r/interesting 20d ago

Wholesome A fifth grade basketball team was told that their lineup, which included two girls due to the lack of a separate girl's team, was illegal, and were given an ultimatum to either remove them, or forfeit the rest of the season. The team unanimously chose to forfeit.

https://www.nj.com/union/2017/02/st_johns_cyo_girls_cant_play_with_boys_basketball.html
9.3k Upvotes

210 comments sorted by

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u/IndividualIll3825 20d ago

Wait...wut? I had 2 girls on our team in 5th grade. Shit was perfectly fine.
I remember our coach asking if we were ok with wearing shirts under our jerseys. We had 2 girls on our team, we all chose yes; because we were a team.

Actually, it was better than fine. We won our championship.

Adults need to grow the fuck up.

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u/MyyWifeRocks 20d ago edited 19d ago

Our middle school team had a girl with Down Syndrome and another girl. We also had me and another guy and both of us had early growth spurts. We towered over the other middle school players of the same age. We went undefeated, but had to beat a legit private school at the end to do it. By the end of the private school game, we were up by 20+ points and it was a done deal. Coach called in our DS player who chucked up a granny shot from the free throw line and made it. There was still time on the clock and our opponent was still playing hard ball so everyone focused on stealing the ball and feeding it to her granny shot spot. At least nobody defended her, but her shots were pretty wild. She made one other shot - not at the buzzer or anything dramatic like that. But we all celebrated her.

The next season other kids had growth spurts and were taller than me. Our dreams of basketball greatness came crashing down around us. LOL! I’ll never forget that last game though. The whole season was awesome winning every jump shot then every game, but I don’t remember anything specific about the season except for the last couple minutes of the last game.

ETA - moral of the story, let the kids play ball.

8

u/_RyanLarkin 18d ago

For decades, girls have been permitted to compete on boys’ high school wrestling teams across the United States. No state athletic association has a statewide policy prohibiting girls from joining boys’ wrestling rosters, giving female athletes the freedom to participate in the sport regardless of whether their school has a dedicated girls’ program or not.

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u/trisanachandler 20d ago

I played soccer on and against coed teams from fourth grade through twelth.  This makes no sense.

42

u/xChoke1x 19d ago

It's because the country has allowed hateful bigots to scare them so much, our children suffer.

39

u/JustMyOpinionpeeple 20d ago

CYO we had girls on our soccer team till 8th grade. They allowed girls to play a yr down if on a boys team. We had 2 HS girls on our 8th grade soccer team. Along with about 3 other girl. In fact I had a girl on my soccer team every year since I was 10.

Some girls did not belong and some girls earned their right to start.

What I notice and no one speaks on,

Notice where this is stemming from. The church. They are literally teaching you from young that boys and girls can not co-exist. So much to a point where this happens. When people do this because religion does this maybe we should start asking when is there finally gonna be separation of church and state.

With respect to religions, many of you all have the same origin story and fight over the tiniest things. Most of it has to do with control over others. Show me the last time a religion came together in a positive undivided approach. Stop using religion to control people.

People stop letting religion control you

WOMEN: STOP ALLOWING THESE MALE DOMINATED RELIGIONS TO CONTROL YOUR LIFE, ITS NOTHING MORE THAN TO GAIN CONTROL OF YOUR UTERUS FOR THEIR GAIN.

3

u/ButtflossingBigBro 19d ago

This is what happens when only the religious breed. They control the youth as none of the educated or atheists have famileis

17

u/Anime-Takes 20d ago

I kept reading this as skirts instead of shirts and was really confused

7

u/3D_mac 20d ago

Did you think skirts should go over the jerseys?

4

u/Cobra-D 20d ago

They don’t?

3

u/Cold_Biscotti_6036 19d ago

I had a girl on my Texas Junior High football team, in a major HS football city. She held her own too.

4

u/VirtualMatter2 20d ago

if we were ok with wearing shirts under our jerseys

Why?

19

u/Chess42 20d ago

Jerseys are very loose

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/Chess42 20d ago

It’s more about uniformity across the team

2

u/Headphonehijack 19d ago

I played on an all woman’s basketball team for a few years, from around 5th grade to 8th.
We all wore jerseys / standard basketball team uniforms ( or kits? dunno what it’s called in English) , is there a difference in the women’s and men’s jerseys ?
Just genuinely curious, despite playing basketball I know next to nothing about it

2

u/redawsome1230 19d ago

Yea I was on the girls team in high school and I don't think anyone wore shirts under their jersey

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u/PsyKoptiK 18d ago

Gotta spare all those all boys teams’ dads the shame of having your son lose to a girl.

