Can women play men’s sports? This is the question people should bring up when we hear of stories about girls wanting to play boys sports because can girls physically maintain playing contact men’s sports. I would agree women should be separate from men’s sports such as, football, basketball and soccer, which men seem to be faster and stronger than females. But when women want to play sports such as baseball, tennis, and golf, women should have the right to attempt to play on the same field with men because the gap between talent and gender isn’t far off, at least on the high school level.
In 2009, the New York Times wrote a story about a female athlete who growing up played baseball rather than softball and played at a level for her dad to decide to give her a chance at a high school where they would allow girls to play baseball (Hyman, 2009). This story is one example of how if a female is brought up in a boys sport they do have a chance to compete against the boys. There comes a price for these girls who want to play in a sport like baseball instead of softball. These girls will likely not have any way of challenging for a college athletic scholarship because most likely University baseball teams will not even look the way of the girl playing baseball whether she has the ability to play or not because the upside of a male player will be higher than that of a female player.
Some questions or scenarios to consider when commenting on this blog are; if you were a coach of a college baseball team would you consider giving her a scholarship? Another thought to think about is looking down the road in sports is it possible to think about more and more women participating in boys sports such as baseball, tennis and golf.
New York Times Article
Thanks for sharing this article from the New York Times. It seems that this case relates well to what we will be talking about with Title IX. In fact, I may even share this in class. I also remembered the name of the woman who played baseball at the college level - her name was Ila Borders. I did not realize that she even played Minor League baseball. And apparently she was not the last to do so. Since then, there was another female named Tiffany Brooks who made a minor league team in Texas in 2010. Here is the ESPN story about Borders and Brooks: http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/3519/forgetting-ila-borders
ReplyDeleteThis article was a great read and posed some great questions for further discussion. To answer the questions at the bottom of the blog, I will say that there will have to be some stipulations for a girl to compete in men's sports. If I was a coach of a college baseball team and there was a girl that is able to compete at our level I would consider her for a scholarship. However, I would find that it would be difficult for her to be placed on the team because of the extra costs it might pose. For example, the girl would have to have her own locker room facility so there are no issues of sexual harassment during her career. The university may agree on this right away, however other colleges within the division or those you compete against may be hesitant to take extra precaution because it would cause more preparation for games. Also, the university may not be too keen on the idea because the girl would need her own hotel room without a roommate for away games, thus costing more money for the season.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that women will be able to compete against men in sports such as golf and tennis, which do not require team locker rooms. Many of the sports are played by individuals and facilities already house locker rooms for both sexes. This would make it easier for the women to compete and also it would cost less for a collegiate sport. I believe that golf will the first sport to be consistent in letting women compete in a men's circuit, however there will be tournaments such as the Master's where we may never see a woman compete because of the tradition of the tournament.
I would certainly consider giving any athlete a scholarship if they are good enough at their sport, regardless of gender or sex. As a coach, my job is to find the best players, and if one of the best players is a girl, I would have no problems with offering them a scholarship. I also would like to say that I somewhat disagree with the part of your comment where you said women should be separate from men in certain sports. Soccer in particular is the one I disagree with. As a former soccer player at the club and high school level, I firmly believe that being a good soccer player has more to do with making smart decisions and being able to perform basic skills, such as dribbling and making accurate passes. While being stronger and faster may play a part in the game, I still feel that it is not the most important aspect. I went to plenty of soccer camps in high school, and every year at one camp there was an elite girls team, consisting of the best high school girl players in the state of South Carolina. One year they played my club soccer team, and handed us a pretty good 4-1 whooping. And considering my club team was the state-runner up three years in a row, I would have to say that they played a strong opponent. The girls weren’t faster or stronger than us, but they had excellent ball movement and made very few mental mistakes. That being considered, I think you could take any of those girls and they'd be able to make a positive impact on any college men's soccer team.
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