than never. Now I hope "Icons of Women's Sports" doesn't lose interest in this issue as soon as another trans athlete wins something somewhere.

Yes, the obvious, undue safety risks created for female players when males are allowed to play on girls' and women's field hockey teams has been a big issue for years - decades even.

But your claim that "the anti-trans activists had ignored the problem, because the boys in question were cisgender" is totally baseless. In fact, it's contradicted by the news articles you yourself linked to.

Are you alleging the that the male player in the current is trans-identified? I see no evidence of this. All the local reports out of Massacusetts that I've seen simply say that the player who took the shot that landed the HS girl in the hospital "was a male member of the Swampsott team."

From the Taunton Gazette:

D-R girls field hockey player struck in face, hospitalized — male player took the shot

DIGHTON — A female player on the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School girls field hockey team sustained significant facial and dental injuries and was hospitalized when she was struck in the face by a shot in the third quarter versus Swampscott in an MIAA state playoff contest Thursday night, D-R Superintendent Bill Runey said.

Runey is using the incident to sound the alarm over MIAA rules regarding co-ed participation in school athletics — as the player who took the shot that hit her was a male member of the Swampsott team.

"The player, her family, teammates, and coaches remain in my prayers," Runey said.
"While I understand that the MIAA has guidelines in place for co-ed participation under section 43 of their handbook, this incident dramatically magnifies the concerns of many about player safety," he said.

Why was a boy playing on a girls team?

He [Runey] said that in speaking with a representative of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Friday morning, she told him the MIAA handbook has a legal note explaining how the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment makes the participation of males on female teams legal.

Runey said that at one time there were provisions in girls volleyball that, although boys could participate, they could not play on the front line "because their ability to spike the ball created a higher level of risk."

"I have been told that those restrictions were deemed illegal and no longer exist. Athletics has come so far in the realm of safety, but the equipment and the training that our athletes are receiving in today's day and age requires us to be more thoughtful about all of our rules and policies regarding safety."

tauntongazette.com

D-R girls field hockey player struck in face, hospitalized — male player took the shot

@tauntontogo

The superintendent, who described \

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This is a story about how girls and women are put in harm's way by stupid policies that use an unsophisticated, poorly-thought-out, just plain stupid notion of "equality" as an excuse to ignore obvious, well-known physical differences between the sexes and to endanger girls and women.

This is a story about the safety of female participants in girls' and women's sports. But as ever, you're trying to make what happened in this case all about trans-idenfified males so you can portray everyone who speaks up for females like me as horrible bigots.

I posted articles from 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2020. I had even posted one of them on this board before, and it was largely ignored by "defenders of women's sports" on this board.

Anti-trans activists had ignored this for years until this most recent incident happened. When some HS teams were enjoying competitive advantage because of boys on their teams, and players and coaches from other schools were complaining about it, their voices were ignored by "defenders of women's sports."

And now in 2023, they have finally discovered that this is a serious concern. As I wrote above, better late than never. And I hope they don't lose interest in this issue. They gave some lip service to the Title IX settlement in Hawaii, and have quickly moved on, even though that was just a tip of the iceberg.

I looked into this, and apparently boy's lacrosse requires helmets (with cages) and girl's lacrosse (generally) does not. Field hockey does not require them either. Mandating helmets would not solve the competition issue, but it would prevent concussions and save a lot of teeth, eyes, and noses from injury.

Men's and women's lacrosse have different rules regarding body checks. That's why women don't wear helmets. They usually wear mouth guards, often also wear eye goggles. Field hockey players also usually wear mouth guards, but eye goggles are less common.

I wonder if this player was wearing mouth guards. If not, why wasn't she?

No it's not. Field hockey isn't a gendered sport in most countries.

for penalty corners

en.wikipedia.org

Penalty corner

In field hockey, a penalty corner, sometimes known as a short corner, is a penalty given against the defending team. It is predominantly awarded for a defensive infringement in the penalty circle or for a deliberate infringem...