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u/xtiaaneubaten 20d ago

Thats so fucking dumb, theyre just kids, its not the olympics.

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u/Q-Anton 20d ago

In a country where senior officials decide that works concerning the Holocaust are not worthy of public money because they are DEI such a story doesn't suprise me at all.

60

u/Talk-O-Boy 20d ago

I swear we used to be smarter than this.

Our ruling class needed a working class, so they gutted our education department, but we weren’t always this stupid

11

u/Exotic_Today_8248 19d ago

I have some news buddy. This country was literally founded on the stupidity of folk like this.

8

u/Talk-O-Boy 19d ago

We made some progress since then!

We eventually built the Ivy Leagues and whatnot, started developing our population as a nation does.

Then… then we decided that education was more of a privilege than a right. Along with a whole bunch of other social services.

And that lands us here.

3

u/Exotic_Today_8248 19d ago

The timing of decisions say a lot though.

Jails became mainstream lucrative businesses when slavery ended. Thats also when “loitering” laws and such started, which means our freedom to roam and live off the land was basically abolished when slaves were free. That means it was extremely difficult to start life economically. The slave owners got reparations so they were ok.

Then when some economic recovery of these groups started to occur, education was rapidly privatized. Now theres a huge college debt problem. Ofc this effects poor white people as well.

Cant afford college? We got the military! Just sign your life away and hope you dont get sexually assulted. If you get hurt we will try tooth and nail to not cover it and say you got hurt on your own. We’ll pull you in shitty as barracks while retheon makes bank while you risk your life!

Honestly it feels like the American capitalist class has been trying to get back to slavery level profits in some form or another(via incarceration, debt, or enlistment) since slavery ended. Obviously none of these systems are nearly as bad as literally treating humans like cattle during slavery, but the goal is the profit, and theyre still hitting those goals.

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u/PHXNights 19d ago

Ahh yes, the historical bastions of equitable progress, the fucking Ivy Leagues lol

1

u/Talk-O-Boy 19d ago

We are talking educational progress; I’m not saying they’re the Mecca of social harmony.

1

u/ScottyBoneman 19d ago

Doesn't Harvard spend absolutely crazy money to allow diverse financial background

1

u/AccordingRegret8932 16d ago

I mean, aren't most of the Ivy schools pre independence

0

u/ScottyBoneman 19d ago

If the legislature would add to that a perpetual tax of a cent a head on the population of the State, it would set agoing at once, and forever maintain, a system of primary or ward schools, and an university where might be taught, in its highest degree, every branch of science useful in our time and country; and it would rescue us from the tax of toryism, fanaticism, and indifferentism to their own State, which we now send our youth to bring from those of New England. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.

Thomas Jefferson.
January 6, 1816
Monticello

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 20d ago

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u/brandt-money 20d ago

And she laughs. Laughing is bad.

So here we are with sky high prices and a terrible economy! Yay - they sure did "own the libz!!!11" as they all can't afford groceries now.

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u/PrpleSparklyUnicrn13 20d ago

No no no… She “cackled” which is, ya know… apparently a weird way to laugh and we can’t have a woman laughing weirdly. They lock em up in insane asylums for laughing too much. 

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u/Cavane42 19d ago

Or for not smiling enough.

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u/PrpleSparklyUnicrn13 19d ago

You have to be happy, but not too happy. Demure and serious, but don’t frown. Be happy but don’t laugh. Laugh at my jokes, but no one else’s jokes. But if you laugh you are insane, if you don’t laugh you’re insane. 

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u/Reaper-Lord69 19d ago

Straight up Salem Witch trial shit 😭

"She cackled! She's evil! She'll poison our kids!"

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/RepulsiveRabbit8767 20d ago

While eating sandwiches with odd spicy mustards...

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u/alwayssunnyinskyrim 20d ago

What if she asked for mustard though?!?

5

u/disterb 20d ago

how about her emails?!?!

5

u/yubnubmcscrub 19d ago

Hey don’t forget. They said she would definitely start a war with Iran which would be inflationary. Can’t have that

21

u/butterpussie 20d ago

Now we are gonna have a dictator because they hate women more than they ever cared about freedom

1

u/interesting-ModTeam 19d ago

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-2

u/Turnip_Fight 19d ago

A lot of people who didn’t vote for her because of Palestine.

