GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - He's too good, and that's too bad.
A 13-year-old New York boy who played field hockey growing up in Ireland has been told that after two years as a member of the Southampton High School girls' team, he is now too skilled to qualify for an exemption allowing him to compete with - and against - girls next season.
Keeling Pilaro, whose 10 goals and eight assists earned him all-conference honors on suburban Long Island - he was the only boy in any league - is appealing the decision by the governing body for high school sports in Suffolk County, and a lawyer for his family suggests a court battle could ensue if the ball doesn't bounce Keeling's way.
An appeals committee said it looked only at his skills, not size or strength, when upholding the decision to keep him off the field. That raises a question of discrimination.
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Keeling's fight appears to be a rare example of a young man seeking to take advantage of Title IX, a 40-year-old law enacted to provide women equal access to athletic opportunities. There are no boys' high school field hockey teams anywhere on Long Island, or, for that matter, in most of the country.
"It's really annoying," the eighth-grader said in a recent interview. "I'm just 4-foot-8 and 82 pounds, so I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to play. I don't really care if I'm on a girls' team or a boys' team. I just want to play."
Southampton school administrators agree, but they don't have the final say.
"The decision to support him represents our commitment to provide meaningful opportunities to each of our students," Superintendent Dr. J. Richard Boyes said in a statement. "Our community, including the girls on our field hockey team, embraced Keeling Pilaro and we couldn't be more proud of him."
The problem, according to Edward Cinelli, the director of the organization that oversees high school athletics in Suffolk County, is that state education law won't allow it. He cited a provision that says administrators are permitted to bar boys from girls' teams if a boy's participation "would have a significant adverse effect" on a girl's opportunity to participate in interschool competition in that sport.
Officials say Keeling's skills are superior to those of the girls he plays against, creating an unfair advantage.
Keeling's defenders say that while he has played well, his skills are not superior to everyone else in the league, and also that his skill level should not be the final determining factor in whether he gets to play.
