OPINION: BOYS' FIELD HOCKEY IS COMING, FOLKS

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

There are several women who are regarded as pioneers of American field hockey: Constance Applebee, Nancy Williams, and Bess Taylor among them.

There are others, however, who could have an equally pioneering role in the sport: Chuck Carney, Mike Myers, and David Schmoyer.

They are not coaches: rather, they are male players who have sometimes fought and sometimes earned their way into the starting lineup of American high-school teams.

Given the overwhelming history and heritage of the sport among American women, there are those who have looked askance at the situation, forming an instant opinion one way or the other.

Those looking to ban boys from girls' field hockey teams use several arguments ranging from potential roughness of play on the boys' part to the taking of a spot "reserved" for a girl.

And those looking to play use the argument that Title IX works both ways, that a demonstrated interest in play should not deprive a boy of an opportunity to play a sport with a tradition of being the exclusive property of American females.

Both sides, it says here, are as wrong as they are right.

Instead, there is a third way, with apologies to that new political/philosophical movement. Neither the banishment or inclusion of boys should not be at issue here.

Instead, opportunities should be opened to boys wanting to play field hockey -- on boys' teams.

Around the world, men and boys play what Americans call a "women's sport." Not many American males have ever picked up a stick, and still fewer are registered with the United States Field Hockey Association. Indeed, while there are millions of registered female players in the United States, there were an estimated 150 registered male players as of 1996.

Attitudes on both sides of the gender gap have contributed to this figure. Boys and men who play are often ridiculed for playing "the girls' sport" -- even by those who play men's recreational softball.

Females tend to remain at arms' length from males involved in the sport. Male coaches in the United States tend to be in subservient roles to women. In other countries like Australia, women are coached by men such as Ric Charlesworth, head coach of World Cup champion Team Australia.

Male players also tend to be put down by coaches. In one story written for Sports Illustrated a few years back, the ordeal endured by one schoolboy on the Main Line in Philadelphia added up to something akin to harassment. Coaches in other sports have been fired for less than the kind of humiliating treatment this one player received during his high-school career.

But it seems as though the battles may end, thanks in part to the USFHA. Serious work on the part of the national federation has resulted in the institution of a training center in Moorpark, Calif., as well as a summer league launched at the same time the women's summer league was playing on the East Coast.

Large concentrations of immigrants from field hockey playing nations -- India, Pakistan, Malaysia -- have been sprouting on both coasts of the United States.

And their children want to play. It is getting to the point where boys' teams -- club, scholastic, or otherwise -- will start germinating.

And once boys' field hockey finds its way into today's crowded sports calendar, it just might provide the boost which turns the perception of field hockey from "a regional women's sport" into a pastime which anyone can play.

What do you think? Email us at topofthecircle@aol.com, and we'll try to print a random sampling of your opinions, as long as you are willing to give us your name and where you are from.