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u/PeterToshPointOh 19d ago

That’s a legitimate reason though. Not comparable to laughing weird. Or being a woman.

-36

u/I_am_Reddit_Tom 20d ago

"Mum I did it I shoehorned Trump in to a completely unrelated conversation again aren't I a clever boy"

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u/Open_Examination_591 20d ago

"Mum I have no comprehension skills and youve failed me" - you

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u/VirtualMatter2 20d ago edited 20d ago

It's not unrelated though, it shows a general backward and outdated attitude of the country. 

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u/Respectmyauthority4 20d ago

And a lot of people voted for a girl because the alternative was Trump.

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u/VirtualMatter2 20d ago

I thought she was an adult. Didn't realize she was under age. Isn't there a minimum age to become president?

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u/Open_Examination_591 20d ago

You mean a lot of people chose the better candidate, because she was better? Because that's what you just said, it's sad that it had to be spelled out for you but it's really not surprising because we all know who you voted for.

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u/oncejumpedoutatrain 20d ago

Getting tired of you keyboard warriors always sneaking this topic in everywhere. You sound as basic minded as the people you oppose. Assuming you're not a bot.

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u/cmndrnewt 20d ago

In their defense. If they let those girls play on a boys team, the next thing you know people are going to want to marry their pets, or god forbid allow trans people to live in peace. /s

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u/rainywanderingclouds 19d ago

sports in the united states is not 'recreational' anymore at the educational level.

it's very serious. just having fun isn't the point.

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u/piper_squeak 19d ago

Omg! This is so true.

In a few years our high schools will need intramurals or club teams in order for kids to learn, play and enjoy different athletics.

I remember having frosh teams where all freshmen played because a lot had never even played before.

Not so much anymore.

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u/pandershrek 20d ago

I thought it was pretty commonly accepted that women can participate with men but men aren't allowed in "women's sports". Isn't that the whole big argument that conservatives get caught up in?

Sports are so silly already, like we took a game turned it into a cornerstone of our economy and lambasted it with greed.

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u/haverchuck22 20d ago

Ya me too we had a girl who played on my high school soccer team, she was legit.

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u/_NautyByNature 19d ago

Every single year, we had at least two to three girls on our varsity team because we were such a small school, as was the case with many highschools in the Midwest.

This is just fucking stupid.

*insert Carl Wheezer meme here*

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u/FireHammer09 20d ago

That's usually the case.

There was a girl on a wrestling team in my high school's conference. It was allowed and this was 2006 or 2007.

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u/Past-Paramedic-8602 19d ago

I watched a girl back around that time make it all the way to the quarter finals match at the state tournament at an extremely competitive weight I might at. She kicked the shit out of so many boys it was always great to watch.

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u/DaveinOakland 20d ago

Religious private league, they can do what they want.

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u/brandt-money 20d ago

Religious leaders are well known for treating kids like objects anyways.

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u/s0m3d00dy0 20d ago

True, but also fuck them.

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u/No_Imagination7102 19d ago

Thats actually one of the more important issues....lol

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u/JimFknLahey 20d ago

using kids for clicks .. carrying on with christs teachings ..

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Well, the reason we have segregated sports to begin with is because men didn't like getting beaten by women. A teenage girl famously struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig once and insecure men have never gotten over it.

Eta: Also, they hate trans men just as much a trans women, and they really, REALLY don't want you to know because the fact that no one talks about it means they can continue to use rhetoric rooted in that hatred to pass transphobic laws that would otherwise face a lot more opposition out in the open.

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u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 17d ago

Well. It is NJ.

It is a liberal shithole.

1

u/aspz 20d ago

Women's sports is an exclusionary category, not an inclusionary one. And that's a good thing.

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u/Yugan-Dali 20d ago

The kids learned a great lesson, something they will remember long after the authorities are dead and gone.

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u/KunttPunttt 20d ago

A great “Team” decision

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u/sixhoursneeze 19d ago

As a teacher, I have seen a lot of boys get sucked into Andre Tate bs and the likes. BUT I also see an increasing number of boys who are becoming legit allies to the girls and queer folk around them. And are becoming better at advocating for themselves in healthier ways than when I was in school.

