On Friday, Arizona high school Faith Christian refused to play Foothills Academy College Prep unless Foothills agreed to bench female players Alyssa and Colette Hocking.
The Hocking sisters play on the boys' team because Foothills lacks enough players for a girls' team.
From the Arizona Republic:
"I know it appears to fly in the face of what everyone is wanting to promote today, and that is equality," said Dick Buckingham, administrative leader of Faith Christian. "It is based on a religious perspective that God created guys and girls differently. The difference physically, there is a strength advantage that men have over women. We want to teach our men that honor of ladies is just not in sports. We struggle how to teach that if we're allowing them to play against young ladies in a competitive game.”
The Foothills players voted to not play unless the sisters were also allowed to play. The male players felt the girls earned the right to be on the team, so they protested playing unless everyone was included.
“The whole team supported us,” Alyssa Hocking told the Arizona Republic.
This was not the first time Foothills and the Hocking sisters ran into this problem. Earlier in the season, Our Lady of Sorrows said they would not compete if the Hocking sisters stepped foot on the field. Foothills decided to play Our Lady of Sorrows anyway, leaving the female players to sit on the bench. The game ended in a loss for Foothills in overtime.
With this in mind, the boys decided to no longer exclude their teammates from any game simply because of their sex. The past incidents have brought the team closer together and stronger than ever.
“They made us proud to be part of this team,” Colette Hocking told the Arizona Republic. “We’re happy we were part of the decision. They included us. It made us feel like we were part of the team.”
The boys respect their teammates and will no longer allow any team to discriminate against them.
