Berner [pictured, second from right] went 16-2 this season, and helped New York's small Beacon High School sweep the city's three major tennis tournaments. But her opponent aren't happy about a girl demonstrating such prowess. After one of her wins, the opposing coach claimed that the game was unfair "because her gender unnerved her opponents." The coach said that for a boy, playing Berner is "a lose-lose situation. If he wins, he's supposed to win. If he loses, he lost to a girl."

This statement highlights the weirdness of people's reactions to girls like Berner. Traditionally, the rationale for keeping girls out of boys' sports has been that girls aren't good enough to compete with boys. But increasingly, parents and coaches are complaining that girls are too good. Twelve-year-old Jaime Nared was ousted from a boys' team, likely because of concerns that she was outshining the boys (she was later reinstated). And when the Cheetahs, a girls' soccer team, began playing boys' teams, parents got concerned about girls beating their sons.

The whole issue is a sad example of stereotypes begetting stereotypes. If no one had ever assumed that girls would be worse at sports than boys, there would be no shame in boys getting beaten by them. But because boys are brought up to think girls are obviously lesser athletes, they are "unnerved" when a girl is actually good. The solution isn't to continue protecting boys' fragile masculinity by keeping them away from female opponents. It's to expose them to girl players more often, so that they understand that girls can be athletes in their own right, and not just wimpier versions of boys.

It's not necessarily true that all sports should be coed — women's bodies are different from men, and segregation at the professional level can make sense for some sports. A single-gender environment may be good for some girls too. Anna was impressed by "the Cheetahs' embrace of their more aggressive, competitive sides," an embrace that may be easier to develop if you're not worried about impressing boys. But in many situations, coed competition can teach boys and girls that sports aren't just a guy thing, and that winning is about using your skills, not proving your masculinity.

She Plays With Boys, and Rivals Don't Like It [New York Times]

Earlier: Jaime Nared, "The Next Candace Parker," Will Play With The Boys Again
Kick Like A Girl: When Girls Take On Boys, And Triumph

Like any prodigy, Jaime is in some ways isolated from her peers, as a story in the NY Times' "Play" magazine outlined this past weekend. She's taller than all the boys at school, for one — she says the tallest comes up to her chest. (Her classmates sometimes call her names like Godzilla.) And her skills on the court can inspire sexism. When Jaime fouled a boy, her mother remembers a parent yelling, "Get that girl away from him!" But playing with girls her age isn't an option, says her dad: “To be quite honest with you, it just wouldn’t be fair.” Her mom concurs, asking, "Particularly before puberty, why do we separate boys only, girls only? We say boys are stronger, faster, but that’s a generalization." Jaime's skills — she may turn out to be the next Candace Parker, the first woman to dunk in a NCAA tournament — certainly show this to be true. So should all kids' sports be co-ed? Or is there value in separating the boys from the girls?

Scary, Isn’t She? [NY Times]
Girl To Rejoin Boy's Basketball Team [UPI]

Earlier: Awesome Oregon Girl Barred From B-Ball With The Boys