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Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA
Again, this is why I believed that NFHS should have treated the metal like other possible changes. They could have asked a few states to volunteer to allow spikes for the sole purpose of a more condensed and controlled environment which would hopefully produce a more specific view of any possible issues. JMO.
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The NFHS, being (IMO) philosophically (if not legally) a public school organization, is overly concerned with "gender" issues, IMO. The sole reason this change was put in was because the boys play with metal. There is no apparent thought given to it beyond that. No one even (apparently) considered the possibility that the girls rules may just be BETTER in this regard than the boys; they (apparently) only noted they were DIFFERENT from the boys. In this instance, I don't think it will be a big disaster, as I'm sure their scientific survey
will confirm.
If you'll bear with me, an example here in MN of the utter foolishness of this kind of girls=boys thinking.
High School Boys Hockey is the MN equivalent of HS boys basketball in IN or HS football in TX. It is THE hard-to-get state tournament ticket. Shortly after the new Xcel Energy Center (the X) was built for the local NHL team, the HS boys state tournament was moved into the X. The X has a sold-out seating of 18,064 for NHL games. For the boys tournament (2 brackets over 4 days) this past year, total attendance was 129,721
4 games were officially sell outs of the X:
Sat. Evening (AA Third Place and Finals): 18,689
Thur. Evening (AA Quarterfinals): 18,428
Fri. Evening (AA Semifinals): 19,559
Thur. Afternoon (AA Quarterfinals): 19,247
Girls HS Hockey is a newer sport without nearly the same following. The University of MN has a purpose-built on-campus hockey arena for their women's hockey team, called Ridder Arena. This arena is specifically for the women's hockey program (the men play in the larger Marichui Arena nearby). The Ridder has a seating capacity of 3,400. The MSHSL placed the girls hockey state tournament in the Ridder (also 2 brackets over 4 days - same number of games as the boys.)
Some fool filed suit because the boys played in the "pro" arena and the girls had to play in the college arena. The MSHSL caved in and moved the tournament to the "X". Here are the 2008 Girls Hockey Tournament results (results harder to dig out of the MSHSL web site - I wonder why?):
Total tournament attendance was 20,003.
None of the games would have been official sell outs AT RIDDER, and were absolutely pathetic empty houses in the X:
Big school final:
Attendance:2307
Highest attendance: 2986
There were a few other games between the two above in attendance.
Now, you tell me: did this decision benefit the female athletes who play ice hockey?
Who cares! It is what the BOYS do!