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Junior High Girl students are taking away opportunities for upper class grades 9-12 girl students to participate in High School sports. The premier girls sports basketball, soccer, field hockey and softball are all fielding predominately junior high JV teams . Upper class girls are either being cut or have elected not to try out, because of fear of being cut in favor of a promising junior high player. Last year at least 30 fewer girls in grades 9-12 had the chance to play high school sports as their spots were taken by junior high students. We all know that students who participate in high school sports do better academically as well. This sad trend does not effect boys sports, as junior high boys can’t compete against stronger upper class boys, so the JV boys teams have very few junior high students participating. Girls in Junior High are faster then their upper class competition as they have not gone through puberty and have little body fat. After girls go through puberty they naturally change and are physically not as quick as the 7th and 8th graders who are after their spots on the athletic fields. Title 9 gave girls the opportunity to participate in High School sports.Befote title 9 the primary physical activities for girls were cheerleading and square-dancing. Only 1 in 27 girls played high school sports. Now the Southwick school committee, Principal and Athletic Director are taking away the opportunities by having 6 grades compete for the same spots 4 grades competed for, before junior high students joined the high school. Plus having junior high students playing on the JV teams has eliminated Junior High sports for girls in Southwick. I guess the Principal ,Athletic Director and School committee don’t really care about female athletes or else they would see the injustice and correct the problem, maybe they think girls should go back to just cheer leading.
