Reply With QuoteWhat a great idea!
About time we give girls/women more opportunities to play in all sports!
With ever-increasing budgets and talks from our Governor about a cut in funding one thing remains the same. Your Government and Schools will continue to create new ways to spend your money!!!!!
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/521897.html
A hockey league for girls is panel’s goal
Athletic directors team up to clear way for female players
By Sandra Tan
Local high school girls are getting closer to wearing pads and skates on school-sponsored ice.
The athletic directors from nine school districts across the region, including the Catholic school system, agreed this week to form a standing committee to work on making girls ice hockey a reality in Western New York.
“It’s been a long, long time coming, but today was a historic meeting,” said Williamsville Athletic Director Jim Rusin after meeting with fellow directors from Erie and Niagara counties. “We now have the best boys league in the state, and eventually we’ll have the best girls league in the state.”
The only area high school that currently sponsors a girls team is Nichols, a private school.
This week, however, administrators for athletic programs in Williamsville, Amherst, Clarence, Kenmore- Town of Tonawanda, Sweet Home, Hamburg, Niagara Wheatfield, West Seneca and the Monsignor Martin Association were present at the meeting and spent 90 minutes hashing out the obstacles to starting up a regional league.
Rusin said that while the group is committed to getting a local girls league started, it would be extraordinarily difficult to clear all the hurdles necessary to field girls teams as early as next school year.
“I don’t know when,” Rusin said. “I just know it’s going to be happening.”
Not everyone agrees that next season is too soon to start a girls league, given that boys have had a league for 20 years.
“I don’t think it needs to go at as slow a pace as they’re presuming,” said Helen Drew- Meosky, a volunteer parent coordinator for the cross-district effort to establish the girls league. “We have considered these issues. We have answers for them. . . . If there are issues that can’t be resolved before next year, so be it, but I have yet to hear one issue that couldn’t be.”
As a sports attorney, Drew- Meosky is sensitive to the requirements of Title IX, a law that requires gender equity in every educational program that receives federal funding.
She’s also a former ice hockey player with five daughters and two sons, all of whom play the sport. There are hundreds of other girls in this region like hers, she said, and local recreation leagues are having difficulty finding room to accommodate them all.
Yet there are few school-sponsored varsity opportunities for them.
While girls with strong hockey ability are allowed to play on school-sponsored boys varsity teams, she said, they’re still overlooked for scholarships, miss out on a lot of team camaraderie, and have higher chances of being hurt because boys hockey allows checking while girls hockey doesn’t.
Rusin responded that the newly formed committee, of which he is chairman, is wrestling with the same issues for girls ice hockey that athletic directors struggled with long ago for boys hockey.
There are issues regarding league formation, conflict with travel team schedules, questions about player abilities and sustained interest, availability of ice time and costs to the district, he said.
“One thing that’s important to me, being committed to this program, is this has to be done the right way the first time around in order for it to succeed,” Rusin said.
Drew-Meosky acknowledged that local school districts have come a long way. But she also said she doesn’t want the campaign to lose steam.
“You’re going to lose a generation of girls who won’t have a chance to play, and that’s just sad,” she said. “If there are issues that we can overcome, why not do it now?”
stan@buffnews.com
What a great idea!
About time we give girls/women more opportunities to play in all sports!
Spread the Cheese, huh Steiny!!!!!!!!!Originally Posted by Steiny
What a great idea!
About time we give girls/women more opportunities to play in all sports!
But it is okay to invest in male sports?
I think, given the current cost of education and the results we get for our money we should not invest in ANY sports until districts figure out a way to reign in expenses and get our school taxes under control!
you do realize that the more involved children are in organized sports, the less likely they are to get themselves into trouble arent you?
The concept of "team" is amazing and builds strength and confidence as well as carries over into other areas of their lives.
One of my children is extremely involved in a team - that is NOT subsidized by anyone other than ME!!!!! for at least 11-12 hours a week she practices with her team - she has worked with this sport for over 6 years. She is a straight a student at school and puts 110% into everything she does.
Yes - it costs me a lot of cash because it isnt subsidized, but it surely has done her well so far and carried into other areas of her life with discipline and expectations.
If a child is truely team oriented and focused, then to me it is an investment in our future - not necessarily saying these kids will be sports players at all - but if the discipline carries over into other areas of life, it is well worth it.
to me a free cheeser is someone who doesnt want to work and just sits back and lives off the government - investing in our children is an investment in our community.
I agree and also see tremendous benefits in sports for students, but taxpayers also pay over $18,000 per student, which is over 50% above the national average to educate these children.
So if you truly believe that sports are as important as they seem you will agree that we should find the money within the existing budget and not put an additional burdeon on taxpayers (that pay more in NY than anywhere in the country) to subsidize additional programs.
And stealing taxpayers money to provide ice time for your kid is theft. Communists have no soul... I swear.
Nobody should invest in a team where there isn't some sort of return to the 'me'. ME should always come before WE, simply because WE doesn't always look out for ME. ME will always do what is best for ME. WE will not necessarily do what is best for ME. ME should only do what is best for WE if ME has something to gain. Selfish? Yes, but at least it's not self destructive.
If gender is going to be an issue, cut the boys sports.
Parents that provide a rigorous schedule for their kids, will have less problems with their kids getting in to trouble. It's not the sport, its the time the sport occupies. And the cool thing is... Parents can occupy a kids time for free. Just ask any parent worth their salt. They'll tell you exactly how its done.
Maybe the government should just close up shop and let everyone go on their own?
Try this and see what happens. As a Libertarian, I would be all for it, but I know what will happen.
I am getting ready by getting ready to go into survivalist mode and living off the land. Hunters and gathers
Who are you kidding?????
You'll have to find a village that disperses all the food equally so everyone has a fair chance to survive!!!!!! Otherwise you'd starve!!!!!!
Well, I was looking at some place in northern Minnesota or even into Canada where I can live with my family on our own and survive the coming storm (Nuclear?, Terrorist?, Economic Civil War? Food Crisis, etc.).
Hunting, fishing, and agriculture!
This is sort of off topic, but your mention of moving to Canada made me think about it. I have a friend whose daughter is a Type 1 (juvenile) diabetic. Anyway, she goes off her parents health care plan next year and she's thinking of moving to Toronto. She's going to go to school there for a while, and she figures she can at least get health care. Otherwise, still being a student, she can't afford to pay privately and neither can her parents.Well, I was looking at some place in northern Minnesota or even into Canada where I can live with my family on our own and survive the coming storm (Nuclear?, Terrorist?, Economic Civil War? Food Crisis, etc.).
Hunting, fishing, and agriculture!
Lovely to be an American.
For an "educated man" you know little about the real world huh? check title 9!
Yawn, not worth my time, sorry. Title 9 protects against sexist acts that SOME people support due to money
Ignorance!
You go or work for UB (you still haven't decided) and you of all people should know how title 9 retricts both MEN AND WOMEN's sports!
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