US college hockey is feeling the effects of an equal rights row after a female athlete sustained serious facial and dental injuries from a male player in a game.
The incident occurred in a match between Dighton-Rehoboth and Swampscott, with Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules allowing boys to play on the opposite gender teams when there isn’t a team equivalent for males.
The female athlete was hit in the face (masks aren’t mandatory in the league) from a short corner by a deflected shot from a male student on Swampscott’s team in a state play-off game earlier this month.
Following the incident, Kelsey Bain, the Dighton-Rehoboth captain, sent a letter to the MIAA calling for urgent reform, with her post being viewed nearly one million times on social media.
“The shrieks and screams of fear and pain that projected from her after being hit filled the stadium,” Bain wrote on social media. “The looks of horror and shock on the faces of the girls surrounding her were also chilling.
“Following the injury, my teammates were sobbing not only in fear for their teammate but also in fear that they had to go back out onto the field and continue a game, playing against a male athlete who hospitalized one of our own. The traumatic event sheds light on the rules and regulations of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”
According to reported figures, 41 boys played on girls hockey teams during the 2019/20 college season and Bain says there should be a separate league.
Bain added: “There is likely more interest, but the stigma of boys playing on a girl’s team is probably a deterrent.
“I am sure school districts can institute co-op teams to create further opportunities for males to play in their own division, which I assume you are already aware of because, under rule 34 of the MIAA handbook, there is a division for boys’ field hockey listed under the Fall Sports category.
“You have a chance to change the negative publicity the MIAA has been receiving due to the incident that happened … by moving forward with the proposal for a seven versus seven boys league.”
The school’s superintendent, Bill Runey, told reporters: “Seeing the horror in the eyes of our players and coaches upon greeting their bus … is evidence to me that there has to be a renewed approach by the MIAA to protect the safety of our athletes.”
Meanwhile, Swampscott High School athletic director Kelly Wolff defended the right for the male athlete to play in the female game.
“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 four-year varsity player and co-captain who, per MIAA rules, has the exact same right to participate as any player on any team.”
In a statement, the MIAA defended its ruling. “We respect and understand the complexity and concerns that exist regarding student safety. However, student safety has not been a successful defense to excluding students of one gender from participating on teams of the opposite gender,” the statement said.
Runey added: “The law is the law and I understand the MIAA is hand strung to that to an extent but I think they need to go back and find a middle ground that would increase player safety.”
The blame here lies totally with the girl’s parents for not providing her with a face mask to play the game in relative safety or with her school for failing to provide masks for the team. It has absolutely nothing to do with a boy playing on the same pitch as the same accident could have happened in an all girls game. The solution for MIAA is to make face masks mandatory. The only reason why they are not is that in developing countries making them mandatory would put the game financially beyond the reach of many (as if the price of a stick doesn’t do that already). In a country like the USA there is no reason why they shouldn’t be mandatory.
That was my first thought as well – none of the defenders are wearing face masks.
In mixed hockey isn’t it the rule at penalty corner is that the first strike must be by a woman – just because a male player is allowed to play in a womens game there should be some recognition that they are likely to be more powerful and therefore the ball speed higher than in a woman only game. As for no face masks……who in their right mind would face any pc without one these days. The college has a duty of care to all it’s students regardless of the league rules. Lots of things that could have been implemented to make the game safer were let pass by.
It’s a convention in friendlies, not a rule enforced ia a competitive college league.
Wrt to face masks, there are areas in the US where college leagues have up to now had goggles as compulsory, which would probably make additional facemasks very tricky.
But clearly the deflection could have been off a female strike, and not wearing masks at all is little short of amazing nowadays.
A SHOCKING STORY…but the kind of incident that will occur in Hockey, especially when incoming shots are deflected. Yes, the lady should have been wearing a mask and maybe the opposition could have provided one if her team was short of kit. I’ve got memories of things like this during my early days as a goalkeeper, I only started wearing a mask when playing Indoor Hockey and even then got a few black eyes and even face cuts. We need to sort this out, the Authorities wouldn’t hesitate to ban our sport, despite their tolerance of shocking behaviour and incidents in other team sports like Rugby and Football.
There was a time when penalty corner shots were not permitted to rise above the backboard. I considered it to be madness when this rule was relaxed.