Boy scores two goals, handing Massachusetts girls’ field hockey team state championship 

A boy playing on his high school girls’ field hockey team scored both of the team’s goals over the weekend, leading the team to a Massachusetts state championship. 

The Somerset Berkley Raiders defeated the Norwood Mustangs 2 -1 in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division 2 state championship game on Saturday. 

The boy, sophomore Ryan Crook, competes on the girls’ field hockey team not because he identifies as a girl, but because state law allows boys to compete on the girls’ team when their school has no male equivalent team. 

Survey data indicates 216 MIAA schools had girls’ field hockey teams in 2022, with 66 boys participating on those teams. Massachusetts is the only state that currently allows boys to compete in girls’ field hockey. 

Regardless of state law, Crook’s participation on the girls’ team has not gone without controversy – and comes on the heels of a damning report detailing the impact of boys competing in girls’ sports. 

The Dighton-Rehoboth girls’ field hockey team forfeited its two games with Somerset Berkley rather than force its girls to compete against a boy, citing safety concerns. 

“Our Field Hockey coaches and captains made this decision, and we notified our opponent accordingly,” Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey said in a written statement. “The district supports this decision as there are times where we have to place a higher value on safety than on victory. 

“We understand this forfeit will impact our chances for a league championship and possibly playoff eligibility, but we remain hopeful that other schools consider following suit to achieve safety and promote fair competition for female athletes.” 

Crook, perhaps not surprisingly, is considered one of the most dominant players participating in the sport locally. His participation helped propel the Raiders to an undefeated regular season last year, and he also plays on the varsity boys’ baseball team. 

This season he’s been credited with major contributions to the Raiders’ success, amassing four assists in a 7-0 win over Durfee on Sept. 7; one goal and two assists in a 9-0 win over Seekonk on Sept. 12; one goal and one assist in a 5-0 win over Dennis-Yarmouth on Sept. 24; four assists in a 10-2 win over West Bridgewater on Oct. 24; and two goals and one assist in a 5-0 win over Masconomet on Nov. 7. 

Those statistics don’t even include the two victories his mere presence gave the Raiders with the two forfeits. 

That fact wasn’t lost on Shea Larkee, a senior and team captain of the Norwood Mustangs, who was assigned the unenviable task of defending Crook in the championship game. 

“I knew he was a really good player. Last year, he did well, too. I remember him having a goal,” she told WCVB5 in Boston. “He’s a really good player, and so am I. I know how good I can be, and obviously, they came away with the win.” 

Despite the loss, Larkee was happy with her team’s accomplishments and is planning to play collegiately at Cornell University next year. “I’m just really proud of how far we’ve come as a team and I think in the last couple of years, me and my team have really put Norwood field hockey on the map.” 

Jen Crook, Ryan’s mother, who is also the Somerset Berkley coach, declined to comment on the story, reports WCVB5.  

Her older son Lucas also competed on the girls’ field hockey team, and notably is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 142 goals and 122 assists. His participation helped the team win back-to-back MIAA Division 1 state championships in 2018 and 2019.  

And, like his brother Ryan, Lucas scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2018 championship game, beating Nashoba 2-1. He was also the South Coast Conference’s most valuable player and was named to The Boston Globe All-Scholastic team. 

The report on boys in girls’ sports – released by Reem Alsalem, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on violence against women and girls in October – says hundreds of female athletes have had medals taken from them by biological males, mostly by those said to be transitioning to female. 

Her report says as of the end of March “over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports. The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males.” 

In presenting her report to the U.N., Alsalem lamented the additional negative impact biological males have had competing directly against females, adding to myriad issues those female athletes already face. 

“Women and girls already have many odds stacked against them that impede their equal and effective participation in sports’” she said. “In addition, their ability to play sport in conditions of safety, dignity and fairness has been further eroded by the intrusion of males who identify as female in female-only sports and related spaces.” 

What’s more, Alsalem’s report seems to confirm the findings of an “expert consensus statement” on the biological differences between male and female athletes released by the American College of Sports and Medicine in September 2023. 

Some of the “key findings” include the following advantages for male athletes as compared to females: 

“biological sex is a determinant of athletic performance: adult males are faster, stronger, more powerful than females because of fundamental sex differences in anatomy and physiology dictated by sex chromosomes”; 

“before puberty, sex differences in athletic performance are minimal. Significant differences emerge at puberty (-12 years) due to anabolic effects of testosterone in males. Testosterone levels rise 20-30-fold in males during puberty and are 15 times higher in males than females by age 18”; 

“direct and indirect effects of testosterone during male puberty include increased skeletal muscle mass due to larger muscle fiber cross-sectional area, especially fast, type II fibers; lower percentage body fat; higher hemoglobin concentration and mass; larger ventricular mass (heart) and cardiac volumes; larger airways and lungs; greater body height; and longer limbs.”