A number of years ago, some mothers of female sports programs at Forest Hills wanted the female sports to mirror the boys programs where basketball was played in the winter for both young men and young women. They sued the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) to change the program to mirror the male seasons.
However, when those seasons played at different times they were beneficial to both the MHSAA and the young women playing.
Referees officiating girls basketball could officiate in the fall, officiate boys contests in the winter and college whenever their schedules allowed. It worked wonderfully for years without huge problems. Basketball officials were doing games two to four nights per week and college on Saturdays.
With state tournament assignments, many officials had an additional playoff schedule for districts, regionals, semi-finals, and final contests. Many of the officials I knew had 40 to 60 games per year for both combined seasons and some college games.
Then the suit was won and the girls season had to mirror the boys season.
That is when the problems began. The fall season for girls was good for college scouts and coaches to see prospective college recruits for their teams. Once it changed to the same season as the college women’s program, that spotlight on outstanding players was interrupted. College coaches were in full swing coaching their own teams.
Furthermore, the amount of basketball officials has dwindled. If you go to a game, the events that were officiated by younger officials years ago are now gray haired officials with bad knees and close to retiring their whistles. Trying to get experienced officials for varsity boys and girls games are tough to get.
Then athletic directors have to deal with sickness of officials, injuries from the week before, death in the family, etc. Also the number of officials at the varsity level is less than was it was years ago.
The MHSAA addressed all these roadblocks years ago in the lawsuit, but judges know better. In fairness, they had to hand down the decision to mirror the seasons. That in turn changed all the other sports for gym time and playing arenas. Volleyball went from winter to fall. Of course, this has been the order of the things for some time now.
So the equality of girls and boys basketball (and other sports) is now in balance… or is it?
Now, since the executive orders from President Joe Biden, it stated “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” the directive states, adding that the incoming administration is committed to “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation”.
That means a young man wanting to participate as a transgendered woman can practice and participate as women. Of course, any sane person knows that the muscle mass and lung capacity of men is greater than women, so they automatically have an advantage in running, jumping, and strength over females.
Your daughter and/or grand-daughter is considered an excellent basketball, volleyball and softball player. All of a sudden a young man shows up on the team and is inserted into a position another female held. How is this fair for women?
You see what happens when “equality” is taken to the extreme? Unintended consequences happen. What idiocy have we unleashed on our young people when we say there is no difference between a male and female?
Title IX was a win for female sports. A legal adjudication that was good for everyone.
The transgendered participation executive order has set back women’s sports for years to come. Other countries are looking at what is happening to our country and shaking their heads laughing. Americans, what dolts!
Of course, Biden, being the dementia patient he is, was just given the paperwork and he signed it, probably not even knowing what he was signing. You notice he doesn’t take questions, he gets too flustered and forgets where he’s at, what he’s doing, what is a good answer. His cognitive skills are waning week by week.
Orange man bad, Biden good… yeah, really. What a joke! And it’s all on you Democrats. How do you like all that work you put into the Title IX victory go down the drain. The joke is on you if you voted for Joe.
The rotting of America from within continues, in earnest…
I thought You had something worth reading . WRONG!!!
Some things need to be corrected — it happened a while ago.
It wasn’t Forest Hills mothers concerned about basketball, it was GR Northview volleyball ladies who felt discriminated against. As it was they played in the winter, and they wanted to play in the fall. They also wanted to have the girls play on Friday nights and get equal coverage on the sports pages as football. (That worked out well, didn’t it.)
The girls basketball coaches also wanted to stay in the Fall. They knew that unlike boys (for the most part — always avoid ALL) the girls were less likely to go to summer camp and then spend the fall hitting the Parks and the Driveways to hone their talents for the winter season. So while both girls and boys went to the summer camps run by the high schools (usually each HS team would go to Michigan State for a week) and colleges for individual skills. Some of the best played on AAU teams as much as they could. Except for team camp the girls do not have an authorized event in the off season. Changing the seasons meant a longer gap between learning and so more is lost.
And you were right about Michigan college coaches getting a chance to see teams — as opposed to just the superstars — play, as Michigan colleges played in the Winter. The top players will probably be going to the colleges camp in the summer, so there was no danger of them being missed. What it did hurt was the coaches getting a look also at a promising junior who couldn’t afford a camp, didn’t know about a camp or had to work during the summer. Seeing promise a college would find some hidden nuggets.
Now both colleges and HS play at the same time so a lot of promise never gets discovered, and Michigan girls are competing with all the other girls in the Midwest for the coaches’ attention.