Two girls' high school volleyball teams are off to undefeated starts in Massachusetts this fall, thanks in part to contributions from male players.
South Shore Vocational Technical High School (Hanover) and Southbridge High School were 6-0 and 5-0, respectively, as of Thursday morning.
At South Shore Tech, sophomore Luca Torrey, a boy, is one of the team's top players. He leads the team in aces (38), digs (57), and receptions (124). Meanwhile, senior Nate Swindler, another boy, is fifth on the team with nine aces.
An ace is a serve the other team cannot return, a dig is when a player keeps an opponent’s attack from hitting the floor, and a reception is when a player receives an opponent’s serve.
Torrey also helped South Shore Tech win a state title last season, as NewBostonPost previously reported.
South Shore Tech won the Massachusetts Vocational Athletic Directors Association Vocational Small School girls’ volleyball championship last year, defeating Smith Vocational and Agricultural High of Northampton, 3-1.
Additionally, the Southbridge High girls' volleyball team has received plenty of attention online for having boys on their team.
While a viral post from Libs of TikTok claimed that there were six transgender-identifying players on the team, that doesn't appear to be true.
Rather, the team has at least three boys on their roster: sophomore Alvin Torres, junior Derek Pizarro, and junior Henry Santos. Torres and Santos both also compete in boys' track.
Torres had six aces in a September 21 win over Sutton, while Santos appeared to have at least two, based on a video recap viewed by NewBostonPost.
Massachusetts is the one state in the country that lets boys who identify as boys compete in girls' sports. It's due to a 1979 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (in a case called Attorney General v. MIAA).
In it, the court ruled that, in its view, barring boys from competing in girls' sports violates the state's 1976 voter-ratified Equal Rights Amendment.
Here is what the text of 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 state's Equal Rights Amendment passed at the ballot box in the November 1976 general election; 60.4% supported it, and 39.6% opposed it, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office.
Since that 1979 ruling, Massachusetts boys who identify as boys have competed in and excelled at many girls' sports. Such sports include field hockey, girls' volleyball, girls' gymnastics, girls' swimming, and even girls' soccer.
Since then, boys have won state championships in field hockey, girls' gymnastics, and girls' volleyball.
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has different rules for boys playing on girls' volleyball teams than it does for girls playing on those same teams.
Notably, the MIAA doesn't allow male players on girls’ volleyball teams to play in the front row. That means they cannot spike the ball over the net or participate in an attempted block, according to the MIAA handbook. However, the MIAA told NewBostonPost in 2021 that the same rule doesn't apply to boys who identify as girls.
