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Baseball final forfeited because of girl at second base
The Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship baseball game wasn't played Thursday night because Mesa Prep's second baseman is a girl.
Paige Sultzbach, a freshman, is playing baseball because her high school doesn't offer girls softball. But the school Mesa Prep was to face in the final, Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, said its boys would not compete against a team with a girl and forfeited the game - and the state title - to Mesa Prep.
"As a Catholic school, we promote the ideal of forming and educating boys and girls separately during the adolescent years, especially in physical education,” Our Lady of Sorrows said in a statement, according to CNN affiliate KTVK.
“It takes tremendous moral courage to stand by what it is you believe, and they are doing what they think is right,” Mesa Prep Headmaster Robert Wagner told KTVK.
But Sultzbach's mother, Pamela Sultzbach, said her daughter and the Mesa Prep team were being done a disservice.
"This is not a contact sport. It shouldn't be an issue. It wasn't that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it's that (they believe) that a girl's place is not on a field," Pamela Sultzbach told the Arizona Republic.
"I respect their views, but it's a bit out of the 18th century," Amy Arnold, Mesa Prep's athletic director, told the Republic.
Mesa Prep and Our Lady of Sorrows played twice during the regular season, but Sultzbach sat out, as they were away games for her team.
“It was on their field, and I felt the need to respect their rules,” she told KTVK.
The final would have been on a neutral field, and Sultzbach wanted to play.
Now, despite being hailed as state champions, Mesa Prep will feel like they've missed something, Pamela Sultzbach said.
"This team has worked so hard," she said. "They're undefeated. They had one game left. At our school, we're taught that when you start something, you complete it, and they weren't done."
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"As a Catholic school, we promote the ideal of forming and educating boys and girls separately during the adolescent years, especially in physical education,” Our Lady of Sorrows said in a statement.
If only they also believed in educating boys and men separately the world would be a better place.
unreal...i thought this headline was from 30 years ago
I attended coed Catholic schools all the way through high school. There's nothing in any Catholic doctrine that requires gender segregation in any school setting. Guys, this is the US, not Iran...or is just that you're scared you'll get beaten by a girl?
My only thought was, Did the school adults make that decision, or did the players, alone and of their own will?
Who cares – its a small minded decision anyway – perhaps the entire team should be banned from competing in the tournament.
That is what I was thinking. I bet not all the students agreed with the decision and still wanted to play.
"As a Catholic school, we promote the ideal of forming and educating boys and girls separately during the adolescent years, especially in physical education,”
What a load of bull – they were just scared of losing to a girl!
We claim to be open minded, but the truth is most of us are not when others think differently than us. I respect the rights of both the young lady as well as Our Lady of Sorrow. If you think things are more open-minded where you live, I challenge you to do some homework regarding high school athletics in your state. Most high schools (not all, but most) will allow any girl to play on any boys team if there is not a girls team for that specific sport. However, most will NOT allow any boy to play on any girls team even if no boys team is availble in that sport. Clear double-standard. If you think your state is different regarding boys participation, I would encourage you to check for yourself
There are no sports without comparable equivalents that have a girls team and no boys team.
I just read an article about a school system in MO that would not allow a young man to play field hockey because no other teams in the league included boys. I agree that this type of discrimination is outrageous. I was lucky enough to grow up with two older brothers who let me play with them and their friends when they played casual games of baseball, basketball and touch football, and I played on some mixed teams through prep school so I know mixed teams work for most sports into the high school years.
Sounds to me like everything worked out just fine and that's the way the game is played (or not). The team that forfeited was within their rights to do so; even in a championship game. I applaud everyone for sticking to their beliefs; the young lady was prepared to play and the Catholic school was not. Religion has it's place and perhaps sports is not one of them.
Perhaps?
The only place for religion is in history books. It is of no net benefit to society and holds back progress.
I'm guessing winning by default wasn't near as fun for the kids as winning through competing would have been.
"Radical" Muslims? LMAO. They are TRUE Muslims, nit radicals. The radicals side with the invaders and occupiers of Muslim Holy Lands. Faithful Muslims "repel the invading infidels" just as the Koran commands.
How absurd. Parents, instead of sending your kids to "Our Lady of the 16th Century", consider sending them to a school that lives here in the present day.
I would think a school called "Our Lady of Perpetual Guilt" or Sorrow or whatever would be a Catholic school. You never hear of "Our Lady of Perpetual Misery" Synagogue or "Our Lady of Perpetual Cramps" Lutheran Church now do you?
Perhaps she is Our Lady of Sorrows because she is tired of the misogyny of the Catholic Church.
When you look beyond the surface, the boys in the Sorrowful school were not allowed to play against the team with the girl because you can't have the boys losing to a team with a girl. It might upset the boys indoctrination on the "natural order of things". After all, as girls are inferior to boys, then a team with a girl shouldn't be able to win. Ergo, if this girl-containing team does win, then Lordy! The indoctrination would be revealed to be false.
Congratulations Mesa Prep!! And Miss Sultzbach should tell the opposing team to 'kiss my ring!'
If women are going to face men on the field of battle, they need to know they should be treated as anyone else would be. Women need to understand this; men need to understand this. To forfeit because a player is a woman, black, disabled, or in any other way different from us is not an honorable way to be. They step up to the plate for one of two reasons: they want to be challenged as far as what they can do, or they want to be controvercial and they don't believe in their cause. Face them, play with all the might you would play against yourself, and become victorious for your own merit. And if the other person gets hurt in the matter, they should expect it and congratulate themself when they rise and meet the next challenge.
We claim to be open minded, but the truth is most of us are not when others think differently than us. I offer the overwhelming majority of posts on this subject as proof of this observation. Most of us are just as closed-minded as the ones we criticize.
Catholicism – The belief that a cosmic jewish man can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. But playing baseball sounds weird to them.