A 6th grade girls team from Kentucky was set to go for the year-end championship tournament, but was told they were banned due to fears boys teams might ‘retaliate’ if they lost to the girls team.
A 6th grade girls team from Kentucky was set to go for the year-end championship tournament, but was told they were banned due to fears boys teams might ‘retaliate’ if they lost to the girls team.
That’s 11 years old.
Okay let’s hear all the excuses for 11 year olds needing to be super competitive and separated by gender.
At 11, girls tend to be taller than boys. So all that estrogen is providing them with a competitive advantage.
Then they should make 2 leagues: one where everyone is allowed to participate, and another one where only boys can participate, so they can win too. Just like we have with every sport’s women’s league.
Of course the prizes in the boys-only league should be lower since they play in a less competitive league.
We should have two leagues based on skill. Not gender or sex. We can still create space to have awards and prizes based on gender or sex to ensure everyone is recognised if necessary.
Sadly, the way these things tend to work is that a handful of patriarchs make all the rules, from who gets to play to what goes in the prize pool.
Which we care about… Why? Is there some million dollar prize for 11 year old basketball I’m not aware of?
Then you can’t have it both ways when they get to high school. Or are you saying Girl Sports shouldn’t exist? If a girl can’t compete in high school basketball against boys, then too bad?
School sports shouldn’t be competitive in the same way. It’s not the point of student sports. That’s for learning to operate in a team, learning social dynamics, building hand-eye coordination, and physical fitness.
But this wasn’t a school league. So for apples to apples, yes once they reach high school age in private leagues they should be grouped by ability.