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The LEVEL playing FIELD / More girls are joining the ranks of high school
athletes
The Patriot Ledger; Quincy; Sep 11, 1999; MIA TAYLOR;
It is still unusual, but more girls in Massachusetts high schools are
playing sports once reserved for boys. Last year 607 girls
played hockey, most of them on girls teams. There were also 11 girls on boys
football teams and 68 on boys wrestling teams.
When Kate Sweeney walked into the boys locker room at Milton's Ulin Rink on
the first day of hockey practice four years ago, more than a
few boys did a double take.
That didn't faze Sweeney, now a 17-year-old senior at Milton High School.
Since taking up the sport five years ago, she has been the lone girl
on several boys hockey teams.
"You can't tell I'm a girl on the ice because I have so much equipment on --
until I talk. Then guys are surprised and like, `Wow, it's a girl.' It's a
good way to get the puck when you need it," Sweeney joked.
It is still unusual, but more girls in Massachusetts high schools are
playing sports once reserved for boys. Last year 607 girls played hockey,
most of them on girls teams. There were also 11 girls on boys football teams
and 68 on boys wrestling teams.
Even more remarkable is the increasing number of girls who are playing
sports.
Over the past five years, participation has risen 28 percent for
girls compared with 12 percent for boys. Enrollment during that same period
has increased about 8 percent.
Girls now account for 44 percent of all high school athletes, up from 41
percent in 1994-1995.
Bill Smith, a Scituate High School coach since 1958, remembers when girls
had separate gymnasium facilities and only about four sports to
chose from. He said girls now are doing much more then simply sharing in the
male dream of athletic grandeur.
"The fact is girls on the international level are carrying the United States
in gymnastics, swimming, track," Smith said. "And while the men are
busy dancing around in the end zone, the ladies are acting with class and
dignity. The men could learn from them. The girls now have the
commitment to athletics that boys had 25 years ago."
Athletes, coaches and athletic directors cite several reasons for the
increase in girl athletes.
The rise of women's sports on the national level has played a part.
Publicity for the Women's National Basketball Association and the World
Cup champion U.S. women's soccer team have inspired more girls to take up
sports.
At the college level, a federal rule called Title IX has vastly increased
the number of scholarships for female athletes over the past 27 years. The
typical high school now fields teams in a wider variety of sports than ever
before, and younger girls who once watched their brothers play from
the sidelines now have teams of their own.
Changing attitudes are also a factor. Boys and girls and their parents now
see sports as a normal part of life, and not as the private domain of the
best athletes.
--
For four years, Andrea Giacomozzi was a regular at her brother's wrestling
matches.
Giacomozzi, a Scituate High School junior, was fascinated by how much
determination it took to be a successful wrestler. Last fall she decided
to go out for the team.
"A couple of boys didn't like the idea of me being there and I went right up
to them and said, `I'm here, so deal with it,' " she said.
Since then, Giacomozzi has had no problems. She wishes she had won a few
more matches last year.
"I did OK," she said. "I didn't have a very successful season. But I think I
proved I had the courage and the strength."
While preparing for her second season, Giacomozzi is playing soccer and
participating in the Orange Crush wrestling club.
Orange Crush coach Mike Feeney was shocked when Giacomozzi joined. Feeney
has coached state, New England and all-American
champions, but never a female wrestler.
Feeney predicts Giacomozzi will be the first girl in Massachusetts to make
it to the state tournament in February.
To do that, she must finish among the top six wrestlers in her 14- team
division. That means she will be competing against 13 boys in the
103-pound weight class for one of six slots.
"She's a very good athlete. Not too many athletes can go through a two-hour
high school soccer practice, where you do a two-mile run and then
come to an intense two-hour wrestling practice," Feeney said. "She's very
talented. She has great technique."
--
Statistics are hard to come by, but most schools in Massachusetts expanded
sports programs for girls throughout the 1970s and 1980s when
women began demanding equal opportunities.
At Braintree High School, for example, a female athlete had a choice of six
sports in 1961: field hockey, basketball, gymnastics, softball, tennis
or cheerleading. There were twice as many teams for boys.
By 1975, girls soccer, track and volleyball were added. Cross- country
arrived in the 1980s and indoor track, golf and dance in the 1990s.
Braintree athletic directors Frank Tricomi and Joe Schuhwerk say the
expansion of high school programs came in response to girls who grew up
playing sports with town youth organizations. As they reached the high
school level, these female athletes expected to be able to continue to
play.
