girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say you?

Hey..
For the past few years, girls have been appearing more and more on boys sports teams.

Here's a football player who is treated equally
http://www.homernews.com/stories/100108/sports_15_001l.shtml

And wrestling is even more popular with girls.

So what do you all think?

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I'm a strong supporter of Arsenal Ladies (quite simply the best women's football team in the country, possibly Europe) but even they would admit that if any of them played competitive football they would get hurt badly. So, I'm against it.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

As long as they can compete and accept the risks, I see no reason not to allow it.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

^Football is a contact sport, it's not a matter of being able to compete or accept risks, it's a matter of getting badly hurt.

As far as football goes, however, the question is moot as women's football is so far behind the men's game (especially goalkeeping).

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I'm a bigot in cases like these. I don't see why we have to have girls and boys on the same team (unless there simply aren't enough kids to make both). In a lot of instances, girls and boys play different versions of the same sport.

Keep 'em separate.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

If there's a chance that a girl playing a sport against boys is going to get more seriously injured than the average boy playing the sport, then that is a good reason to keep the teams separate. For cases where that is not an issue, I see no reason why a girl should not be allowed to compete against boys if she makes the cut.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

It depends on the sport, of course, there's no reason why women can't play snooker against men but something like Rugby? Bad idea.

 

Re: girls on boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

A female friend of mine in high school was one of the best players on her HS gridiron football team. She was over 6', notably muscular, and weighed more than 250 lbs, so it was very easy for her to dominate the opposing players. Being female didn't seem to carry a great deal of additional risk for her.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I'm all for co-ed wrestling teams. I would have paid money in high school to have co-ed wrestling teams.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

Depends on the girl. The female body is not inherently more injury-prone than the male, and I've known females who are tougher and stronger than some males. If they want to try, let 'em try. Their body, their risk.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

As long as everyone is held to the same try-out standards, then what's the problem. As far as "they might get hurt" goes, girls are no more prone to injury then boys, and especially at the JV level (9th & 10th grade) the size difference is often negligible. The concept that girls should play a more 'genteel' version of sports is mired in the same 18th-century mind-set that women shouldn't run because their uteruses would fall out.

And Soccer is most certainly not a full contact sport. Those pussies fall down and cry if someone sneezes at them. JV girls Lacrosse is more violent, and you aren't even allowed to body check (which is why some girls prefer the boy's game or just cheat a lot).

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

As someone who has told me in the past that you've never followed Football, I will accept that perhaps you are not aware of the serious injuries that occur on football pitches routinely. Don't be thrown by the stuff the Brazilians play, I'm talking about fast paced, attacking, passionate Premier League football.

This idea that football is full of divers and cheats is, frankly, a load of old bollocks. Sure, you get a few and they make headlines when they cheat, but those are a tiny fraction of the millions who play professionally.

Football is a full contact sport and there is no body armour to protect you save for a pair of shin pads. Ask Eduardo da Silva how something as simple as contact with an opposing player's studs can result in a double leg break and a broken ankle.

The Women's Premier League in England isn't a more "genteel" version of Football, it's nearly as tough, but as a proud fan of the best women's side in Europe, I know that none of them could cut it in men's professional football and they know that too. They are better off making women's football better, especially the comedic goalkeeping I see in the women's game.

Now, at high school ages there might not be much difference since girls mature physically earlier than boys but once you get to adult, professional level the differences are far more pronounced.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I have no problem with keeping things separate, but only if there are equal opportunities for both. Not necessarily the same, but an equal opportunity to play sports.

When I was in high school, girls could only play volleyball (fall), basketball (winter) or track (spring). Meanwhile, the guys could chose to go out for football (fall), basketball (winter), hockey (winter), track (spring), baseball (spring) or golf (spring). When we petitioned for more sports for gals, we were told that our school was too small to support such a thing. There was almost 300 kids (9th-12th grade): Not a lot, but if it was enough to support six boys team, why only three girls teams? In situations like that, I think gals have every right to try out- even if the reverse isn't allowed.

I did play for my high school boy's golf team my senoir year, but even though (a) it wasn't a contact sport and (b) I was better than just about everyone on the team, because I was a girl I was only allowed to play JV. It sucked, but I'd like to think that it helped pave the way- my high school now has a girl's golf team and a softball team.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I don't accept that explanation; do a woman's bones break more easily, can their sinews and muscles not withstand as much pressure? And even if the answer is yes - there are plenty of male football players who get injured all the time too, and noone would even think of prohibiting them from playing; if they are willing to take the risk, it's their business.

Women's football just isn't on the same level as men's yet, despite all their improvements, neither in tactics nor in skill or athleticism. And I'm saying that as someone who actually enjoys watching women's football. Even the Arsenal Ladies you mentioned would get destroyed by any English 3rd league team playing with full commitment.

Something that I thought was weird for a long time already though, was that women and men are kept seperate even in sporting events where gender doesn't make a difference as far as I can see; eg in the Olympics, the shooting and archery events or Curling. I'd love to see more sports integrate both genders in the same competitions.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I realise it's not politically correct to point out advantages men have over women but this one is true - men, especially men who are professional athletes, are stronger than women. Football is not just about your ability to control the ball, it is very important to be able to use your body to prevent the ball from being taken from you. Even an athletic woman is not going to be able to do that as well as an athletic man could.

We are not comparing average man vs average woman here, we're comparing athletic men vs athletic women.

Does anyone seriously think that any female defensive player is going to be able to beat Didier Drogba in the air ? Out-muscle him ? Drogba would go through her and it wouldn't even be considered a foul.

I can tell you this, my team, Arsenal Ladies, aren't a team of Amazons either. They aren't a bunch of 6ft+ monsters and they didn't just sign Beth Phoenix. They're ordinary athletic women and they're the best in the country at what they do.

A relatively large woman would suffer the same problems a relatively large man would have - immobility. It's useless being built like a tank if you can't run.

It's rare enough to find 6ft+ men who are strong enough and fast enough to play football well and can still run the 10,000+ metres a professional footballer runs in a match.

Of course they would and they would be the first to admit that. As I've said, they've got to build their own game. They're not playing some watered-down version of football, either. Women's football is played according to the same FIFA Rules of the Game document men's football uses.

No issue there. I often wonder why E-Sports have gender separations too.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

I see no problem with it. "Guys sports" are definately more violent than the "women's sports", but if there are women who think they are up to the challenge, I think they should be able to have a go at it. The only thing is that they have to go out there expecting to be treated and hit like one of the guys.

Good for her. I hope she's able to stick with it all four year.s

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

Unfortunately, every time this comes up the discussion instantly turns to changing the rules to make it safer for the female players.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

^And that I definately don't agree with. A sport shouldn't be unneccasarily dangerous, but women definately need to know what they're getting into when they try to play football or wrestling with the guys. The women definately either need to be ready to be knocked around like on eof the guys or they need to start their own women's only league with "friendlier" rules.

 

Re: girls oon boy's sports teams in HS: wrestling, football..what say

^Well, I prefer a middle solution where they have their own league with the same rules. As I said, women's football is played under the same FIFA Rules of the Game document as men's football.

The biggest problem arises when you raise the subject of goalkeepers. Most decent male professional goalkeepers are over six feet tall and the goals are designed as such. Women play using the same size goals and in addition to the lack of development of the women's game, this leads to some pretty disasterous goalkeeping errors.