Teenage female hockey player loses teeth after being hit by shot from male opponent

[NotSoLittle]

Report in the Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/sports/hockey/massachusetts-high-school-hockey-female-teeth-male-opponent/

Apparently there's and equal rights amendment in Massachusetts that allows boys and girls at high-school level to participate in sport under the opposite gender [ie sex] if it is not made available to their own.

A female defender was hit full in the face with a shot off the stick of a male player, who was allowed to compete on a girls’ team on the basis that field hockey in Massachusetts is traditionally a female sport.

The injured girl's team captain, has written an impassioned letter to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), urging a rethink of state law around male involvement in female competitions.

The athletic director for the team the male was on, "confirmed that the player who had taken the shot was a male varsity student and co-captain but insisted that he had the “exact same right to participate as any player on the team.”"

The MIAA said in a statement: “We respect and understand the complexity and concerns that exist regarding student safety. However, student safety has not been a successful defence to excluding students of one gender from participating on the teams of the opposite gender. The arguments generally fail due to the lack of correlation between injuries and mixed-gender teams.”

The captain of the injured girl's team said: "...How much longer does the MIAA plan on using girls as statistical data points before they realise that boys do not belong in girls’ sports? Twenty injuries? One hundred? Death?.."

The girl needed hospital treatment.
This quote really stood out for me: "...How much longer does the MIAA plan on using girls as statistical data points before they realise that boys do not belong in girls’ sports? Twenty injuries? One hundred? Death?.."
Drives home the point that feelings (especially male feelings) are so much more important than things like safety and fairness...

Sadly hockey in the UK is just as captured. There are TW playing on women’s hockey teams in England

Meanwhile in Scotland

https://reduxx.info/exclusive-trans-identified-male-playing-in-womens-field-hockey-club-injured-female-player/

archived at:
archive dot ph

(in case MN remove archive links)

It's mad. Leaving fairness aside, the scope for injuries is too great.

DH is involved with umpiring in hockey. Many of the The umpires aren’t happy about TW on women’s teams and unclear about what why should do., they have been told that England hockey will issue guidance at some point late next year 🙄 no rush….

I am curious as to what protection the high school were providing to protect players. Did she have a mouth guard and face shield, I couldn't see from the article?

I'm not sure on this, I played hockey in school and some of the girls went on to play at a really high level, they were incredibly powerful on the pitch and I've seen similar injuries with all female players so in this instance I'd want to know what ppe was in place. I'm not sure this is a male specific problem. I know a girl had her skull smashed from a puck to the back of the head and broken teeth on other occasions. These are fairly common injuries for this type of game regardless of player which is why the protective equipment is so important. I'm not sure I see this as a male in female sport specific issue as I do an issue of making sure appropriate equipment is used and maintained correctly.

Men don’t belong in women’s sport - there is no reason at all fir any man to be on a women’s team except their own personal validation

It's a staggering equation to realise isn't it?

Male feelings matter to everyone so very much more than female injuries. Teeth knocked out? Whatevs. At least the one with the penis feels validated .

As he brushes her teeth out of his way.

This chart may help. Check the power difference for the field hockey technique at the right end of the table.

We are fully aware that injuries happen in female-only sport, but the risk to female players is increased when sports are made mixed-sex.

Are you confusing ice hockey and field hockey? Two completely different games.

I don't know if it's already been made clear, apologies if I'm repeating something, but the male who caused the injury isn't trans. I don't understand why but males can play on the girls teams if they want to. Bog standard lads, no ladybrains needed.

This is not a trans issue. This is a high school sport regulation issue that is long overdue.

high school boys can play on girl's field hockey teams. Ditto I believe girls can play on boy's sports teams if the sport is not offered to girls. Boys field hockey teams are incredibly rare (if they exist) in the US. Most boys will play lacrosse instead. I don't think this is about male validation or anything other than a male student who wanted to play field hockey being allowed to under current regulations - with no care for the physical consequences for girls.

When my kids were in middle school there were one or two boys on the girls' field hockey teams (there was no boys field hockey team). They didn't impact because they were 12/13. I would not have been happy with a high school size boy on my daughter's high school field hockey team (although maybe they would have actually won a game ....)

I would like to see lavender14s response to that chart. I’ve seen it before and I was shocked at the position of hockey in the scale of sex differences in sport.

It’s both surely. You must see the connection and how it’s not as simple as saying boys can’t play in girls teams/ there can’t be mixed teams for these high impact sports to protect women and girls when that is now the same thing APPARENTLY according to the media and tras as saying trans people don’t exist and we want to wipe them out.

This "loophole" for want of a better word was available in MA well before trans became the dominating issue it is today.

