A boy helped the Pembroke High girls’ volleyball team make the postseason this fall.
Matthew Rinehart, a sophomore setter, is a starter on varsity who has contributed to the team’s success. Pembroke finished its regular season at 10-10, guaranteeing itself a spot in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 postseason tournament; teams with a .500 winning percentage or greater automatically qualify for the playoffs, according to the MIAA.
Pembroke fell 3-2 to Shawsheen Tech (a vo-tech in Billerica) in the Round of 32 of the MIAA Division 3 playoffs on November 2, ending its season.
Though reports of his stats are limited, Rinehart had four aces while serving in a 3-2 loss against Falmouth High on September 5, according to MaxPreps. Additionally, Rinehart had 16 assists, one ace, and a kill in a 3-0 win over Plymouth North on Monday, October 7, in a game a NewBostonPost reporter watched via a Hudl livestream.
In volleyball, an ace is a serve that lands in the opponent’s court without being touched or returned, an assist is a set or pass that leads directly to a kill, and a kill is an attack that results in an immediate point or side-out.
Massachusetts is the lone state where boys who identify as boys can play on girls’ sports teams; it happens every year, and the players make significant contributions to their respective teams.
Boys’ volleyball is also a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association sport, but Pembroke High lacks a boys’ team. Boys can play on the girls ‘ team since Pembroke only has a girls’ team.
The state allows boys to play on girls’ teams because of the 1979 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision 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 opinion, it violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution.
The Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution says:
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.
The Equal Rights Amendment was somewhat new at the time of the decision. It passed at the ballot box in the November 1976 general election; 60.4 percent of voters supported it and 39.6 percent opposed it, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. Every Bay State county voted in favor of the proposed amendment.
Girls’ volleyball is one of a handful of sports where boys sometimes participate on girls’ teams in Massachusetts, along with field hockey, swimming, gymnastics, and others. In the fall 2019 season, 15 boys competed on girls’ high school volleyball teams in Massachusetts, according to the MIAA; it was the only season the MIAA ever reported this statistic. That figure includes varsity and sub-varsity teams combined.
Unlike other MIAA sports where boys compete against girls, the MIAA has different rules for boys playing on girls’ volleyball teams from the rules it has for girls who play on those same teams.
Specifically, the MIAA does not let male players participate in attempted blocks, or attack the ball when it is above the height of the net, according to its handbook. The latter rule means that boy players cannot spike the ball in girls’ games. However, the MIAA told NewBostonPost in 2021 that these rules do not apply to boys who identify as girls.
Pembroke High athletic director Brian Phillips could not be reached for comment on Thursday or Friday. Nor could a spokesman for the MIAA be reached to provide up-to-date statistics about how many boys play girls’ volleyball.
New to NewBostonPost? This isn’t the kind of content you’d expect to find in a Massachusetts news outlet. But here it is. You can get more news and commentary that respects conservative values for two bucks — $2 for two months. Join the real revolution.
