The Dighton-Rehoboth girls' field hockey team in Massachusetts has forfeited an upcoming match against Somerset Berkley because Berkley's team has a male player.
Last year, Dighton-Rehoboth, in the southwestern part of the state, near the Rhode Island state line, had one of its players get her teeth knocked out in a match against Swampscott by an opposing male player when he hit the ball in a line-drive toward the goal.
Spectators captured it on video.
You can hear the player hit the ball, followed by the pop of the ball hitting the Dighton-Rehoboth player's teeth, followed immediately by crowd gasps.
The injured player was hospitalized, according to reports.
Tom Joyce is a reporter for the New Boston Post, an online news outlet covering New England.
The incident led to calls for change from Dighton-Rehoboth’s team captains, Joyce says.
“Earlier this summer, the Dighton-Rehoboth school committee passed a policy 10-0 that allows its school sports teams to opt out of games without any penalty- and this includes individual players too, if the whole team doesn't agree to do it- where they can opt out of playing against members of the opposite sex,” he said.
Sons of the coach
Joyce explained that Somerset Berkley's head coach Jen Crook has had two of her sons play girls' field hockey over the years.
"Jen Crooks' youngest son Ryan is on the team right now. He's a sophomore. He's one of their better players. Lucas, her older son, graduated in 2020. He's the all-time leading scorer in Somerset-Berkley girls field hockey history, and he helped them win two state championships as a junior and senior respectively."
A Massachusetts court interpretation of the Equal Rights Amendment found that students can play on an opposite-sex sport if your school does not offer the sport for your sex. There is no field hockey team for boys there, so the state allows boys and girls to play on the same team.
Joyce said simply put, Dighton-Rehoboth is keeping its girls safe here by forfeiting against a team that is obviously going to be really good this year because of its male player.
Joyce added that Dighton-Rehoboth is also scheduled for a second match against Somerset Berkley in October, but it looks like that game will be forfeited as well.