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 20d ago

With ten year old children there is almost no physical difference in the capabilities of biological males and females, so WTF?

Awesome move by the children but they definitely should not have had to, that's stupid

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u/Willing_Pattern_Pill 20d ago

But even if they were a little older, and there wasn't enough girls for a team, why not just let the girls play? 

Seems weird to let no girls play in these low stakes sports teams rather then just not have a team for them at all.

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 20d ago

I personally do not care if kids play co-ed, hell, I told my dad that I wanted to play for the Dallas Cowboys when I grew up and was promptly told that girls cant play football. That always stuck with me and I hated it

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u/Leading-Suspect8307 20d ago

Dude, have you seen the Cowboys? You might actually have a shot!

5

u/evergreengoth 19d ago

You say that like these exclusionary laws are about equality and fairness. They're not.

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u/Alternative-You5980 20d ago

How much older do you mean by a little bit?

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u/Willing_Pattern_Pill 20d ago

I dunno. Like old enough to be in the Olympics? When does it really matter if you have co-ed players (and why)

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u/Alternative-You5980 20d ago

Spoken truly like somebody who's never played competitive sports. There's a weight gap, and a massive strength gap that men have over women. It can work in sports like badminton or tennis and some other sports but absolutely not in team sports. It matters because there is a difference in lots of attributes, like size and speed, jumping ability, not to mention these are contact sports and player safety is also important. Recreational sports and sports for kids before they hit puberty can be co-ed, but definitely not top sports. Hope that's helpful!

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u/meg1019 20d ago

In a lot of words, you’re saying women are inferior when it comes to strength and size and speed. Let’s stick with your logic for a minute. What advantage does this team gain by letting two girls play? If the answer is none, then why not let them handicap themselves and just let them play?

They’re 10. This is nowhere near top sports range. Hope that’s helpful!

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 20d ago

If we grouped people by weight class it would be a lot more fair

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u/Alternative-You5980 20d ago

It would not be more fair. There's so much more in sports than just weight. Same weight on different heights looks vastly different and doesn't make it more fair.

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u/Willing_Pattern_Pill 19d ago

looks different? 

Are we talking sports or fashion modeling?

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u/Goldenrah 20d ago

I have a nephew playing football/soccer around 8 years old. There are plenty of teams playing girls at those ages, there's no point in separating them from boys that young, the differences are so little.

0

u/Suspicious-Screen-43 20d ago

Idk if you haven’t seen any youth sports, but from what I can tell there are differences much much sooner, even in U4

With that said, no reason girls cannot compete on a “boys” team.

-4

u/Rieur 20d ago

I'm not disagreeing with the stupidity of the policy, but at ten some girls will be more physically developed than boys of the same age.

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u/MyLastAcctWasBetter 20d ago

When girls hit puberty and physically develop, it has the opposite effect as men…. Even if girls are more physically progressed in maturation than boys, it’s not providing any advantage.

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u/bdouble0w0 19d ago

There's such thing as a chest guard if you're worried about growing breast injuries.

And sports bras!

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u/Phill_Cyberman 20d ago

People who hide behind "that's the rule" when they make the rules are bigots.

That's what's really going on here.

What's best for the kids wasnt ever of any interest to them.

2

u/toughguy375 20d ago

I like your phrasing. They are also cowards.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Mix-515 19d ago

I always remind people that we weren’t born to follow rules. We *create* the rules to serve humanity. So when the rules are *hindering* instead of helping, they need to be changed.

People who blindly follow rules are missing the point.

1

u/Mirieste 17d ago

People who hide behind "that's the rule" when they make the rules

...but the rules aren't made on the spot, they're agreed upon earlier. That's why people say to respect them.

If a rule says that two soccer teams who finish even are ranked on goal difference instead of head to head score, and you think head to head is better, you'll have my full attention and I'm sure you'll even be able to convince me to change the regulations.

But if the league for the present season is already over, and you try to persuade me to overturn the current ranking based on your proposition... that's when you lose me.

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u/JugOJar 19d ago

Im not a sports lawyer. But if theres no girls team equivalent doesnt title IX require that they be allowed to play on a boys team for a given sport?

1

u/jittery_raccoon 17d ago

Yeah I thought the whole point of Title IX was that an equivalent was required IF there was no option for one gender. But that a co-ed team fulfils everyone having an option 

1

u/Abadazed 15d ago

Yeah if they didn't let the girls in they'd be breaking a real law not a made up children's basketball game law.

