'Girls' Volleyball....
 

Had a definite first today in my 7/8 grade match - a male player! Yes, a male player.....

The visiting team showed up, and sure enough, there was a redheaded boy who was about a head taller than any of the girls on the court from either side. A quick talk with the coach, and she outlined the big time qualifications this kid had to go through to play - remember that NY is the place that had the big brouhaha about a male player in one of the State Championships last year - and she said how he was 'ok' as a player, but had lots to learn....just like any other player! Watching him play (I was R2 for the first two sets - in this county in our area, most of the schools like playing at LEAST four...sometimes five or six sets for their 7/8 matches!), the only REAL advantage he seemed to have was in his service - while most of the girls at this level barely get back of the end line, and take that one step in we allow, he went right to the back of the gym almost, and used BIG booming leaping serves - still hit more than a few into the net, and since the rest of his team was not too good, so his team lost the first four (out of five) sets. I was R1 for the fifth set (another tradition of ours at this level - after the second or third set the R1 & R2 switch, when playing these multiple set matches), and the two teams were trading off on the lead at the end, when this kids team finally had a chance to win - he had not played at all in this set - guess what? The coach subbed him in for service at 27-26! But to her credit, made him come up to the line....but he still served an ace, and they won their only set of the match....

An interesting experience, to say the least! The most difficult thing was to keep from saying, "Nice match, ladies!' afterwards....it came out, "Nice match, Lad...er...gir...ummmm...Nice match!" :o

Anyone else out there encounter this?

I know that in USAV play, we have allowed boys to play on a girls' team (boy under 12 playing on a girls' 14's team) because sometimes in the particular geographic area there are not any boys' teams for the kid to play on. Otherwise, it is strictly up to the league (in JH/MS) or the state association as to whether it is allowed.

most of the time it wouldn't be allowed but in volleyball, if the boy isn't that tall, and the girls are all taller than him, i say let him play, it's not like he's going to do much...i know if i played on my High school's vball team, i wouldn't do much, 15 of the 20 girls were taller than me, the other 5 were all within an inch of me (the only thing i had going for me was that I weighed about 2.5-3 times as much as each of the girls...), and all 20 of them were far more athletic than me, and had far better hand eye coordination than me and i had almost no vertical leap so yeah, i wouldn't get to play even if I had been allowed to...and our team was also one of the best in the nation, i think we ended up #2 or #3 in the country. I did get to be the team manager though :D and that was the year we won state, so that was cool...

BUT, it's not up to us. It is a decision that is made by the governing authority whether it is the state association, the league, commissioner or RVA. We are Referees and we interpret the rules, we don't decide eligibility issues - that isn't part of our job.