Title IX Backlash

Girl soccer players in N.Y.C. will now be playing their high school season at the same time as boys' soccer and football. The threat of a Title IX lawsuit forced them to make the move from being a spring sport to becoming a fall one.

It seems there are plenty of the players, coaches, and parents who didn't want to make the switch. It was forced on them by a handful of people who threatened to nuke them - with Title IX.

Read more here.

Highlights:

In the fall, three players, from Bronx Science, Beacon and School of the Future, threatened the DOE with a Title IX lawsuit and got the NYCLU involved. The argument was that girls’ soccer players weren’t getting the same benefits of boys’ soccer players, who play their season in the fall. The PSAL is the only association in the state to hold its girls’ soccer season in the spring, due to field space and referee issues.

Fearing litigation, the DOE signed a deal with the NYCLU and the switch will take effect for the 2009 fall season.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Newtown senior Kathy Cano said. “We’re the players. Why shouldn’t we get a say?”

Added Forest Hills junior Dalila La Commare: “We don’t have enough field space, we don’t have enough referees. We’re missing a lot of things.”

Detractors have wondered all along why three players’ needs should dictate the fortunes of more than 1,600 others. There were signs held up Saturday and plenty of anti-season change sentiment to go along with it. The change is supposed to get PSAL girls’ soccer players more exposure to college coaches, but, Sprance says, only a small percentage actually play in college and the others will not benefit from the move.

“Only because they want to,” Cano said, “we have to play in the fall?”

So, Dalila La Commare and Kathy Cano:

What does Title IX mean to you?