Florida fines high school for allowing transgender student to play girls volleyball
Florida’s state athletic board fined a high school and put it on probation Tuesday after a transgender student played on the girls volleyball team, a violation of a controversial law enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature.
The Florida High School Athletic Association fined Monarch High $16,500, ordered the principal and athletic director to attend rules seminars and placed the suburban Fort Lauderdale school on probation for 11 months, meaning further violations could lead to increased punishments. The association also barred the girl from participating in boys sports for 11 months.
The 2021 law, which supporters named “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” bars transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes identified as girls at birth.
The student, a 10th grader who played in 33 matches over the last two seasons, was removed from the team last month after the Broward County School District was notified by an anonymous tipster about her participation. Her removal led hundreds of Monarch students to walk out of class two weeks ago in protest.
According to armchair analysts, isn't she supposed to be dominating all high school volleyball in it's entirety like some 'hopped up on E' ubermensch? /s
If not, then why is there separate mens and womens teams at all?
Bimodal distribution, the fact these overlap seems to defeat people. But at the extremes of performance, the overlap is greatly reduced or entirely eliminated. Sexual dimorphism is very pronounced in humans, and we definitely need to separate the sexes in the vast majority of competitive sports. Anyone claiming otherwise is denying reality, which they're free to do, but I am free to disagree with their conclusion. I expect to be called a fascist for my position, which is very silly.
What is the distribution of athletic performance in volleyball between 14 year olds and an 18 year olds? In high school volleyball, it's perfectly possible for a team made of all 18 year olds who are 6 feet tall to play a team that is all 14 year olds that are 5 feet tall. The idea that without the participation of trans girls, high school volleyball is completely equitable is ridiculous. High school sports are for fun, learning teamwork and discipline, and fitness. Who wins a high school volleyball game is not important. Certainly it's not more important than the health and safety of trans girls - and non-gender-conforming cis girls who have been and will continued to be tortured by laws like this.
Is it common for a varsity team to be playing a freshman team? That wasn't the case with football.
Yes. It absolutely happens. Especially if the school can't field two teams.
In my experience youth sports at all levels are also there in order to put band-aids on the fragile egoes of adults.
Yes, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading these comments.
Could this be handled with greater jv and varsity leagues?
Like instead of men's and women's, it's just jv and varsity. If you aren't that great, you're in jv. If your stronger/faster/whatever you can try out for varsity.
Changing the name or the perception of the "jv" team maybe?
Sure. In professional sports where they're training intensively. In High School it's a bit ridiculous. Getting a winning record isn't the point of sports at that level. It's just another mode of teaching.
I suppose, although you'd still expect the skill distribution to follow the same pattern in this smaller population, i.e., school or college. So on average you'd be forcing girls out of sports teams.
Assuming you didn't just field extra teams?
Sure, but I'm asking about when there isn't. some sports those things make a difference, but others they do not.
Something else came to mind while reading this article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/09/sports-gender-sex-segregation-coed/671460/
This is what I've experienced in roller derby. The only thing carrying me is that I was taught how to ice skate and play hockey since I was 4. Again, pointing to a socializing aspect rather than a "gendered" thing.
It's an antiquated tradition, but the field of athletics isn't exactly known for embracing progress and change
The funny part is volleyball is a perfect example of how to separate men's and women's sports. The women's net is 8 inches lower than the men's. The men are still faster/stronger and hit harder, and the women's games are still fun to watch. Why not alter the playing field since the sexes aren't physically equal? Make the NBA hoop lower, make the women's soccer field smaller. There is a lot that can be done.
Not sure. Here's a good journal article discussing it.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24757601
Tradition. Because some people can't handle that little Billy is never going to play at a higher level than the high school team?
All sorts of reasons. None of them are good though.