Both men say the increased presence of girls in sports has created a better
relationship among the boys and girls in high school. And both
envision the athletic opportunities for girls continuing to expand in the
future to include swimming, lacrosse and ice hockey.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg. Girls sports are going to continue to
grow," Tricomi said. "Where a young boy before might have dreamed of
playing in the NBA, now with the introduction of the WNBA, girls can have
that dream, too."
--
Few girls are interested in competing on the same teams as boys, but many
are making sports an essential part of their lives.
Milton High School junior Doris Van Rompay, 16, plays just one sport,
softball. She has played since she was 8 and can't imagine giving it up.
A catcher, her idol is Hall of Famer Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds.
Van Rompay takes her sport seriously. If she misses school on the day of a
practice, she always calls a teammate that night to find out what
happened. She waits until the next day to see what she missed in class.
"I've always rejected the view women shouldn't play sports," Van Rompay
said. "And as I grew older I began thinking, `Wow, I'm doing
something really cool,' and was proud of myself."
The question is, will girls continue to play sports as actively as men into
college and beyond? And do they see it as a lifetime activity?
"I know it's an option. It's not easy to get into professional sports. But
it's possible," said 17-year-old Nikki Muradian, captain of Stoughton
High School's field hockey team.
In the meantime, many South Shore girls are fielding sports scholarship
offers from colleges or considering colleges based partly on the athletics
programs available.
And they are relishing the leveled playing field.
Sweeney, the Milton hockey player, has one overriding goal for her senior
year: to make the varsity.
She thinks her chances are good because many players from last year's team
graduated.
If she doesn't make the cut, it won't be for lack of effort. She plays on
the high school team during the winter and pick-up games with her father
and brother. During the fall, she rushes home after field hockey practice to
finish her homework in time to make a 10 p.m. game in a Quincy
men's hockey league.
Playing on a boys team lost its novelty long ago.
"I've played with the same group of guys since I was young, so now I'm just
regarded as one of the guys," Sweeney said. "The worst though, is
the ride home on the bus. Thirty stinky guys with their stinky bags is just
not fun." CHART ON THE RISE Participation in high school sports for
boys and girls in Massachusetts ........ BOYS........ GIRLS 1994-5..
89,355...... 61,594 1998-99 100,366...... 78,766
Percentage increase: ..........12%.......... 28%
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CHART Most popular boys sports 1. Football (1) 2. Soccer (4) 3. Baseball (2)
4. Basketball (3) 5. Outdoor track (5) 6. Hockey (6) 7.
Indoor track (7) 8. Cross-country (8) 9. Golf (10) 10. Wrestling (9)
1994-95 rank in parentheses
CHART Most popular girls sports 1. Soccer (4) 2. Outdoor track (2) 3.
Softball (5) 4. Basbetball (1) 5. Field hockey (4) 6. Indoor track (5)
7. Volleyball (8) 8. Cross-country (9) 9. Tennis (7) 10. Swimming (10)
1994-95 rank in parentheses Source: Mass. Interscholastic Athletic
Association
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CHART Fastest growing boys sports .... SPORT..........NUMBER OF PLAYERS....
5-YEAR INCREASE 1. Lacrosse..........
2,229.................. 53% 2. Volleyball.......... 965.................. 51
3. Skiing............ 1,129.................. 32 4. Golf..............
3,190.................. 31
5. Indoor track...... 5,094.................. 18 6.
Soccer............10,832.................. 13 7.
Wrestling..........3,270.................. 12 8.
Football..........15,849.................. 12 9. Outdoor
track......8,877.................. 12 10. Hockey............
5,979.................. 11 11.
Cross-country......4,315....................9 12.
Baseball..........11,607....................4 13.
Basketball........11,178....................4 14. Tennis............
2,965....................4 15. Swimming.......... 1,668.................. -1
16. Gymnastics.......... 208.................. -2
CHART Fastest growing girls sports .... SPORT........NUMBER OF PLAYERS....
5-YEAR INCREASE 1. Hockey.............. 607................
4236% 2. Lacrosse.......... 2,513..................164 3. Softball..........
9,904.................. 53 4. Volleyball........ 4,713.................. 39
5.
Swimming.......... 3,672.................. 34 6.
Soccer............10,810.................. 32 7. Indoor track......
5,778.................. 31 8. Golf................
319.................. 19 9. Cross-country......3,841.................. 19
10. Skiing............ 1,099.................. 17 11. Outdoor track....
10,102.................. 14 12. Tennis............
3,817....................9 13. Field hockey...... 8,447....................9
14. Basketball........
9,830....................1 15. Gymnastics........ 1,184....