Playing like a girl is goal for boys

Josh and Jarrod Davis aren’t trying to cause any trouble. They are not out to strike a blow for men’s rights, make a statement or satisfy any curiosity about how they would look in a skirt. As the first boys in Anne Arundel County to play high school field hockey — traditionally an all-girl sport in this country — they just want to have fun.

“We really enjoy the game,” Josh said.

Josh, a senior, and Jarrod, a freshman, attend Meade High School. Neither has competed in organized field hockey until now, but they are enthusiastic, spirited players — hardly the stars of the team but willing to learn. Others, however, fail to share their zest for the game, or seem to understand it. Howard and Arundel high schools have canceled games against Meade, saying that boys competing poses a physical threat to the girls or gives the team an unfair advantage.

“Our objection was we think the athletes would be put at physical risk,” Arundel athletic director Bernie Walter said, adding that when parents signed permission slips for their children, “it was with the presumption that those girls were going to play against girls.”

There have been other consequences. Josh and Jarrod, both of whom start for the Mustangs, are not expected to be allowed to participate in the playoffs and no victories will count when teams are seeded for postseason play. And, the brothers have occasionally been taunted and called some not-so-nice names by spectators.

“I think it’s just a lot of people overreacting,” Josh said.

“People are so narrow-minded about the situation. I feel like my head is on the cutting block,” said Meade coach Carrie Vosburg.

Vosburg hears people in the sport grumble that she’s not doing her best to build the program, that she has to turn to guys for help. That’s an insult, she said. In her fourth season as coach, Vosburg, who works full time as an advocate for mentally ill children, has turned around a program that had failed to win a game in seven years. Last season, without boys, Meade went 6-7.

Meade has no junior varsity team, and there is no feeder system of youth leagues in the area. When Vosburg took over, the players quickly learned that she was far more demanding than the previous coach, and several quit. In short, she needed bodies. That was Marlene Kelly’s reasoning. As Anne Arundel County supervisor of athletics, she sent a letter to athletic directors that essentially gave the boys permission to play amid the objections.

Because of Title IX and the concept of equality that supports it, women can play on male teams if they are good enough, not just in Maryland but everywhere and at any level. Annika Sorenstam made history this year by becoming the first female golfer in 58 years to play an event on the men’s PGA Tour.

Girls have been playing high school football for several years, and a few have played college football. Three weeks ago, Tanya Butler became the first woman in National Collegiate Athletic Association history to kick a field goal when she booted a 27-yarder for West Alabama. In 2000, kicker Heather Sue Mercer won a lawsuit against Duke University after she was cut from the football team, and asserted discrimination. Girls are even allowed to wrestle boys.

But according to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, it’s up to each school to decide whether boys can play on girls’ teams. With a relatively small roster — Meade has 17 players — Vosburg welcomed Josh and Jarrod trying out. (And they did have to try out; a spot on the team was not guaranteed.)

“I didn’t have a problem with it,” she said, citing field hockey’s origins as a men’s sport, and that it is male-dominated in the rest of the world. “So I wasn’t shocked. It’s nothing new to me. I played in a coed league in Baltimore. I knew we were venturing into something new to the county, and I knew it would cause a little bit of a stink, but I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. That’s what’s hard for me.”

Josh, a varsity wrestler, used to play football but found that he liked field hockey more after knocking the ball around with a stick in his friends’ back yards. “I thought, ‘This is pretty cool.’” he said.

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