[quote]fncj wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
I’m not American, and so I don’t really know American sports and their culture in general, but surely the logical thing to do would be to have an all-male team and an all-female team?
As far as I know that’s what they always do with rugby, football (soccer), field hockey and all other team sports. And of course all combat sports. Even tennis you don’t have male vs female except in mixed doubles haha.
As everyone else has said, this just seems like a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.
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Women’s full-contact American football just isn’t a ‘thing’. It’s unlikely there is enough interest to put together even half a team at one school, let alone in a ‘district’ of schools.
Girls playing football in HS is less common then boys being cheerleaders, which is still not the ‘norm’ yet (Though I do know the number of males cheerleading in HS seems to be growing because of scholarship opportunities)[/quote]
Ah right, thanks for clearing that up Spidey.
It still seems to make more sense to me to try and make female football a thing and build it from the ground up, rather than have mixed sex teams.
Surely it would make sense, if the HS population isn’t big enough, to have county female football teams? Why does it have to be done through the school? Again - I don’t know the system so I’m probably just missing the point lol.
I get both sides to be honest, if the girl wants to play football why should anyone stop her, it just seems wrong to put her in with guys.[/quote]
In addition to there not being enough participation by female students in football to warrant school districts creating a gender-specific division, there’s career and social factors to consider.
Opportunities to continue playing football beyond high-school aren’t present for women; no professional league, they aren’t being scouted for colleges, lack of scholarships, etc. Girls playing high-school football are pretty much doing it for love of the game, and should be commended for their dedication, but once graduation rolls around they’re done with that team activity. Time and money is also spent on the part of parents, and many place their kids in sports for further advancements.
The social factor is something I witnessed with a girls team while I was in high-school. I never payed any attention to girls lacrosse until the team was almost disbanded because the coaches made a simple suggestion. They were tired of losing and wanted to train more intensely, which meant hitting the weights and a few girls putting on muscle. Half the team quit or were pulled out by their parents. This was over a decade ago, and we all know intense training and weights won’t make a girl look ‘mannish’, but a lot of people were afraid of that.
American football is a sport that depends on mass, speed, power, and agility. The more each player has, the better the team performs, and the more the school wins. I can see a handful of girls willing to put on a fair amount of muscle over the course of four years (to perform better on the field year after year), but not two dozen in every school.[/quote]
I see, thank you. I was just thinking of it as a recreational type of thing but I get what you’re saying about it being taken seriously and career and scholarships etc making the whole picture much more complicated.