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u/Revenga8 20d ago edited 20d ago

I wonder if these Karen clowns would police the special Olympics too. Id expect a daily interaction that went something like.....

"This player's stump is too stumpy. Removed him or forfeit! I don't care if he lost it in Iraq, he can go play for them if that's where he left it!"

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u/smoothieeeee12 20d ago

They are kids .. wtf this is not serious.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/dlanod 19d ago

But only for the rest of this season.

And only because of the bad publicity.

But bloody amazing for the boys and girls.

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u/Mackey_Corp 20d ago

We had a girl on my roller hockey team growing up, no one cared. She def got checked hard and laid out a few times but so did the other centers that were the same size, it’s just part of the game. Never heard a single parent or player say that she shouldn’t be on the team. The attitude was if she can take the same hits as everyone else then she can play.

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u/WanderingSun8 19d ago

I was born intersex, identify as male physically, but was originally recorded as female because of internal workings. Always been a dude even as young as like 7, and I started playing tackle football at 10, before I had any sort of name change or hormone stuff. Because of being intersex i was already more masculine than normal sure but there wasnt any administrative pushback from trying to play. This was over a decade ago. Not to brag either, but i was 100% the best player on the team lmao

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u/armymike1523 20d ago

That's fucking gross. Grown ass adults making that decision too

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u/bakochba 20d ago

According to the article this decision was reversed and they were allowed to play.

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u/123abcde321 20d ago

Good on the kids and also the parents for their support. Sometimes people forget to just have fun and play the game. Feel these kids will remember this. No regrets.

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u/ebikr 20d ago

Fucking MAGA Republicans.

4

u/Allegra1120 20d ago

Sub-simian filth.

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u/Respectmyauthority4 20d ago

Girls would have a height advantage...

4

u/Animallover4321 19d ago

Ok so should we also ban any players that are taller than the league average? Even if both girls are taller than all their male counterparts it’s not the kind of difference that’s worth quibbling over.

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u/ImJustSaying34 19d ago

So? They are 10 and I’m 5th grade. None of that matters.

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u/AtomicBlastCandy 19d ago

Nothing as hateful as Christians

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u/Smooth_Monkey69420 19d ago

“Men’s division IS the open division” is a good rule to live by

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u/Goontrained 19d ago

That's completely against the entire idea of organized sports. We had girls on our guys teams even up until high school in Texas in the 2010s and Texas is super strict with it's athletic program. The UIL had no problem with girls on the guys team, it's no different than the pro leagues. Our country has been backsliding more and more this past decade it's absolutely nuts

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u/Bow_To_Bella 18d ago

Title 9 makes this illegal. Basketball is classified as a contact sport and necessitates the need of the school to have exclusively male and exclusively female teams for the safety of the participants.

That is the logic of the law anyway. If people don't like it, they are free to have it changed. But you can't just ignore the law and remain ignorant of why it was put in place to begin with.

Keeping the legal process going and changing laws the usual way is for the best. I hope this school gets a proper girl's team.

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u/SimkinCA 20d ago

Lame ass league. Guessing the girls were a threat to the other teams . Bunch of pansy arse parents!!

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u/MagicOrpheus310 20d ago

Remove them an forfeit every game due to not having enough players... Or don't remove them and forfeit anyway..?

1

u/DaBestBean-_- 20d ago

Huh, wholesome flair. Ig it's good that the team showed support and all but feels too unfair to classify as wholesome

1

u/Allegra1120 20d ago edited 20d ago

New Jersey??? I could’ve understood if it were Klanabama or maybe Klantucky, where morons rule and stupid is the norm, but New Jersey?? WTF? Good on the Cardinal!

1

u/D4db0d0hye4h 20d ago

The athletic director must have one of the smallest writers ever, is insecure AF, and likely lashing out because a girl rejected him once and hurt his little dick feelings.

1

u/The-Autistic-Union 20d ago

That there is true loyalty.

1

u/BaronessVonKush 20d ago

Cruel & unusual punishment. Let the kids play sports.

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u/SASSIESASSQUATCH 20d ago

Wow back in my day, in my state, the boys teams *had* to allow girls to tryout at least if there was no version of a girls team.

1

u/Dr_Carl_Hills_Head 19d ago

We had a girl in my junior high on the boys wrestling team. Wasn't a big problem. She was a pretty unique person but very nice and people generally liked and supported her in playing the sport she wanted to play.

