This story appeared in the Lansing State Journal and the latest "Benchmarks" publication by the MHSAA, Winter 2009-10, Vol. 1, No. 2.
If the Lansing State Journal wants to fine me for reproduction laws, go for it.
In response to a complaint filed this summer with the state's Department of Civil Rights, the Capital Area Activities Conference will begin rotating its Friday night basketball schedules starting with the 2010-11 season.
Currently, both boys and girls varsity teams play doubleheaders, girls first followed by the boys. That will remain the same this winter, but flip after that, with boys first and girls second. They will then alternate yearly which plays first.
The complaint was filed by the Michigan Women's Commission and alleged that the CAAC discriminated against girls by scheduling them first during Friday doubleheaders, while giving the boys games the "primetime" slot.
"We were concerned about the negative impact femaile athletes could suffer. Do college recruiters and scouts see them at those times? (Ummm...is there a reason they can't?) Do the girls' programs have equal visibility with the boys' programs? These were some of the questions of the Women's Commission based our civil rights complaint on."
Grand Ledge athletic director Gary Boyce said the league didn't fight the complaint because it felt doing so might lead to further action and "this wasn't going to go away." (No kidding, look at what the pervious women-led group accomplished...girls and boys basketball during the same season.)
At that time, based on the opinion of its girls basketball coaches, the CAAC scheduled their games first on Fridays. The coaches reaffirmed that desire again before last season.
Hmmm...maybe the coaches choose Friday because...wait for it...THEY MIGHT HAVE ASKED THEIR FEMALE PLAYERS WHEN THEY WANTED TO PLAY. Maybe the girls chose the early game. Anyone ever think of that? Just speculating. Why would a coach make that decision without asking the girls?
2 comments:
Maybe they'll be happy when lower attendance for boys games means not enough revenue to keep basketball for either the boys or girls? No basketball for anyone is pretty equal.
Exactly. People just aren't going to show up for a girls game. They will leave after the boys. Smaller crowd = smaller revenues = girls feelings hurt and we should have just let them play first.
I think people would rather show up for the second half of a girls game and see the entire boys game for their $4 ticket. How many people can be at the start of the boys game if it starts around 6pm? If you start too much later, the girls game gets done later. So, show up after the first quarter and then leave after the boys? That $4 will get expensive.
What are they trying to prove? That girls games will have a smaller crowd? Why do that?
Post a Comment