By Charly Buchanan

Reporter

The unequal opportunity for men to play in a traditionally women’s sport is unfair and is hindering the growth and variation of men’s athletics.

At Blue Springs South, we have ten boys sports and eleven girls sports. Eight of these sports, for each gender, have a similar counterpart, such as golf and cross-country. The boys sports that don’t have a similar counterpart are football and wrestling. While both are programs currently and historically dominated by men, women’s participation is allowed. If a girl desires to play football or wrestling , she can.

Activities director Tim Michael shared the school’s dedication to make this type of situation accommodating for girls.

“If that opportunity is not available to them, and they want to try and do it, then we make every effort to get them a locker room and give them the same opportunity the boys have,” said Michael.

These efforts help to promote equality for women in athletics, but what about equality for men?

The girl’s sports teams that don’t have a boy’s sport team counterpart are dance, cheerleading, and volleyball. As Michael has informed me, boys are able to try out for both dance and cheerleading. That leaves us with the outlier, volleyball.  Boys are not given the opportunity to play high school volleyball, which is a disconcerting fact. MSHSAA is restricting boys from what could be a beneficial sport to our student body as a whole and to individual students. Students such as senior Rey Camareno, who formerly played volleyball and, given the chance at South, would do so again.

The possible benefits of having a boys volleyball team are not limited merely to those interested in participating. Boys volleyball could develop a large fan base because of its rarity and bring positive attention to Blue Springs South. The addition of a new sport also has the ability to generate a newfound excitement in students and other schools with interest in a boys volleyball team. Senior volleyball player McKenzie Peve and junior volleyball player Sarah Waisner are in concurrence that a boys volleyball team would be fun to watch.

While under the Missouri State High School Activities Association we are abiding by the rules of equality, it may be time to take a deeper look into what has been deemed as equal and what can be done to improve our current standards for boys.