‘Horror’ of girl’s brutal field hockey injury from boy’s shot sparks gender debate
The “horror” of a field hockey player being struck in the face by a shot from a male on the opposing team has one local superintendent calling on the MIAA to revisit its guidelines that allow boys to play a girls’ sport.
Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey is making the push after a male member on the Swampscott High girls’ field hockey team took a shot that hit the face of a female player competing for his regional district.
The brutal injury, coming from a corner play in the third quarter during Thursday’s state tournament matchup in Swampscott, caused the D-R player to be treated at a hospital for what Runey described as “significant facial and dental injuries.”
Males are allowed to participate on female teams in Massachusetts based on the state’s Equal Rights Amendment, according to the MIAA handbook.
“I understand that the Mass ERA legislation is voluminous; and therefore, is very difficult to modify in total,” Runey said Friday in a letter to his school community. “However, seeing the horror in the eyes of our players and coaches upon greeting their bus last night is evidence to me that there has to be a renewed approach by the MIAA to protect the safety of our athletes.”
Video shows the Swampscott player taking the corner, shooting the ball and in an instant, the D-R player squatting to the ground, screeching in pain. Her teammates are visibly shaken by the hit, with trainers rushing the field to care for the player.
Play stopped for roughly 10 minutes before it resumed.
The same player taking the shot for Swampscott scored both goals as the team defeated D-R in a 2-0 shutout.
Swampscott Athletic Director Kelly Wolff, in an email to the Herald, called the incident “an unfortunate injury” that came on a “legal play” and the shot “deflected off her teammate’s stick.”
“We are sorry to see any player get hurt and wish the Dighton-Rehoboth player a speedy recovery,” Wolff said. “The Swampscott player who took the shot is a 4-year varsity player and co-captain who, per MIAA rules, has the exact same right to participate as any player on any team.”
Field hockey players are allowed to wear facial protection on offensive corners, but the equipment is not required.
A legal note from the MIAA highlights how “boys have been competing on girls’ teams, and girls have been competing on boys’ teams, for more than 40 years,” based on the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX.
FULL TEXT: MIAA field hockey memo
Boys’ field hockey is not offered in Massachusetts, allowing males to play the sport on girls’ teams, according to the MIAA rule.
“We respect and understand the complexity and concerns that exist regarding student safety,” the MIAA states. “However, student safety has not been a successful defense to excluding students of one gender from participating on teams of the opposite gender. The arguments generally fail due to the lack of correlation between injuries and mixed-gender teams.”
In 2020, frustrated that their concerns had not been addressed by administrators and the MIAA, opponents of boys playing against girls in field hockey took their cause to the State House.
The Massachusetts Coalition to Preserve Girls Field Hockey, made up of parents, and 25 current and former coaches and officials, proposed either the creation of a boys’ league with regional teams and a 7-on-7 format similar to the development of girls’ ice hockey.
Runey pointed out how the advancement of equipment and training that student-athletes receive today should require officials “to be more thoughtful about all of our rules and policies regarding safety.”
“To be clear, I have the utmost respect for the abilities of female athletes,” he said. “I am the father of three and all three were very successful in their high school athletic careers. My two daughters remain in the athletic realm today due, in large part, to their positive experience in high school athletics. We have a responsibility to preserve that positivity for all of our athletes today and in the future.”