I have never been a fan of Title IX in sports. For the uninitiated Title IX states
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…
In practice, the provision forces schools to have both boys and girls teams for sports, or to allow girls on to boys teams, or even cancel certain sports if they can’t afford both gender teams.
I am not a fan, but the law is the law.
Now, while it typically forces girls on to boys teams, the law allows for inclusion in the other direction too.
So it is that a young 13 yr. old boy from Southampton NY was allowed on to the H.S. Girls field hockey team, since there is no boys field hockey team.
But that young man, all 4′ 8″ and 82 lbs of him, has recently been given the boot from the team. Not because Title IX has suddenly been revoked.
No, it is still the law of the land that you cannot be discriminated against because of gender. No that would be illegal. No the young man has been given the boot because he is too successful at the sport he plays.
A 13-year-old Long Island boy who has been a star of a local high school girls’ field hockey team for the past two years has been kicked off the team for being too dominant of a player, MyFoxNY reports.
Keeling Pilaro was told he could no longer play for Southampton High School’s varsity girls’ field hockey team this year after becoming the team’s star over the past two years.
In an Obama world, we cannot discriminate against gender, but we must prevent too much success at any cost.
This is where we are now. We are redistributing field hockey success.
While I feel sorry for the boy, at the end of the day he is probably better off. If he is that athletic, I am sure he will do well in other sports. Besides, not a lot of future potential girlfriends on the field hockey team. Well, at least not for him.
