Chess? eSports?
Tennis has mixed doubles, and figure skating has pair competitions, although those are pairs head-to-head.
Women could compete on the PGA tour if they qualified. Michelle Wie famously tried to qualify years ago but didn’t make the cut. The reason there is a ladies tour is that while they are amazing golfers they just can’t hit it as far or putt as well as the men. Thank goodness there is a LPGA tour to give these women a chance to earn a living at something they are very good at.
This rule is so incredibly stupid it defies any explanation. Unbelievable. And the governing board should change the rules right now. The problem is that girls golf in this state is a spring sport, if it was a fall sport, she could go to the girls tournament where she would probably win that.
Anyways I suspect that this girl is quite a golfer and plays in junior tournaments and it known to college coaches. She doesn’t need to play in the girls golf team in the spring because she’s already playing in other (more important for her golf career than HS golf). I would imagine that she’s plays on the boys team as a favor because she’s that good. That the team didn’t qualify despite having the first place finisher says that they probably aren’t that good.
The only two true mixed Olympic sports where me and women compete directly are equestrian and sailing. But a number of mixed events where mixed teams compete against other mixed teams has been slowly rising:
http://m.bbc.com/sport/olympics/40226990
A mixed swim relay team added for Tokyo - pretty cool. And women get to swim 1500 (guys get 800, too). That would be fun to watch!!! 
There are a few sports with mixed teams. Curling. Archery. Shooting. Sailing.
I don’t want to see all teams mixed. Even though there is no contact, I don’t want women to have to swim against men, run track against men. Gymnastics wouldn’t be the same with men doing the balance beam also some might be able to. Many high schools have girls teams but not boys.
Why not the criticism of her high school for not sponsoring a girl’s golf team? For the coach not explaining the rules to her? Maybe there is another girl’s team in the school district she can play for in the spring. It sounds like she gets to play in the girls’ tournament in the spring. That’s a win for her if she gets a bye into the tournament because she won the boys’ Div 3.
I was pretty surprised when I saw this in the NY TIMES yesterday and I would expect that some action would be taken to either rectify this particular situation or make changes to the competition rules moving forward.
Here in NYC, the public school golf teams are co-ed. Works very well.
i have no personal knowledge of this situation.
But for this girl to play from the same tees as the boys, she’s very good and I suspect a top junior golfer. She may not have competed with the boys HS golf team all the time as she is playing in other events.
It would be like having Katie Ledecky at your high school. Top athletes don’t train on their high school team and don’t compete at every meet. They have other sports obligations. But they show up at the big meets to help the team qualify and compete. They love being on the team but are doing their own training and competing separate from the high school.
My kids had a girl who was a very good runner. Her major sport conflicted with cross country. She came to our district meet, won it and helped the team qualify for sectionals. Only ran one or two meets that year so she could be qualified as part of the team but really wasn’t. Now personally, I thought it was obnoxious of the coach. A person who ran all year didn’t win and a team made it to the next level. But there was a team who didn’t make it to the next level because this team had a “ringer”. Perfectly legal. But fair, I’m not so sure.
In my state, athletes used to be DQed from HS competition if they did not train with the team. The coach had to certify that all athletes attended major % of team training sessions. There was also something about attending X number of practices before one was allowed to compete. It was such a PITA when kids did fall sports… we had to be back in town for these stupid practices two weeks before school started.
That rule is to circumvent the situation that I presented @BunsenBurner. To not have ringers. Not sure what the rules are in Massachusetts.
I was putting out a reason a) why the girl wasn’t aware of the rule and b) why she didn’t seem too worried not to receive the first place trophy.
A majority of girls can not play from the back tees and shoot 3 over par.
Yup. Exactly. I recall some parents ratting out a gal from another team who was competing at some national level meet (was listed on the web) during the mandatory pre-competition weeks, so she had to sit out a few meets before she could compete HS.
The scenario of coming and going and playing in only select high school games/events deb922 describes is not possible in Massachusetts. That’s one of the things that the MIAA does (and almost it’s primary focus, in fact); there are very strict rules about not even missing one scheduled high school practice to go to a more elite level club or personal practice or event, much less a game/match. If a player were to do this and is caught, the entire team would be penalized, including loss of post-season eligibility. It encourages more high school participation and parity, but also discourages elite level athletes from playing for their high school team in favor of college recruiting events with their clubs.
