I almost got fired coaching seventh and eighth grade girls basketball. All because I did not understand how values work, and what values are in play in junior and senior high athletics. I wish I had known then what I know now! For more on the story, read on…
Someone once told me (and I have repeated it often), “A value is something you believe so strongly you actually do something about it.” There are two values that often compete with each other when it comes to junior and senior high athletics. They are:
Fairness: We expect athletics to be fair, so that it is a “level playing field” for all and the best athletes (on that particular day or competition) will come out ahead and win.
Participation: We believe participation in athletics has inherent value as it develops character and teaches valuable life lessons. Since this is the case, ALL students should have a chance to benefit from participation.
Back to my personal story that illustrates the potential conflict: In my early ministry I was a junior high teacher and coach. One year I began a new teaching position, and with that came the responsibility to coach the seventh and eighth grade girls basketball team. They had done well the previous two seasons, advancing to the state finals both years.
The previous coach had a philosophy that said you play your best players the vast majority of the time. He was living out the fairness value, giving the team the best chance to succeed. He promised those that rode the bench as seventh graders that they would “get their chance” the next year when they were in eighth grade.
My philosophy as a coach was very different, valuing participation. I believed every kid on the team should play an equal amount. For some of those girls this was their last chance to play the sport, as the high school teams would cut students and not all could participate. So everybody played, even though this was not necessarily fair to the better players who had sat the bench the previous year.
When I explained this philosophy to the students and parents at the beginning of the year, the girls got it right away. They embraced the idea. The starters cheered loudly for their teammates when they were in the game. We lost a lot more games than in previous years, but the girls seemed to enjoy the experience more. We had fun.
The parents… not so much. I heard “this is not fair to my daughter” many times. Parents whose daughters had ridden the bench the year before were angry that their daughter was not getting the bulk of the playing time. And when our team did not qualify for the state tournament that year, a group of parents asked to meet with the principal, demanding a coaching change for the future.
When it comes to transgender girls participating in junior and senior high sports, these two values come into clear conflict. As we saw in the last blog post, it is not always easy to say whether a trans girl has a competitive advantage over cisgender girls or not. For those who value fairness, any chance of a competitive advantage is unacceptable.
For those who value participation, the thought of excluding any person who wants to gain the benefits of being part of a sport is unthinkable and cruel, even if that participation skews the results of the competition.
These two values were clearly in play at the recent school board meeting where the debate focused on a trans girl competing on a junior high track team. One parent said, “It’s pretty upsetting to see your kid distraught out there, trying to do her best, and doesn’t really have a shot.” This parent is clearly coming from a fairness perspective. Another said, “A school system that values every student is what we demand and expect.” She was clearly coming from a participation perspective.
So how does understanding values help? If you are parent, coach, administrator, or community leader involved in a situation where there is a transgender person seeking to participate in a sport, I would urge you to consider the following:
1. Ask yourself which of the above values is driving the issue for you? Be honest about what is motivating your feelings and actions on the issue.
2. Consider the statements and actions of others, and ask yourself if they are coming from a participation or fairness value. How can this understanding better help you communicate and move forward in the discussion?
3. Look for ways to compromise so that both the fairness and participation values can be honored.
Before we leave this discussion of values, there is another important value we have not mentioned:
Safety: While there is inherent danger of injury in any athletic pursuit, we want to do all we can to minimize that danger for the participants in any sport so that they can be kept as safe as possible.
Some are quick to note that there are safety issues for those involved when transgender and cisgender girls compete together. (It is interesting to note that I have never heard that same concern for trans boys competing with cisgender boys.) While I acknowledge that this indeed might be the case and must certainly be considered, in many cases this safety issue is greatly exaggerated and in others it is simply not relevant. For example, the International Chess Federation has banned trans women from competing in women-only chess competitions, citing potential competitive advantage and safety issues!
One final note: As Christians there are certainly other values that come into play, and we will explore these in the third and final post.