[PaREF]

In Pennsylvania, boys are allowed to play on girls' teams in high school if the school does not not field a comparable boys team (boys can't play on the girls basketball team if there is a boys team, nor can they play on the girls' softball team if they have boys baseball, etc.). Likewise girls can play on boys' teams if there is not a comparable girls' sport. I can't reference the exact time that rule came into existence but it was directly in response to Title IX.

I'm not going to debate whether it is good or bad, it is what it is. There have been several teams in our area that had boys on the girls' volleyball team but they were never a factor. The boys were not very good at the game and played very sparingly (probably because it was a bigger disadvantage for the team on which they played!)

I have been told that if a competitive team had a good, strong boy playing for them, most other teams would simply chose to forfeit that match (or drop them from the schedule if it was a non-league match).

One reason that boys have gone out for a girls' volleyball team is to pressure the school administration to field a boys' team. The hope is that the publicity will force the school board's hand to form a boys team. There are certainly other ways to go about getting a boys' team but it has worked in the past so we can expect it to happen in the future. I don't know if that was the reason the boy in New York was playing but if I had to guess, I would bet he tried to get the school to form a boys' team but was unsuccessful.

I have coached boys volleyball in the past and now coach girls. I had heard rumblings that some boys were thinking of trying out for our team this past August. Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with that issue but I can understand the frustration of some boys that truly just want to be given a chance to play volleyball for their high school. Certainly there are opportunities to play club ball but not all areas are hotbeds for boys' volleyball. In our area, the local high schools have their own club teams and are usually not very receptive to adding players from other schools. I hope that someday our school supports a boys' team so never have to deal with boys trying out for our team (plus, I could get a chance to coach boys and girls at the same school!)