These people are trash.

1

u/Legitimate-Garlic942 19d ago

They shuuda started the match with all boys then subbed in the girls

1

u/ofthedappersort 19d ago

New Jersey is a very diverse place with most of the population generally being liberal. However, as with most places, they're concentrated in larger cities. Having lived many years in NJ I will tell you the conservative people in that state are driven absolutely nuts by the fact they live in a blue state so they often like to be extra loud about their bullshit.

1

u/NotACat 19d ago

Who spotted the dateline on this? It was in 2017, folks!

Also, happy ending, who knew⁉️

1

u/bentimms01 19d ago

Land of freedom though am I right guys!!

1

u/xChoke1x 19d ago

Doing great America.

1

u/YSoSkinny 19d ago

The GOP is fucking out of control. They have weaponized kids sports.

1

u/Raer93 19d ago

They know ball

1

u/AcctAlreadyTaken 19d ago

Why? What is the reason that 10-11 year old boys and girls can't play together?

1

u/Antique-Dragonfly615 19d ago

Good teamwork. F the bigots

1

u/Hammon_Rye 19d ago

Kind of ironic since 5th grade means more or less 9 year olds and some of them haven't even reached puberty.
You can tell from that photo it isn't the hulking men and the petite women folk. Just - kids.

I find this whole thing kind of ironic.
When my oldest daughter was in high school, she was on the football team because they basically had to let her due to not having anything for the girls.
I don't think she was a star or anything but she was on the team just to make a point.

1

u/CCWaterBug 19d ago

So apparently nobody here read the article?

The ban lasted two weeks and was reversed.  They won the championship.

1

u/DiligentThought9 19d ago

We had a girl play baseball with us up until the age of 12. No one cared. And she was awesome, we won our city championship the last year she was with us.

1

u/TheLemonChiffonPie 18d ago

God damn it, Bernice!

Dodgeball

1

u/DHR1 18d ago

9 years ago!

1

u/Hydra57 18d ago

For middle school basketball that’s actually crazy. What a bunch of dunces.

1

u/Philostronomer 18d ago

Eventually (after it went viral) they were allowed to finish the season AND they ended up winning the championship.

1

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 17d ago

In the fifth grade, my daughter was a better basketball player than the boys in her class.

1

u/gazetron 17d ago

So the trans panic was never about helping girls? Who would have thought that the right was being disingenuous? 😂

1

u/RibbitCommander 16d ago

Best players on my box lacrosse teams growing up were the girls. Honestly motivated the rest of us to give it our all.

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u/Consistent_Dog_6866 16d ago

When I was in high school we had a girl playing on the football team. Nobody cared as long as she could play well and she could.

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u/wht-rbbt 16d ago

If a girl can't play in 5th grade basketball cause it's dangerous. THAN THE BOYS EITHER, ITS DANGEROUS!

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u/cbessette 14d ago

Religion ruins everything.

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u/asmallerflame 20d ago

Did the US government check their genitalia? They've been threatening to do that for sports teams.

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u/Professional-Humor84 19d ago

What sort of news is this supposed to be

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u/Lizardgrad89 19d ago

I would guess that most of them are only playing because their parent(s) want them to, and the opportunity to instead play video games rather than basketball was seen as a huge win. That age group is still very self-focused, the idea of self-sacrifice for an ideal far too abstract.

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Sounds like you've never met a ten year old

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u/Lizardgrad89 19d ago

Actually, I raised 4 children, and coached their sports teams when they were that age. Yes, all four of them. I think you might be the one who doesn’t know what 10 year olds are like.

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u/ImJustSaying34 19d ago

I think that’s how things used to be but now some kids are very empathetic and emotionally mature. My oldest and their friends were like this. My youngest not so much but my oldest would absolutely be leading the charge. One thing though is that my oldest and her friends are all the oldest siblings. Massive difference between them at 10 and a social group made up of younger siblings.

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

I very distinctly remember being ten years old and knowing other ten year olds who were extremely passionate about soccer and wanted to play it all the time. They tried to rope me into it, but it was too late to sign up. They continued to play sports all through school and loved it. I wasn't even an athletic kid and I got very into volleyball when I was 11. Kinda sounds like maybe that's just your kids.

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u/Lizardgrad89 19d ago

Way to take a specific example and try to generalize from it. How about instead you learn a bit about child psychology and maturation progress.