Yes, I can see that if it is accepted that this boy shouldn't be on the team because of disparate strength/danger to teammates etc. then someone later litigating the trans women/girls in sports could use the argument for their advantage. But if I were that girl's mother or the team's coach I'd be pushing for a repeal of the regulation without any reference to trans issues. That would be the last thing I would want to stir up in Massachusetts (although both high schools involved aren't in the most captured parts of the state). The boy on that team isn't the first or last to be on a girls team and there are probably examples the other way around too.

Stop.

I played hockey all the way through school.

If you did then you know the power behind male teens/young adults is massive, and causes way more injury.

No matter what the variables between the women when the males come on it alters completely, and not in favour of the women.

At this point if they are on a womans team, knowing the controversy surrounding that, they are either looking to hang out in the changing rooms or, are competetive but useless, and so cheat.

DH is involved with umpiring in hockey. Many of the The umpires aren’t happy about TW on women’s teams and unclear about what why should do.

Fucking wimps.

Time to speak out, I'd say.

Just acknowledge that men are stronger physically than women.
It's not rocket science!

In my experience schools and other organizations adopted these kinds of rules mainly under pressure from girls, and their parents, who wanted to play on boys teams, where there wasn't a girls team available.

Field hockey is a mainly female sport in North America. Ice hockey used to be mainly males, girls played ringette instead, which is a similar ice sport with a rubber ring instead of a puck, and the stick doesn't have a hook at the end. (Incidentally ringette is now almost dead.)

Some girls wanted hockey and agitated to be allowed on boys teams. Some coaches made the argument it wasn't safe, they were generally portrayed as sexists in the media.

Once you've accepted that it's safe to have a girl on the boys team, you can't really say that it's unsafe to have a boy on the girls team. But that wasn't where the pressure for these rules came from.

They have spoken out. They have made it clear they are unhappy. They could refuse to umpire female teams with TW on them but then the teams would just appoint someone from their own club who given that they are playing TW on their teams would be quite happy with it. It’s a mess! DH can speak up as he no longer umpires which makes it easier but the young umpires he looks after, they feel the pressure to beeee kind because that’s what the national hockey body is telling them to do.

Regular poster, name changed as outing

Eyeball, my teenager is heavily involved in hockey, coaching and refereeing as well as playing. At the moment I will not let them ref for girls/women or be the match day coach for older girls’ teams. This is because of the lack of clarity re insurance.

England Hockey provides insurance for players and officials so that they are not personally liable if someone is seriously injured (or, god forbid, killed) while playing. I have written to England Hockey several times to confirm that this insurance is still valid if a transwoman is playing, even if the players/officials consider it to be unsafe. I believe that, without specific confirmation, it would be possible for an insurance company to demonstrate that the activity was known to be more than usually unsafe in advance, and players/officials should not, therefore have continued. In this case, the players/officials involved could be personally liable for, perhaps, millions of pounds to care for the injured person/their dependents. Terrible for them, and for the injured player potentially left without the support they need.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have had no such confirmation from England Hockey. I appreciate the admin is boring, but it is there for everyone’s safety.

@RockpoolPeriwinkle I’m so glad you’ve written to them. My DH has asked this question & been told that it does however he’s not confident that they’ve put the actual man playing on women’s team question to the insurers

Eyeball I got my latest reply from them (have written again since) in mid-October - it just linked to their policies, so not even the level of confirmation your DH got.

@Lavender14 luckily for me (though it is expensive) nowadays DD is clad head to toe in OBO protection. School/club stopped mixed hockey age 10/11.

I saw an edited clip of the match on Youtube. There were lots of short corners on the few minutes I saw and at no point did I spot any face guards being used. For those wondering what I am talking about, this is the sort of thing seniors as young as 11 throw on at DD's school (and when she played for club/county) if they are near the goal for a short corner https://www.total-hockey.com/collections/short-corner-protection?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA3aeqBhBzEiwAxFiOBvN38S9asptHMCJUDmtHDjrQUxN-7KXIdkooxkOalDcLq7miKBiw5RoCDjgQAvD_BwE

The quality of the clip wasn't good enough to spot whether the girls were all wearing mouthguards. One of DD's team mates was in the way when an opponent chipped the ball into her face age 12. It wasn't nice (doubly so because of braces), but the teeth were ultimately okay. Another horror story about a yr 12 lad who CBA to wear a mouthguard ended up differently.

The bloke was playing a different game to the girls. He was much faster, with a longer reach to the ball. What right does a teenage(?) boy have to terrify his opposition.

Mixed hockey is madness.

what is even more maddening is that there is a formally defined mixed sex hockey game

5 men
5 women
GK either sex

with clear rules about certain aspects of the game as men are so much more powerful

When taking a short corner a female player must strike the first shot.

A female player must take a penalty flick.

If at any point there are more than 5 outfield players of one sex the umpire can abandon the game and reward a 5-0 victory for the team not breaching the rules.