‘Safety over victory’: Massachusetts girls’ hockey team forfeits game against biological male  

A girls’ field hockey team in Massachusetts has forfeited a game against a team with a biological male, citing safety concerns for female athletes.  

The Dighton-Rehoboth (D-R) high school hockey team canceled its game against Somerset Berkely scheduled for Sept. 17.  

“This could potentially impact our chances for qualifying for the playoffs, but there are times where we have to choose safety over victory,” said D-R Superintendent Bill Runey. “When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater.”  

Last fall, a D-R field hockey athlete was hospitalized with facial and dental injuries after competing against a biological male. At the time, Runey criticized the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for not doing enough to protect female students.  

“Seeing the horror in the eyes of our players and coaches upon greeting their bus last night is evidence to me that there has to be a renewed approach by the MIAA to protect the safety of our athletes,” he said.   

The current MIAA handbook stipulates “a student shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.”  

So, D-R leaders took matters into their own hands during the summer and added language to district policy allowing coaches and athletes to forfeit games without penalty when the opposing team has an opposite-sex player.  

Runey praised the school board for “taking this step in the absence of substantive action by the MIAA.”  

Now, the D-R girls’ field hockey team is taking advantage of the new policy – and making a stand for the integrity of women’s sports.  

“Common sense tells us that girls should compete with other girls, yet the MIAA seems determined to prioritize ideology over the health of their female student-athletes,” the Massachusetts Family Institute wrote in support of D-R. “Massachusetts is the only state to have such radical rules.  

“In these cases, biological females are put at an unnecessary and increased risk of injury.”  

D-R isn’t the first place a biological male has severely injured a female competitor.  

Payton McNabb, who played high school volleyball in North Carolina, suffered a concussion and neck injury when a male spiked the ball into her face.  

A Massachusetts girls’ basketball team also forfeited a game at halftime after multiple injuries occurred.