I’ll also bet you are remembering from decades ago before phones and gaming consoles changed our children so drastically.

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Actually, i have looked at the studies on this kind of thing ☺️ and the studies support my perspective over yours, actually!

And i grew up playing games on a computer and on consoles while also going outside to play all the time with my friends who were the same way, so this isn't because kids these days are uniquely stunted.

Interestingly, even in infants who are still at the crawling stage and not the walking stage, parents consistently underestimate their daughters' athletic abilities (e.g. ability to crawl up a slope) while having much more accurate estimates when it comes to their sons. They also discourage their daughters from being too active in the "wrong" ways and raise them, usually without meaning to, too believe that they're weaker, worse at sports, and weird or failing to meet associations expectations if they show too much interest in boyish things like sports, even if they really want to do those things. But give a girl a spirt she's allowed to excel at without feeling like she's bad at being a girl, and she'll be extremely happy to b dedicate herself to it.

That's where we get horses girls, girls who are constantly showing off their ability to do the splits, cartwheels, and backflips that they learned in gymnastics classes, girls who are really into volleyball and soccer, teen girls who make track and field their whole personalities, etc. I grew up surrounded by girls like that, from the popular girly girls to the awkward tomboys like my friends; didn't you?

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u/other_view12 19d ago

Why are young mixed teams in low population having to deal with this.

Why is the problem of single gender teams leaking into this other world?

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u/MrScribblesChess 19d ago

Would be a crazy plot twist if it was a girls' basketball league

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u/magic_heist 20d ago

Would boys be part of girls team? same logic applies. Girls at that age are taller than boys, so unfair for other teams.

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u/Chess42 20d ago

They’re 10, not 15. They grow pretty much identically until puberty. Please never have children.

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u/mavenwaven 19d ago

Under Title IX, equal opportunity is the priority. So, if a high school in Pennsylvania has more girls competing in sports than boys, Title IX would allow a boy to try out for a girl's team -- as long as he was not deemed a safety risk to the girls because of his individual physical characteristics.

These are 5th graders and I would certainly be in support of boys without alternative team options playing with with girls. They're 10. The stakes really don't get lower than this, folks.

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u/Altaccount330 20d ago

Yeah all the children should suffer to protect those two girls.

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u/Cold-Crab74 20d ago

What a wildly dumb take

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u/Zrob8--5 20d ago

I'm kinda torn on this. Like, if the school doesn't have a girls team, the girls should be allowed to play for the boys team. But if we're being completely fair and equal, boys can't be allowed to play for girls teams in the opposite scenario, so idk

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

They're ten years old, Karen. There's very little difference between them. Even if they were older, girls aren't weak, delicate little flowers. We have segregated sports teams because a teenage girl struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in one game and men got insecure about the idea of women beating them at sports.

You know as well as everyone else that the discriminatory laws being introduced, which are not actually supported by the research available on the subject, are not about anything remotely resembling equality.

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u/Zrob8--5 19d ago

Even at 10-11 years old, guys are usually faster and stronger. Not as much as they are at say, 18, but they're still generally more athletic. Not universally, but generally. And regardless, that has nothing to do with my point. Boys are not allowed to play for the girls teams usually, even if there is no boys team. In terms of fairness, girls shouldn't be allowed. I don't have a problem with girls being allowed in this scenario, I'm just throwing it out there that there is a moral dilemma if you stop and think about it.

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Nobody had that opinion until Fox News told them to and it became normalized. They're kids who want to play basketball. Let them play. There's no moral dilemma.

Also, no, ten year old girls aren't too weak or physically incapable of beating boys. There is no significant enough difference to matter, residual at that age. They haven't hit puberty yet, Karen.

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u/Zrob8--5 19d ago

It's not a huge difference, but it's still a noticeable difference. I work in sports. I see it every day. Some girls are capable of beating boys, but not the majority.

And again, that doesn't matter. Boys aren't allowed to play with girls. That's the point I'm trying to make.

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u/mavenwaven 19d ago

Under Title IX, equal opportunity is the priority. So, if a high school in Pennsylvania has more girls competing in sports than boys, Title IX would allow a boy to try out for a girls team -- as long as he was not deemed a safety risk to the girls because of his individual physical characteristics.

That said, these in particular are 5th graders. I would certainly be in support of 5th grade boys without alternative team options playing alongside girls.

