When it comes to girls playing with the boys, I’m actually ambivalent.
My readers may not be accustomed to me sitting on the fence but that’s exactly where I’m located on the subject of the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations’ decision to allow Courtney Greer to try out for the boy’s soccer team at her high school (for more on the decision, see here).
On the one hand, good on her. She absolutely deserves the chance to try out for the team and, as she puts it, raise her skills level.
This won’t be the first time females will have competed against males in the same sport. They’re on the same playing field when it comes to horse racing, equestrian and car racing events.
And please don’t give me the business about girls not being able to handle the physical contact. We send our female soldiers out on the front and our police officers out on the beat, so I’m not too worried about Greer when it comes to her safety on the soccer pitch. And she’s making her own choice when it comes to making herself vulnerable.
I’m not worried about her – I’m worried about women’s sport in general. Here in Canada, women’s hockey has emerged as a major spectator sport precisely because it was able to attract and keep its best players – Hayley Wickenheiser’s stint in the Czech men’s league notwithstanding. She, Cassie Campbell and the rest of the female hockey stars made women’s hockey something to care about.
Women’s basketball in the U.S. is another good example. It’s the fastest growing sport in America, is televised regularly and attracts a decent audience.
But it wouldn’t be so successful were all its top players playing hoops in the NBA. In fact, women’s sport, already relegated to second-class status, can only suffer if all of the best women players decide they want to go coed.
I appreciate Courtney Greer’s moxie and I understand the reasoning behind OFSAA – it’s probably a bona fide human rights issue. But it may set a precedent that causes women’s sport to start circling the drain.[rssbreak]
