Girl (Yes a Girl) Wins Boys Soccer Game
September 15th, 2009 by jeff grahamCrosspoint Academy (formerly King’s West) opened its boys soccer season Tuesday with a 1-0 win over Bear Creek.
Ho hum, nothing really interesting to report here. Well, other than Kate Anderson —a GIRL!!! — scored the goal for the Warriors.
Since Crosspoint doesn’t have a girls soccer team this season — not enough kids tried out — three girls are playing for the boys team, Anderson being one of them.
What a thrill for her to win a game for her “new” team.
—Jeff Graham
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
September 16th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Yes, that girl is quite an athlete!
September 16th, 2009 at 11:31 am
It sounds like your excitement about this comes from the assumption that boys are generally better at soccer than girls. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much excitement about a girl making the winning goal. Would this have been posted if it was a boy making the winning goal on a mostly girl’s team?
September 16th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
A boy scoring on an all-girls team (although I’m not aware of any such instance) would also have been posted. Why? Because that, just like a girl scoring for a boys team, is something we like to call out of the ordinary. Stuff like that usually gets put in the newspaper and on blogs. This stuff doesn’t happen that often.
How cool is it that a girl scored the game-winning goal playing for a mostly boys team competing a boys league? That’s why this post is here. Not because I’m making some silly assumption.
JG
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
It would be an even bigger story had a boy scored in a girls soccer game. My reasoning is this: It is impossible! Boys cannot participate in girls athletics, but it is OK for a girl to join a boys team. Tell me where the assumption is in that one.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Mr. Graham,
While this old news – was it the real the “news” from this match? Is the sensationalist headline helpful or insightful to the readers or the teams? I ask this because, Crosspoint, in fact, competes in a co-ed league. It has been a coed league for some time. All of the schools in the league can and do play young men and women at the same time in the same games. Within the league, it’s not uncommon – not newsworthy – for either men or women to score winning or losing goals. The “co-ed” team” is not new to the school, nor the league.
One would hope that, as one of our much needed reporters of the “Prep Beat” that you might include at least some of your insights of the intense league rivalry between the two and your general knowledge of soccer. Rather than the “Ho-hum” match but girl scores on co-ed (not boys as you reported) angle you presented – could you not have helped the local teams – and readers – by providing us with a reminder that the then King’s West soccer team eliminated Bear Creek from the state playoffs last season in sudden death shoot out – that propelled then King’s West soccer to its’ first state appearance – ever. That would remind all of us readers that the real “story” of the recent match was that Bear Creek, on their home turf, was looking for payback for the sudden death playoff elimination last season. Crosspoint prevails in intense rivalry might have been a headline that builds some excitement around seeing the teams play. Excepting the goal by a “girl” made this a “Ho-hum” match to you –followers of the schools, the parents and the teams get something more from a story about the teams, their rivalry, and the significance of the match.
Adding your personal reference to the rivalry, along with your general soccer knowledge would have given us a report that mentioned this match , like most with this score, was an exciting soccer match to watch and for the local favorite to win.
That a very talented young woman scored the winning goal in this match is worthy footnote. That is not to diminish her as an athlete (she is an excellent athlete ) nor to diminish her role in the win (she is the consummate team player). Crosspoint Beats Back Bear Creek Payback Bid was – and remains – the essence of the headline to this match and to both teams’ seasons.
We count on you, Mt Graham, to help build interest in local school athletics. Thank you for the times when you do. Perhaps, you could have closed this “entry” by also mentioning that a rematch is coming on our local teams’ home turf. That match is, as you know, is on October 8th at 4:00 at Crosspoint Academy on Chico Way and has significant playoff implications for both schools and for all of the team players, male and female.
Thank you.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:13 am
From what I was told by the school’s athletic director at the time, Crosspoint and one other school have girls competing on their “boys” teams. If that’s correct, I wouldn’t exactly consider the league “co-ed” when 98 percent of the competitors are boys. Maybe I’ve been misinformed, but I can only go on what I’ve been told.
Crosspoint would have had a girls team playing right now had there been enough interest. As it stands, three girls play on a mostly boys team. And having taken box scores from this league for the past three years, I can tell you that I don’t recall ever seeing a girl’s name reported. So that fact that Kate Anderson won a game with a goal is certainly newsworthy.
And honestly, the headline as it is written has a better chance of attracting a wider range of readership than “Crosspoint Beats Bear Creek” or something of the sort. No one outside the school is going to be drawn to that. A girl scoring a game-winning goal in a mostly boys league might.
Thanks for reminding me though on the playoff win from last year…I’d forgotten Bear Creek was the opponent the Warriors knocked off to get to state. I’m interested to see how they do Wednesday.