Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A tale of two locker rooms

The Intelligencer out of Pennsylvania reports on a new "space crunch" for athletics teams at Hatboro-Horsham where the expansion of the boys' football team has resulted in their use of a second stadium locker room (previously used by two girls' teams) to accommodate the extra gear and equipment.

The two girls' teams, field hockey and cross country, were reassigned locker rooms back at the high school (not adjacent to the stadium) but this space is already used by three other teams and the PE department. Most of the displaced girls have opted to change in their cars or in the stadium bathrooms rather than deal with the space issues and the trek back to the high school.

The displacement has a lot of people talking, including school board members who were not informed of the relocation prior to its implementation.

The athletic director does not see the problem and believes that all of the high school's eleven teams have adequate locker and shower facilities.

But Peg Pennepacker, a consultant who advises the school on Title IX issues, is not so sure and will be looking into these new "assignments" which, according to the school superintendent, is only a temporary solution not expected to last beyond this football season.

No explanation of how or why the situation might be different next year, though, or why the suggestion that the extra equipment generated by the 30 new players on the football roster cannot be stored in the snack stand on site was seen as a punishment for the football players.

Personally, I am a little curious about why the team added 30 players this season to bring their roster to 110 and why the superintendent was adamant that all these players had to remain on the team. Is this a trickle-down mentality from the collegiate game which still insists that 100+ player squads are required?

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