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(both genders). then they just chuck them behind the goal after it's finished.

this is what i saw at school and college in the uk anyway. i saw this and found it very strange that the defenders weren't wearning headguards

This was the first thing I thought of when I got the video to play and noticed it wasn't physical play that caused this injury but rather the shot or pass off the stick. Sure, I'd expect boys playing field hockey could hit the ball harder than girls, but girls certainly can hit the ball hard enough to cause injuries. And an errant swing of the stick, by girls or boys, if it connects with another player and is hard enough, that's going to cause an injury too. Field hockey players are wearing shin guards, you would think protecting your melon would be a priority over your shins.

Massachusetts plays coed for years. Look it up!

Why is it so hard for people to understand the harm when boys participate in girls sports? I don't care if they're transgender or just want to play field hockey. No more boys in girls' sports! And mixed sports are in general a disaster. I've seen this in the lower grades in soccer - was just talking to another mom about it yesterday at my daughters' games.

Co-ed field hockey and other team sports are not the issue in this case, though.

The issue here is the practice of allowing a sprinkling of individual boys and men to join girls' and women's field hockey and other sports teams under the rules meant for single-sex and/or female-only play.

Co-ed sports are played under special rules meant expressly for mixed-sex play. The mixed-sex rules have been devised to provide fairness and safety for the female players whilst making games enjoyable and competitive for all.

Mixed-sex rules in team sports like field hockey and volleyball typically specify a balance of female and male players on the field or court, and prohibit male players from certain positions and actions.

"Runey said the player who was injured was wearing a mouth piece and
goggles, but they are not required to wear headgear like other women's
and men's sports."

turnto10.com

Dighton-Rehoboth student athlete seriously injured in field hockey game, sparking safety concerns

MOLLY LEVINE, NBC 10 NEWS

School leaders are speaking out tonight after a Dighton-Rehoboth Highschool student athlete was seriously injured during a field hockey game.

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A couple of years ago at Seekonk HS in Massachusetts, a female started on the offensive line for the varsity football team. She was also a track and field state champion in the shot put and discus. She is now a field event athlete at an Ivy League university. She wasn't just a practice squad player, but a varsity letter winner. There are also several females playing ice hockey on male teams when their high school doesn't offer a female team.

In Massachusetts, most of the time that you find a male playing on female teams, or a female playing on male teams is at smaller high schools where coaches might have trouble fielding enough players to field a team.

In some cases it's a joke. One high school field hockey coach had her son playing for the team, and he recruited some of his male friends to play as well. Several all female teams forfeited to that team rather than play against several male starters.

These are not transgender athletes, as mentioned in some of the comments, but males or females taking advantage of the laws in the Commonwealth.

Do I think males should be allowed to play on female teams, absolutely not. At the same time, should females be banned from male teams?

The reason given for this rule is that there is no boys' field hockey team to play on. So if they are not allowed to play on the girls' teams, they won't be able to play on any team.

However, that is not a sufficient reason, according to the US federal court. A few decades ago, a group of HS boys sued the state for the right to play on girls' volleyball teams, and they were denied by the court because those players would "substantially replace" girls on the team. There has not been any court case to overturn this decision, so I assume it is still the law of the land. BTW, Arizona now sponsors boys' volleyball.

If there are not enough boys who play field hockey in HS, there are other ways to provide the opportunity to play. They could create teams made up of students from multiple schools. If that's not enough, they could combine middle school and high school students. (That could create a problem itself, but that needs to be sorted out.) Maybe they could play games under modified rules with fewer players on each side. And most importantly, maybe they could recruit more boys to play field hockey like they did with volleyball in Arizona.

Doesn't look intentional at all. Took a shot and that girl chose to block it with her face.

Doesn’t need to be intentional. Males should not compete in sports against females. That includes females playing football, wrestling, etc against males.

If I were playing, I'd wand to be wearing a helmet with a wire mask/cage and a mouth-guard.

Then I would counter that field hockey and lacrosse are culture appropriations and should end immediately. Sports adopted for white children unable to make any other sport.