"'More than able to hold her own,' girl gets boot from Catholic football league"

From CNN

Review by Danielle Colassard in SRM 334 (section 2)

Caroline Pla is an 11-year-old girl who has been playing football for the Catholic Youth Organization since she was in Kindergarten. For the past two years, she has been dominating the league and knocking down her opponents. Out of 2,500 participants within in 46 football programs, she is the only girl playing for CYO. Unfortunately she stopped playing last season because the Archdiocese started enforcing the “no girls policy.” Her coach Chip Ross said she is more than capable of holding her own on the football field, as she had been doing it since she was five years old. He thinks she should be able to play because it “calls out players that can hang or not hang” and she can. Caroline’s story was kept under wraps until the season ended. Once the season ended and she was kicked out of the league, the story hit major news sources. 

The media grasped onto this story, and she had many articles written about her, as well as interview requests. Huffington Post, Forbes, MSNBC, ABC, CNN, Yahoo Sports, and other Philadelphia area blogs wrote about this story. According to http://www.philly.com, she has become a “media darling” and has done interviews with Ellen Degeneres and Headline News. People find this situation to be infuriating because she should be able to play this sport. She knows she is not going professional, but she should be allowed to play in the CYO especially because she can hold her own. The media is showing the CYO that she is a strong girl and can hold her own by knocking down boys. This story shows that girls can do almost everything boys can do. Just because she’s a girl playing a “boy’s sport,” doesn’t mean she should not be in the league.
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Review by Chelsea Weber in SRM 334 (section 2)

Our current event is on a young 11 year old girl, Catherine Pla, who has been playing football for 6 years and recently found out she would be banned from the team. Catherine Pla was inspired to play football after watching her older brother play, and eventually began her football career when she was five in the Pop Warner league. She then signed up to play tackle football with the Catholic Youth Organization in fifth grade. During her second season of playing with the CYO, Pla was told that she would no longer be able to play, because according to the CYO handbook, football is a full-contact sport, which meant no girls allowed. Caroline’s family and friends, disturbed by the rule, decided to start a online petition to encourage the CYO to change its boys-only rule. This story has caught the attention of many, including TV talk show host Ellen Degeneres. Right now, Catherine is waiting for a final decision on the rule that will be made in March.

After reading this article, I believe that in this world we should be past determining who gets to play what sport according to gender. Catherine Pla has every right to fight for her right to play tackle football with the CYO. People need to stand up against this type of discrimination, and I think the media is a perfect way to get voices heard and stories out to the public. This story relates to our sports media class because the media is getting Catherine’s voice heard and that of thousands of others supporting her. People like Ellen Degeneres are encouraging her millions of followers to sign Pla’s petition and hopefully get the CYO to change its rule, but also get many other sport organizations that are still implementing boys-only rules to change their ways and let there be gender equality in sports.