Turpin High School, a school near the high school I attended in days of yore, has a girl playing on the [boys’] junior varsity team.
This is being celebrated as “breaking down barriers”. I only hope it doesn’t involve breaking bones, before the season is over.
I bring some firsthand knowledge to this discussion. The question here goes far beyond the current, (and interminable) political debate about gender identity.
I played freshman football. (Huge disclaimer: I was not very good at it, though I did arguably excel at the position of third string left tackle.) I didn’t find my niche in high school sports until I discovered running.
That said, I did enough of it to get a taste for it. As I recall, high school football is a physically demanding, sometimes dangerous undertaking, and all that testosterone gives boys a definite advantage.
I’m also a big fan of Title IX, which guarantees girls and women their own athletic spaces. If there’s a desire for a “rougher” sport for girls, it would make a lot more sense to establish a girl’s rugby league or lacrosse (which I believe Turpin already has).
My understanding is that while Forest Hills in Cincinnati is a solid school district, the district also has its share of progressive ideologues. I hope it doesn’t take a serious student injury to make common sense prevail.
I hope, moreover, that this works out in every way for the lone girl on the boy’s football team. But let the record state that I have my doubts about this.
-ET