Pa. school sports group may revisit cross-gender play

One player stood out during Conestoga High School field hockey practice last week.

Quick-footed. Exceptionally skilled. The tallest player on the team.

And male.

Olivier Everts, 15, has been playing field hockey since he was 6, and the native of the Netherlands said that when he moved to the United States about three years ago, he had no intention of giving it up.

So Everts, now a junior, has suited up for Conestoga since his freshman year, donning the same uniform as the girls, kilt and all. For the last two seasons, his coaches say, he's been the team's leading scorer.

Like hundreds of student athletes across the commonwealth, Everts is able to compete thanks a 1975 court ruling. That decision invalidated a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association rule that banned girls from playing on boys teams.

On the heels of another decision weeks ago, the PIAA is weighing whether to revisit the issue.

The association removed the previous rule prohibiting cross-gender play from its bylaws in 1975, although individual schools can still ban the practice, according to PIAA associate executive director Melissa Mertz.

But this year, the association joined a couple from Pittsburgh who asked a judge to overturn the 38-year-old ruling, citing the competitive imbalance boys were causing in their daughters' field hockey contests.

The PIAA was also concerned with safety for the players, as well as boys taking up girls roster spots, according to Mertz.

Judge P. Kevin Brobson declined to intervene. In his August ruling, Brobson said that if the PIAA wanted to ban boys from participating in girls sports and vice versa, it should establish a policy stating as much.

"Only then, if that policy is challenged in a court of law, may its constitutionality be evaluated," Brobson wrote.

Mertz said last week the PIAA board had not decided how it would respond. Lawyers for the association are expected to discuss the matter with board members at a meeting this week.

She did say, however, that the association was wary of establishing such a policy because it could lead to lawsuits alleging violation of the state's Equal Rights Amendment, the same amendment that was cited to strike down the previous PIAA policy.

"We're just very concerned over doing anything because we think we're going to be sued," she said.

Everts said that if he couldn't play for Conestoga, he'd consider joining a club team.

"I love the sport," he said as he headed to the turf for practice Friday. "It's been one of my main things."

The PIAA's declining to establish such a policy would be welcome news for him and athletes across the state of both genders.

The PIAA doesn't keep exact statistics of how many boys play girls sports and vice versa, but a recent survey of 599 schools found widespread participation across gender lines.

Thirty-eight schools, for example, reported boys playing on field hockey teams, and 14 said boys played on their girls lacrosse squads.

More than 100 schools allowed girls to play on their high school football teams, the survey found, and 112 reported high schools had girls on wrestling teams.

Despite those numbers, those who responded to the survey had differing opinions about whether such practices should be allowed.

When asked, for example, whether boys should be able to play "all interscholastic sports, including those designated as being for girls," 89 percent of responding schools answered no.

It was not clear who answered the surveys on behalf of the schools.

Courtney Hughes, who coaches Central Bucks West's field hockey team - which fields two male players - said that she had had virtually no issues coaching boys, that they fit in with the team, and that any strength or size advantages they might have had not affected play.

Conestoga's field hockey coach, Megan Ryan, said it wasn't Everts' gender that won him a spot on the roster.

"We have a very skilled male," she said, "who's not bringing danger onto the field."