What do several key contributors to the Everett High field hockey team have in common?
They’re boys.
The Everett field hockey team is off to a 3-1 start this season, during which it has outscored its opponents 13-3 and rattled off three consecutive shutouts: 3-0 over Greater Lowell Tech on September 9, 2-0 over Haverhill on September 11, and 7-0 over Northeast Metro Vo-Tech (Wakefield, Massachusetts) on September 16, according to Arbiter Live.
However, unlike most high school field hockey teams across the state, which only have girls on the team, Everett has several boys who are not only on the team but also helping it win games.
Two of the team’s four senior captains are boys: Cephas Orleus and Jonathan Scioletti.
Scioletti was the Greater Boston League’s Most Valuable Player for field hockey in the fall 2023 season.
“Jonathan was also a top goal scorer for us this year,” then-head coach Sabrina Wright toldThe Everett Advocate in November 2023. “He started out the season as a forward, but I quickly realized that his skillset would be better served as a midfielder, and it changed our season.
“Jonathan is the one person on our team who can get the ball up field to the forwards, so they can create plays and score goals,” she added. “He has amazing stick skills, and his corner shots are top notch. Outside of his athletic ability, he really is a team player. He trusts everyone on the team to do their part. He pumps the team up, and is always ready to play, whether it is in practice or in a game. For these reasons and many others, it was why I nominated him as a GBL all-star, but it’s also why he was chosen as the [2023] GBL MVP by the other league coaches.”
Similarly, Orleus was a Greater Boston League all-star last season.
“Cephas was our top goal scorer this season as a midfielder,” Wright toldThe Everett Advocate in November 2023. “He was out there playing both offense and defense, creating plays and scoring goals, before sprinting back downfield to get back on defense. This was his first year playing field hockey, and from day one he was a natural. He kept everybody loose on and off the field, and we are extremely happy to have him back for another year.”
Scioletti and Orleus are the team’s only returning league all-stars this season. The Greater Boston League has only three teams. The other two are Malden and Revere.
Though he is not a captain this year, Ricardo Contreras was a team captain as a junior last season, according to an October 12, 2023 article in The Everett Independent. He is also one of the team’s key contributors, scoring one of the team’s three goals in its 3-0 win against Greater Lowell Tech on September 9.
Boys scored all three goals in that game. Olreus got one, Contreras scored another, and Oliver Derozier scored the other goal.
“Oliver Derozier doubled Everett’s lead in the fourth quarter when he found the back of the net with a powerful shot,” a September 12, 2024 recap in The Everett Independent said.
In addition, the team’s starting goalie, sophomore Willins Julien, is a boy. He has three shutouts in four games this season, including the win over Greater Lowell Tech.
“It can be argued that Willins is the MVP in every game, because he’s out there saving 20 to 30 shots per game,” then-coach Wright toldThe Everett Advocate in an October 12, 2023 interview. “But I wanted to wait for the perfect game to be able to name him MVP, and it was this game. We not only won it, but it was also his first shutout in goal. I was so happy for him, and it was so well-deserved.”
Why Boys Can Play On Girls’ Teams In Massachusetts
Massachusetts lets boys play field hockey because of a 1979 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in a case called Attorney General v. Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. In it, the court ruled that the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s policy of the time that stated “No boy may play on a girls’ team” was unlawful because in the court’s view, it violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution.
The Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution states:
All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.
Since boys’ high school field hockey does not exist in Massachusetts, boys can play on the girls’ teams.
The state’s Equal Rights Amendment was new at the time. It passed via referendum in the November 1976 general election with 60.4 percent supporting and 39.6 percent opposing, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. Every Massachusetts county voted in favor of the proposed amendment.
Statewide, in the fall 2022 season, 216 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association member schools had field hockey, and 66 boys were on these teams, according to participation survey data from the MIAA. That’s the most recent year for which figures are available.
Boys playing on girls’ field hockey teams in Massachusetts made the news last week because Dighton-Rehoboth, a regional high school near the state’s South Coast, has chosen to forfeit games against teams with male players, as NewBostonPost reported last week. On September 17, Dighton-Rehoboth forfeited its game against Somerset Berkley Regional High School, which features Ryan Crook, a sophomore boy. The forfeit follows a new policy approved in June by Dighton-Rehoboth’s school committee that allows students to opt out of playing against teams with boys without penalty, which school officials say is aimed at prioritizing the safety of female players.
“Our Field Hockey coaches and captains made this decision, and we notified our opponent accordingly,” Dighton-Rehoboth superintendent Bill Runey told NewBostonPost in a written statement last week. “The District supports this decision as there are times where we have to place a higher value on safety than on victory.”
The school’s new policy stems from an incident last fall when a female Dighton-Rehoboth player suffered serious injuries after being hit by a ball shot by a male player.
Dighton-Rehoboth plans to forfeit its October 8 game against Somerset Berkley as well.
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Photo by Raul Lieberwirth / Flickr 
