I have coached female sports for the better part of three

Posted on: June 1, 2025 at 20:16:12 CT

decades.

HS VB - 20 yrs

HS BB - 7 yrs

Daughters SB - Til 8th grade

I think that probably covers the "I care" about girls sports more than anyone on this board. I belive sports are an incredible tool in developing both boys and girls. Up until about 8 or 9 yrs old I don't think it really matters if sports are coed. The skill levels are not that different. But even at that level it is obvious that the average boy and girl are different. Once puberty hits that difference becomes a chasm.

If you want to make the argument that there should be no girls sports, go ahead, but there is plenty of evidence that sports are as valuable to them as the guys. I am a firm believer in Title IX even though it has been horribly misapplied.

If there are going to be girls sports then there need to be girls sports.

For my first decade of coaching I coached volleyball and baseball. Every year we had a couple of girls play baseball because we did not have softball. I let them play because the very best girl was only ever slightly better than the worst guys. In other words the girls gave us no competitive advantage.

At that time I would usually get a guy ask to play volleyball most seasons. I always denied the guys because every guy that asked to play would have immediately been the best player on my team and completely changed my program. That would have been unfair to the players that would have been displaced from my team and to our opponents. As a side note at that time my school had a significant Samoan population and VB was a very popular family sport.

It is about basic fairness and simply claiming that you are a girl does not change your biology.