A female hockey player in Massachusetts had her teeth knocked out and suffered other facial injuries on Thursday after getting hit in the face by a ball shot by a male opponent.
Screams from the injured girl can be heard, and shocked faces from all other players can be seen as the playoff game between Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School and Swampscott High School came to an immediate stop.
The player for Swampscott, who hit the shot that injured the female player, #2, is a biological male. The teammates of the injured girl immediately turned away and began crying after seeing the injuries sustained by their fellow player.
According to pro-women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines, NCAA President Charlie Baker, who has been non-commital in dealing with the issue of male infiltration into women’s sports, lives in Swampscott.
“Last night, a female field hockey player for the Dighton Rehoboth Regional High School girls’ field hockey team sustained significant facial and dental injuries when she was struck in the face by a shot in the third quarter versus Swampscott in an MIAA state playoff contest,” wrote Dighton Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey. “The shot was taken by a male member of the Swampscott girls’ field hockey team. This injury required hospitalization. The player, her family, teammates, and coaches remain in my prayers.”
Runey went on to call for a reexamination of Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules allowing for males to play against females.
In speaking with a representative of the MIAA this morning, she shared that the MIAA handbook has a legal note explaining how the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment makes the participation of males on female teams legal. I understand that the Mass ERA legislation is voluminous; and therefore, is very difficult to modify in total. 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. In years past, there were provisions in girls’ volleyball that, although boys could participate, they could not play on the front line because their ability to spike the ball created a higher level of risk. I have been told that those restrictions were deemed illegal and no longer exist. Athletics has come so far in the realm of safety, but the equipment and the training that our athletes are receiving in today’s day and age requires us to be more thoughtful about all of our rules and policies regarding safety.
The MIAA released a statement as well, citing their need to conform to laws barring discrimination based on gender.
“The association and member schools must adhere to all federal and state laws to assure equitable opportunities for students of different sexes or genders,” the organization said in a press release.
The statement continued, “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,”