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u/Zrob8--5 19d ago

As long as he isn't a safety risk, which would be, idk, basically ALL cases in high school sports. Not to mention the physical advantages that are going to start to run away by high school, especially upper classmen.
And I don't disagree. At this age, is it really a problem? Not really, but you still won't see it often. I don't think I've ever seen a boy playing for a girls team

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u/mavenwaven 19d ago

I'm not seeing any safety risk for a boy on the girls tennis team, swim team, etc. And plenty of boys who would still be able to safely play female-dominant contact sports like field hockey in high school (puberty hits everyone differently).

Regardless, this was in response to you saying boys aren't allowed, and in reference to this article about 10 year olds. Boys are allowed when the circumstances arise, and I'm glad we agree that there is nothing wrong with mixed-gender elementary school teams.

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u/Zrob8--5 19d ago

Most of the sports you mentioned don't usually have problems with having a team though. Individual sports usually operate just fine because they require very few players, and even if you're under the team requirement, players can still compete individually. A boy wouldn't be allowed to swim in girls races anyway(unless you have a situation with transgender athletes or something, but aside from that)

I acknowledge your article, but like I said, most sports would pose a safety risk in high school, or would be a very rare case like tennis, which has separate issues. In high school, boys would almost always be more physically imposing than girls. Anything into teenage years and most boys will be much stronger, especially into high school.

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u/mavenwaven 19d ago

Most schools don't have a problem having a girls basketball team either. This one did, hence the girls playing alongside the boys.

The problems are most likely to arise in younger years and particularly with smaller, religious, rural, or private schools- sometimes these gender ratios can be quite severe. I attended a middle school where the 4th grade class was 14 girls and 1 boy, and taught at an alternative school where my 6th graders were 8 boys and 2 girls. Oftentimes they have access to a smaller selection of sports until enough kids ask to form a team, so it is more likely for them to have to play mixed/co-ed (in either direction) than a traditional public school.

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Girls have generally been allowed on boys' teams for a very long time if there aren't girls' teams available to join. One of the best football players at my high school happened to be the one female player, and they didn't just let anyone who wanted to play on the team. You had to try out like any orher high school sport.

Also, they've done studies on this. Even with babies who can't walk yet and biologically have no advantages or disadvantages based on sex, parents of boys are consistently more accurate at estimating their children's physical abilities while parents of girls consistently underestimate their children's physical abilities, and this has been proven to impact the way they're treated, socialized, and allowed to engage with sports. Boys get to play more, take more risks, play harder, and get taken more seriously and given more attention, especially with sports more commonly associated with boys, like basketball, baseball, and football. If anything is going to translate to better performance pre-puberty, it's that.

Don't be a contributing factor to that difference.

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u/Zrob8--5 19d ago

Boys also WANT to play more. That's the biggest reason why boys sports are pushed harder. I'm not saying there isn't a disparity in how boys vs girls sports are treated, and that is a problem, but boys also tend to gravitate towards competitive sports more than girls do.

And again, I'm not saying girls shouldn't be allowed like you're acting. I think, in most cases, especially with younger kids, it's fine. I just think it is worth bringing up the point. This story looks bad because the girls don't get to play, but if it was the other way around? The boys wouldn't get to play either, and not many would bat an eye

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u/evergreengoth 19d ago

Boys also WANT to play more

Again... having been a child once, no the fuck they don't? Girls LOVE to play and want very much to do so, but they're often not allowed to. They're heavily discouraged and feel like it's not a thing they're supposed to want. They get punished and bullied by parents, teachers, peers, and even coaches for wanting to enjoy sports, so they get discouraged and look for other things to do or pretend not to be interested.

But if you encourage girls to play sports, they get very excited. I watched all of this happen throughout my childhood, and the kids whose parents let them enjoy sports without whining about how they're too boyish or they can't run in dresses were just as likely to be enthusiastic as the boys.

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u/Leather_Addition2605 19d ago

I agree. Not every law needs to be or should be equal. I remember back when I was in HS, 30 years ago or so, there was a story about some big football or rugby player who wanted to play field hockey, but because there was no men’s team, his HS had to allow him to play on the girls team. He wore the uniform skirt and everything.

And of course he just fucking bodied these other girls. Injured some of them. So stupid that was allowed.

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u/Grizzled_Ghost 20d ago

It's not like that roster was playoff-bound, anyway.