HS girls' field hockey team whose player got hurt by male opponent in 2023 forfeits game next week due to male competition

A Massachusetts high school girls' field hockey team whose player was seriously injured by a male opponent last fall is forfeiting a game next week against a team with a male player for safety reasons.

The squad from Dighton-Rehoboth High School is scratching its game next Tuesday against Somerset Berkley's team, which includes a male player, WJAR-TV reported.

'When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater.'

Readers of Blaze News may recall the viral video showing a male player from Swampscott High School taking a high-powered shot on Dighton-Rehoboth's goal during a playoff game on Nov. 2, 2023.

But the ball instead hit a Dighton-Rehoboth player hard in her face and ricocheted far from the point of impact; the injured player fell to her knees and cried out — as did her teammates. A number of them turned their faces away after coming to her aid, and play was halted while the injured female player was treated. She was released from a hospital the next day, but Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey said she suffered "significant facial and dental injuries," the Sun Chronicle reported.

Runey in an interview with WJAR this season said the decision to forfeit next week's game "could potentially impact our chances for qualifying for the playoffs, but there are times where we have to choose safety over victory."

The station said the forfeit decision represents the first time the district is going by a new athletic policy passed this year that lets players and coaches opt out of games or forfeit them when opposing teams field players of the opposite sex.

When asked what he would say to those who believe the new policy is unfair, Runey told WJAR that detractors are not "seeing the safety concerns we have. When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater.”

Massachusetts scholastic rules allow males to play sports with females if there are no male teams for that sport available — and vice versa. Indeed, Runey added to the station that the district's new policy also can be used if an all-boys team is scheduled to play a squad with female players.

He noted to WJAR that another field hockey game in October also will be forfeited. The station said it reached out to the Somerset Berkley School District but did not hear back.

You can view a video report here about the decision to forfeit the game.

Anything else?

In regard to the male Swampscott player whose shot injured the Dighton-Rehoboth player during the playoff game last season, he scored a goal soon after play resumed. In fact, he scored both goals for Swampscott, giving his team a 2-0 victory and eliminating Dighton-Rehoboth from the tournament.

It won't come as a shock, either, that the male Swampscott player reportedly was a Northeastern Conference All-Star and a four-year varsity player and team co-captain, WCVB-TV reported, citing Swampscott Public Schools Athletic Director Kelly Wolff.

Amid the controversy last year, a teammate of the injured player wrote a letter of protest to the state's lnter-Scholastic Athletic Association.

Kelsey Bain — at the time a Dighton-Rehoboth team captain — said in her letter that "we all witnessed the substantial damage that a male has the ability to cause against a female during a game. How much longer does the MIAA plan on using girls as statistical data points before they realize that boys do not belong in girls’ sports?”

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