Every year, dozens or perhaps even hundreds of wrestling matches are forfeited because men are unwilling to compete against their female opponents. With fears of injury, fears of embarrassment and fears of awkward sexual contact counterbalanced against noble goals of including everyone, treating women the same and letting the best compete, it’s easy to see why the issue tends to flare up so regularly. The following story however, I don’t understand at all.
Our Lady of Sorrows, a high school in Phoenix, Arizona, has decided to forfeit the baseball championship game of the Arizona Charter Athletic Association because it’s unwilling to compete against Mesa Preparatory Academy and its female second baseman. Paige Sultzbach never really saw herself as a rabble rouser. She just always loved playing softball. Unfortunately, when she got to high school, her school didn’t have a softball team; so, she tried out for baseball. Her teammates and coaches actively encouraged her, and since there’s almost no contact in baseball, no one envisioned a problem.
According to ESPN, officials at Our Lady of Sorrows saw the situation differently, not so much because they were concerned about Sultzbach getting hurt but more so because they’re interested in maintaining proper boundaries between men and women. Administrators have long banned co-ed sports, and it was decided to play this game would violate that policy.
I’m not sure there’s a single person in this situation that doesn’t lose. The kids on Our Lady of Sorrows lose the chance to play in a championship game. Paige’s teammates lose the chance to properly win the championship game, and Paige herself loses the right to prove to everyone the only real threat of allowing a girl to play baseball is the danger her bat poses if you hang a slider.