Given that, and that every high school and Athletic Director is very much aware of and makes efforts to comply with the MIAA rules, my guess would be that she played for the boys team because that was the true “high school golf team” in her school - probably they don’t even have a girls spring team or a coach for it. Her choice to play with the boys was likely because that’s where she was able to be part of a real team and represent her school. That is still pretty important to a lot of athletes, no matter how elite they are. Kudos to her.
Why do so many not read the articles they post on?
It says there was no girl team at her school. No need to speculate about it.
It also said girls’ golf is in the spring. It never said they were playing from the men’s tees. This was the D3 meet, so we can’t tell if the other golfers were tops or not.
Missy Franklin swam on the high school team during the same time she was training for the Olympics. She had to follow the state rules for competing and I don’t think there were any rules about going to practice. What she didn’t do was go swim on the boys team to help them out. I’m sure she could have beaten most boys in the state in several different events.
When my daughter was playing high school sports, the rule (state rule) was she had to attend 5 of the 7 hours of class on the day of the game. No dentist appointments, no sleeping in, calling in sick. the coach could have her own rules about showing up for practices. I remember on girl often missed to try out for regional or national teams, and also missed a few games to go on college visits even though she was a junior. It was up to the coach whether she played the next game. She did.
Yes, no need to be snarky because I missed the part of the particular article (there have been plenty regarding this young lady here in Mass) about the lack of a spring team in response to the question of whether she might be a ringer. The point is that Mass. rules don’t allow it. Whether or not there was a spring girls’ team at her high school, she could still have played spring golf against other girls on her own (and maybe she does), but she wanted to be on a HS team. I think that’s commendable.
here’s what i hope: they have the same inverted rules for the women’s season in MA.
That individual boys can not win a title at a girls tournament.
If that is in place, well then, fair is fair. She has that season to play as an individual. Sounds like the tournament is making her a specialized trophy; and now everyone knows she was the best!
as much as i am for fairness with women playing men’s sports – i would never want men to play most womens sports. I think of college womens volleyball. I LOVE to watch it. I go to games when i can! and watch random teams on tv. I would never want men to play on the team from what i’ve seen of men’s VB. They play a different game and its not as enjoyable. (harder/faster paced/shorter volleys). just my thoughts.
I wasn’t being snarky. It’s a common problem on this forum and it leads to people contradicting or speculating on things right in the article.
The article says she can win as an individual in the spring, but can she enter the spring tournament as an individual, or would she have to play on a team? He school doesn’t have a team, so how would she enter the spring tournament if she has to do so as a member of a team? And if she has to join a team from another school, would that be fair to the player from that school who ends up being bumped to make a place for her on that team? And if she’s that good, how do you decide which team she’s allowed to play for since she doesn’t attend that school (and would thus be a ringer)? Nice can of worms they’ve opened!
In Mass, she can represent her school in a season-end tournament in the spring as an individual, since her high school doesn’t support a spring team. She would not be allowed to join another school team’s in the spring, nor would she be allowed, I’m pretty sure, to enter regular season matches in the spring if she’s already played in the fall season with her HS team. The sectional or state tournament is different.
And yes, if boys are in the same situation in opposite season, a boy playing in spring with a girls’ team would be allowed to enter the tournament but not win a trophy (since he could have played individually in the fall).
Many schools just don’t have the resources (or the participation numbers) to field teams (and pay for coaches) in all sports for boys & girls separately in two different seasons. Some schools even combine sports like swimming into a combined team, and the same rules apply.
The only time a student can participate in a sport “for” a different school is if by pre-approval, two schools in the same league combine to form one team because neither school has enough interest/numbers to field a team, but there are enough players from the two schools to compete together. Several districts do this with girls’ hockey, for example.
It’s pretty hard to get around the MIAA rules specifically designed to prevent “ringers.” So I guess I must concede that some things about the MIAA rules are a good thing :), especially after seeing from other posters what their states allow. The regulations are just onerous and encourage mediocrity in other areas, but that’s getting off topic.
I don’t know about where she is from but in our state any golfer can represent their school as an individual. Each level (i.e. Regionals, sectionals) advances the top three teams and the top 6 individuals. Many schools around here don’t have enough for a team so individuals can and do enter tournaments.
The state tournament then awards team state champions as well as individual state champions.
Close friend was a golfer with no girls team. She was allowed to play on the boys team throughout the season, however, post season (regionals, sectionals, state) she had to enter the girls as an individual.