(The Lion) — Almost half of the goals scored by a high school girls’ field hockey team in Massachusetts were scored by a boy on the team.
In Massachusetts public schools must allow boys to play on a girls’ team when no equivalent boys’ team is available.
Lowell High School sophomore Anthony Ford, who also plays boys’ varsity ice hockey, excelled on the school’s girls’ field hockey team.
The Merrimack Valley Conference named Ford to its all-conference team, and The Lowell Sun named him to its area all-star team this past fall.
Ford scored 20 of the field hockey team’s 45 goals this past season. He helped the team to a 9-9-1 record and a spot in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I playoffs.
“Anthony’s one of the most precise passers on the field. He’s tremendous at passing and has (great) ability to move down the field,” Lowell Head Coach Lisa Kattar told the Sun.
As a freshman, Ford played girls’ field hockey at Malden High, a school known for having many boys on its girls’ team. Ford also helped Malden make an MIAA Division II playoff appearance last year.
In the winter, however, Ford also contributes to the boys’ ice hockey team. He scored a goal in Lowell’s 10-0 win over East Boston on Thursday. The Sun also listed him among the “promising newcomers” at Lowell High in its area boys’ hockey preview earlier this month.
Ford isn’t the only boy who excelled in girls’ field hockey in Massachusetts this past fall.
Somerset Berkley High sophomore Ryan Crook scored both goals in his team’s 2-1 MIAA Division II state championship game victory over Norwood last month. Crook was also the South Coast Conference’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season.
Crook’s older brother Lucas also helped Somerset Berkley win girls’ field hockey state championships in 2018 and 2019; he scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2018 game. Lucas Crook is also the leading scorer in Somerset Berkley field hockey history.
Massachusetts has let boys play on girls’ sports teams since 1979 due to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Attorney General v. MIAA. The court ruled that not letting boys play on girls’ sports teams when the school lacked an equivalent boys’ team violated the state’s Equal Rights Amendment, which voters approved via referendum in 1976.
Massachusetts is the only state with such a policy in place.
Since that ruling, boys have competed and excelled in girls’ sports in Massachusetts, mostly field hockey, girls’ volleyball, girls’ gymnastics, and girls’ swimming. However, boys have occasionally competed in other sports, like girls’ soccer and even softball.
