Youth Sports Not Just Girls Fun

Jackson NJ Online – Early on as the parent of  girl who was very interested in sports, I realized there were mild differences in people’s opinions on girls sports vs. boys sports.    In general, boy sports were always given more social importance, baseball, football and hockey while the traditional girl sports were back seat novelties to the general community, softball, gymnastics, cheer.  Even when you look at youth and scholastic soccer, the boys teams are given prominence, usually.  

I sometimes remember back in high school, when the Toms River North Girls field hockey team won the state championship, the headline in the Ocean County Observer for the day highlighted the Toms River South vs. Toms River North regular season football game and the girls championship was given a sidebar mention.  For me, it was alright at the time.   I was a boy.  I played football.  Football was more important than field hockey at any cost.

Today, I received a study and excerpt from a book at GoKidsNJ that discussed this phenomena and social misunderstanding in a study presented by sports sociologist Michael Messner, a professor of sociology and gender studies at USC.

In his book he writes:

As a shared belief system, soft essentialism embraces participation by girls in team sports, Messner said, but it also justifies pushing girls toward softball even though they are legally entitled to play baseball – and often creates an inhospitable environment for female coaches in both baseball and soccer.

source: http://www.gokidsnj.com/youth-sports-gender-lines-still-clearly-drawn-what-to-do-in-nj/2009/05/

Early this spring, my daughter, a Yankees baseball fan asked about playing baseball.  So naturally, I investigated the girls softball options within Jackson, thinking it would be better for her to play with the girls than to be one of a couple, if not, the only girl on a little league baseball team.

I was ready to sign her up for the municipal softball program until I found out that low registrations will probably turn it into an instructional league when I thought to check the Jackson Little League.   I remember a couple girls playing when I played in the Toms River Little League and wanted to see if it was still allowed.   Again, I’m told my mindset was normal and it is clearly dissected in Mr. Messner’s new  book.

Eventually, the choice was clear, she was to play baseball, the game she enjoys watching and getting excited over on television and not softball, a baseball substitute crafted for girls only.   She deserved it.  She cheers for Jackson Pop Warner, is enrolled in a U.S. figure skating program, plays all-girl soccer and gymanastics, clearly fulfilling her young female sports obligations.   Why not deviate from social expectations just a little?

Messner writes: However, individuals’ often unexamined beliefs about gender function to create a very skewed gender division in youth sports. And these continued divisions in youth sports reinforce an “unfinished feminist revolution” in families and workplaces, Messner argued.

The Jackson Little League so far has been great for her as she learns to play with the boys and be one of the boys, if only for just a few weeks out of the year.   There are about 10 or so girls playing t-ball in the Jackson Little League and it’s always exciting for her when she plays “the other girls” and as a parent, you can see that special unspoken bond these girls have on the field.

At games, some parents don’t even realize girls are allowed in little league.  At one game, I remember some guy at the game exclaiming  “wow, they let girls play too? I didn’t know that”, obviously shocked to see the long hair from under the helmet.   After she hit the ball pretty hard, his opinion was changed as he yelled “We got our new cleanup hitter!”. 

So the reason I bring this article and study to Jackson is that if you are the parent of a young girl who enjoys watching the Yankees, Mets or Phillies with you, why not give her the chance to play the game and consider little league baseball before you throw her into a softball recreation league?

If this topic is of interest to you, you can also read more of Mr. Messner’s expanded findings at  http://www.momsteam.com/team-parents/the-secrets-of-successful-women-coaches or check out his new book on the subject: It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports.

For more stories like this and news from Ocean County, visit Jackson NJ Online