Why bother? I supposed it doesn't hurt to try, but does Pine Bush girls volleyball coach Lori Kachelmeyer really expect to win the protest she intends to file tonight before the opening-round state tournament match against Horseheads at SUNY New Paltz?
Kachelmeyer intends to protest because Horseheads has a male player, 5-foot-8 junior Kyle Ray, in the lineup.
"I don't think that boys should be playing girls' volleyball," Kachelmeyer told the Times Herald-Record. "They're stronger, they're faster, they can jump higher and they're just physically more advanced than women are. That's just the way it is, and I'm a woman."
Horseheads can point to the state rulebook as well as Title IX, which requires equal opportunities for both genders. All of the proper procedures apparently were followed before the season, and Ray has played on a regular basis since the school doesn't have a boys team.
"We followed every step that the state required," Horseheads AD Mike Johnston told the paper. "We hid nothing. I don't know what else we're supposed to do."
Kachelmeyer considered forfeiting, but Pine Bush athletic director Harold Fried convinced her not to.
Extra points: Fort Edward football Coach Kevin Stimpson confirmed that star running back Anthony Breeyear, 17, will serve a two-game suspension in the state playoffs following the athlete's arrest over the weekend. Acting Superintendent Joseph Colistra said the district's athletics code of conduct mandates the penalty. . . . Gatorade will add cross country to the list of sports for which it selects state-by-state athletes of the year. Those winners will be eligible for national honors as well. The selection process is administered by RISE
Magazine.
