By Cory Tell ’14, Staff Writer

Much like politics, controversy is regularly at the center of sports. Whether it’s the Pete Rose betting fiasco, the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, or the atrocities that occurred at Penn State, sports and scandal are often bound together. You need not look further than our own community to find a sports issue that has proven to be contentious.  I am of course talking about the chaos surrounding Matt Bloom’s recent attempt to join the field hockey team, which has created a divide amongst the Academy’s athletic department members, coaches, and players.

After losing numerous players to graduation and semester-away schools, the field hockey team was left with just 12 players at the beginning of its season — for a sport that requires 11 players on the field at a time. It was readily apparent that the team’s season could be in serious jeopardy if any girl went down with injuries. Seeing that the team was in the need of help, team manager Matt Bloom volunteered to join the team as a player. However, when Newark Academy made an inquiry about the possibility of a boy playing girls’ field hockey, the New Jersey State Athletic Board ruled that Matt wouldn’t be allowed to play. Since the Academy offers the same amount of girls and boys sports teams, the dispute wasn’t considered to be an equal opportunities issue which could have been overturned by Title IX, but rather an independent New Jersey State decision. The New Jersey State verdict has caused “a mixture of emotions and opinions around NA,” according to field hockey coach Kaley Rode.

The members of the Newark Academy community in favor of Matt playing on the team have criticized the Board’s usage of gender discrimination in order to justify their ruling. Rode, who previously coached a field hockey team in Pennsylvania with three boys, much like several other schools in the Keystone State, described the decision as, “disappointing.” She added, “I don’t think there would be a fear factor of a boy playing against girls because Matt would wear the same uniforms as the girls, and abide by the same rules as them.” Bloom, who is at the center of the controversy, has also voiced his displeasure over the decision. He said, “I think it’s ridiculous. Field hockey should be open to anyone… It’s a little unfair since there isn’t a boys team offered, but I have to accept the decision.”

Although the ruling against putting Matt on the team has definitely been received with a lot of negative criticism, some of the Academy’s field hockey players have been supportive of the New Jersey ruling. Some argue that having a male play a contact sport with all females would give Newark Academy an unfair competitive advantage. One player, who asked to be kept anonymous, said, “The ruling makes sense. [New Jersey athletic board] has good reasoning.” She added, “Since none of the teams we play have a boy, it would make a mockery of the program because people would only look upon the teams’ wins as the result of Matt’s participation. It would overshadow the value of the team and would cause a distraction.”

Although the controversy has not spiced up national news, the issue of sexes playing high school sports together is still a very prevalent argument. The decision to keep Matt from playing field hockey has far reaching implications, and the debate that has stemmed from it does not seem to be dying down.