Girls’ high school field hockey team forfeits game against school with male player

A Massachusetts girls’ field hockey team has forfeited a game against a team with a teenage boy, making the call less than a year after a female player was badly hurt when a ball shot by a male player hit her in the face.

Bill Runey, Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District superintendent, said Somerset Berkley Regional High School has been informed that the Dighton-Rehoboth team will skip the Sept. 17 contest, citing a district policy passed in June that allows single-sex teams to forfeit games against those with opposite-sex players.

“Our Field Hockey coaches and captains made this decision, and we notified our opponent accordingly,” Mr. Runey said in a press release Monday. “The District supports this decision as there are times where we have to place a higher value on safety than on victory.”

The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School field hockey program drew national attention in November when a female player was hospitalized after being hit in the mouth with a ball struck by a male player for Swampscott High School.

“We understand this forfeit will impact our chances for a league championship and possibly playoff eligibility, but we remain hopeful that other schools consider following suit to achieve safety and promote fair competition for female athletes,” Mr. Runey said.

The issue of males who identify as female competing in girls’ and women’s sports has raised hackles nationwide, but the field hockey forfeit doesn’t have a transgender angle, as neither the Swampscott boy who played girls’ field hockey last year nor the male player for Somerset Berkley has been identified as transgender.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association allows boys to play on girls’ teams for which there is no equivalent male counterpart, which includes field hockey, no matter their gender identity.

Somerset Berkley Superintendent Jeffrey Schoonover said Tuesday that the district “follows all MIAA regulations and school district policies for participation in interscholastic athletics.”

“Somerset Berkley supports the rights of all students to access and participate in athletics for which they are eligible,” he said in an email.

At the same time, the debate over biological males participating in girls’ and women’s sports has underscored concerns about safety and fairness for female athletes.

“I know it’s easier said than done, but all schools should follow Dighton-Rehoboth’s example,” former University of Kentucky All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, host of OutKick’s “Girls on Gaines,” wrote on X.

The conservative account Libs of TikTok posted on X: “Every school in the nation should adopt this policy. Keep males out of female sports!”

BREAKING: Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School in Massachusetts is forfeiting an upcoming girls field hockey game because there is a male player on the opposing team. A player on Dighton-Rehoboth’s girls team last year suffered a serious injury after a male opponent hit a ball… pic.twitter.com/X7ru9jpf1q

— Crisis in the Classroom (@CITClassroom) September 10, 2024

Mr. Runey said that those criticizing the district’s policy have not “seen the safety concerns we have.”

“When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater,” he told NBC10 in Boston.

The forfeit marks the first time the district located in North Dighton has invoked the policy since it was passed at a June 25 meeting of the Dighton-Rehoboth School Committee.

“No coach of a single-sex team shall be penalized by the District for forfeiting a match against an opposing team because such team includes athletes of the opposite sex,” the policy states. “No student-athlete on a single-sex team shall be penalized by the District in any manner for refusing to play in a match or any part thereof against an opposing team because that team includes a member of the opposite sex.”

Mr. Runey also urged state officials to revise the policy on boys competing in girls’ field hockey by, for example, offering a boys’ team.

“I think it’s incumbent on the state to start looking at the level of interest for males who want to participate in field hockey and provide them with a same-sex opportunity,” he said.