Title IX Soccer Settlement in NYC Puts Girls and Boys on the Sidelines

More harm caused by Title IX – hundreds of high school soccer players no longer able to play soccer because of a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three girl players.  Girls played soccer in the spring and boys played in the fall.  The three plaintiffs said that requiring girls high school soccer in the spring discriminated against girls because it harmed their chances of playing college soccer.  The reason the boys and girls did not play at the same time is because the schools did not have enough soccer fields for the sexes to play at the same time.  The three girls won and now boys and girls must play soccer in the fall.  The result is fewer soccer players.  See the story in Saving Sports that states:

“boys teams forfeited 84 soccer matches and girls squads forfeited 82 matches a year ago, and 300 fewer girls played soccer after the realignment took effect last fall.  Nearly a month into the 2010 season, Sprance has counted 59 girls forfeits and 45 for boys. Two boys programs and two girls programs have already been dropped, and Sprance estimated that more than 500 girls will have stopped playing soccer as a result of the season switch.”