Dighton-Rehoboth field hockey forfeits game to avoid male opponent

DIGHTON – For the first time, a Massachusetts high school will exercise its new right to forfeit a game to avoid a player of the opposite sex on the opposing team.
The Dighton-Rehoboth field hockey team said it will not play against Somerset-Berkley next week.
“We took a pulse of the captains, and the consensus was that we did not want to participate against males this season,” Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey said. “So, in fairness to Somerset-Berkley, we notified them probably about a month ago.”
The Dighton-Rehoboth school committee instituted the new rule after a female field hockey player was badly injured from a shot by a male player.
In November during Dighton-Rehoboth’s playoff game, a boy on the Swampscott team fired a shot that hit a female player, causing “significant facial and dental injuries.”
“This has been something that has traumatized them since November of last year, so it was not a difficult decision,” Runey said. 
Under the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment, boys are allowed to play on girls’ teams when there is not an equivalent team for male athletes.
Runey called for rule changes after the incident versus Swampscott. He reached out the MIAA saying the girls team would be willing to play against boys with stipulations, in other words the boy would have to be a goalie or on defense, which the MIAA denied.
“What I was told by the MIAA is they considered that unconstitutional according to the equal play act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so I am proud we took matters into our own hands,” Runey said.
Even though the decision could be costly. “These forfeitures to Somerset-Berkley will impact our chances for a league championship and may even impact our chances to qualify for the playoffs,” Runey said.  
Madison Finn is president of the Minuteman Field Hockey Club. It’s a predominately adult coed field hockey club in Boston.
She says doesn’t see a problem with boys playing against girls in field hockey. “Field hockey is a game of skill and there are no different rules for playing for men and women, so I think really focusing on your skill and working on that in the sport, rather than your strength,” Finn said.
Superintendent Runey disagrees. “Injuries can happen in athletics. But when you take 16, 17 and 18-year-old old boys and allow them to compete against 16, 17 and 18-year-old girls, as much respect as I have for female student-athletes, most people are going to know that there is going to be a size and power advantage there,” he said.
The new policy for Dighton-Rehoboth sports teams was approved in July.
“We felt that the injury that happened back in November was so grave, so devastating, that it would’ve prompted change,” Runey said at the time.
The committee voted for a new policy, allowing coaches to opt out of games for any reason without consequences.
“No student-athlete on a single-sex team shall be penalized by the District in any manner for refusing to play…against an opposing team because that team includes a member of the opposite sex,” the policy reads.
The MIAA called the policy a local decision, and said the organization would not get involved.