MIAA Volleyball Committee waits on rule change to allow boys to play on girls’ front line

For at least one more season, it’s status quo for girls volleyball.

On Thursday morning, the MIAA Volleyball Committee and a designated Blue Ribbon Commission elected to push off at least for one more year a key potential rule change to girls volleyball that would permit boys to block and attack on the front line.

The additional year will be used by both groups to gather more information as it pertains to the legal issues with the Massachusetts state constitution that come with any decision. Currently, boys are allowed to play on an MIAA girls volleyball team if their school does not field a boys team, but there are restrictions in place on where they can be positioned.

According to rule 83.5.1, “It is a fault for a male player on a mixed gender girls’ team to attack a ball, if, on contact, the ball is completely above the height of the net and in the front zone.” The current rule has been in effect since the fall of 2007.

The possibility of allowing boys to play on the front line in girls volleyball was met with opposition by the MIAA Volleyball Committee. Among the concerns highlighted during the meeting is an increased rate of injuries should a rule change take place.

Barnstable coach and Volleyball Committee coaches’ representative Tom Turco noted how boys attacking at a 7-foot-4 net, which is seven inches shorter than the net used in boys volleyball, presents safety issues. Volleyball Committee officials representative Carol Burke cited similar concerns, noting how the growth of boys club volleyball would allow them to come into the girls game with increased skill sets.

Erin Buzuvis, a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission, disagreed with the notion of barring boys from playing on the front line due to safety reasons, saying that writing the rule in such a manner refuses to neglect inherent risk that comes from the sport itself. Buzuvis also stated that she believed singling out boys from participating gave the indication that girls are inherently not as good or as athletic as boys.

One problem for those who have concerns with regards to safety is the MIAA’s Title IX guidelines make clear that player safety should not be taken into consideration when excluding a gender from participating on teams belonging to the opposite gender.

Members of the Blue Ribbon Commission are also concerned with the language of the current rule and are looking to shift it to make it gender neutral.

Commission member and Westborough Athletic Director Johanna DiCarlo said a strong concern of the Volleyball Committee should be to consider student-athletes who either do not identify as male or female or are transitioning between genders.

“For me personally there are two issues at stake. One is the legal matters and the other is the new world we’re living in where we cannot put kids into boxes,” DiCarlo said. “We have to make sure we are taking care of all student-athletes. When we start making rules based on gender, we run into trouble.”

Both committees plan on examining the aspect that currently there are two sets of rules for the same sport being that the girls’ net is lower than the boys.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2X9UfEE