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TITLE IX: If someone really wants a boys’ volleyball team, he or she should use the same act under which the team was eliminated to get it reinstated.
by Isaiah Murtaugh, Sports Editor
In 1972, the US Congress passed the Education Amendments Act, which included Title IX, a law requiring that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” This doesn’t necessarily require that girls and boys participate in the same activities, but it does require that both have equal opportunities to participate in activities. It is under this act that the Riverside Unified School District has cut and added sports (including cutting boys’ volleyball) so that Poly and other district schools have 12 sports each for both girls and boys (not counting the miniscule girls’ wrestling squad).
It was also under this act that athletes such as JV football kicker Morgan Pearson (11) , several female poly wrestlers and others are allowed to participate in boys’ sports (see accompanying article HERE). As neither football or wrestling, though generally both considered boys sports, have an equivalent for females, the school is required to let the girls participate in the boys’ version. Though there are CIF playoffs for girls wrestling, Poly’s female wrestlers nonetheless must wrestle boys in league and tournament competition. Ms. Pearson has no option but to kick it with the boys (pun intended). Under this same rule, boys can feasibly try out for girls’ volleyball come next year. Without a nearby boys’ volleyball option, (the closest program is in Corona) Title IX regulations require that boys be allowed to try out.
So why should boys try out? Several times over the past several years, boys have gone to the district and other authorities begging for a volleyball team. I, for one, am a huge volleyball fan and would drop whatever I was doing to join up if a team were to be formed. Obviously, Poly’s female competition, the girls on the volleyball team, the school district and probably even the boys in question won’t want a bunch of boys to be on the team. However, thanks to this frustration, the district will in all likelihood have no option but to form a boys’ volleyball team.
What, then, will balance out this ensuing inequality between the number of girls and guys sports? Easy. Cheerleading will. Cheer practices virtually every day and competes in competitions. And do you want to argue that they aren’t athletes? Go ahead. Get back to me when you can execute a triple back hand spring. Or hit yourself in the face with your leg. Or stand on one foot in the hands of three other people, touch the back of your head with your heel, then jump straight up and fall into their arms. Counting cheer as the 13th girls’ sport will balance adding boys’ volleyball as a 13th boys’sport.
Petitions and bequests have not proved enough to expedite the formation of a Poly boys’ volleyball team. If any of you out there want such a team, more drastic measures are necessary. As a senior, I won’t be around next year to spearhead this movement when volleyball tryouts roll around. So please, someone be a man and try out for girls’ volleyball.