Girls playing football? Boys playing on the girls soccer team? At Ellwood, the answer is yes

By Andrew Petyak

New Castle News

Devin Cortez found himself in a familiar spot Wednesday when the Ellwood City Lincoln girls soccer team played at Riverside.

The bench.

Cortez, a freshman, spent most of the afternoon “riding the pine,” trying to keep the blistering wind that swept the field at bay. Beside him sat his twin brother, Derek, and their cousin, Nick Valvano. The three were there because Riverside had elected for the boys not to play in the girls soccer game.

“I wanted to join because we didn’t have a boys team,” Devin Cortez said. “I just wanted to play soccer. It doesn’t even matter if we win or not, just to play is awesome. When other teams allow us to play, it’s awesome, but when they don’t, it’s kind of frustrating.”

Opposing schools are permitted by WPIAL rules to determine whether the boys are allowed to play in a girls soccer game. All that has further come to the forefront in recent weeks because of the decision for junior Ashley Lytle to join the football team. Lytle also is a member of the girls soccer team and struggles with the comparision to her playing football vs. the boys playing girls soccer.

“I understand,” Lytle said. “If they were on another team, would we want three boys playing against us? Honestly, no we wouldn’t. We already lose.”

Ellwood City had a policy in place that didn’t allow a girl to join a boys team, and vice versa. It was Lytle who changed all of that when she became the first female placekicker in Ellwood City football history this season. Her struggle to join the team was highlighted by an initial rejection by the school on the grounds that she was “female and ineligible to play.”

“It was stupid,” Lytle said. “I can’t play football because I’m a girl?”

When the Lytle family hired the law firm of Bellissimo and Peirce, the firm sent a letter to Ellwood Superintendent Frank Aloi stating Lytle’s disqualification was “unlawful and unconstitutional,” and threatened to file a complaint in U.S. District Court. The school allowed Lytle to practice with the team the following day.

“It was way more supportive than negative,” Lytle said of the student reaction. “Only the people who I went over to play seemed unhappy with me.”

Lytle’s actions opened the proverbial floodgates. Ellwood City girls soccer coach Doug Walters took advantage of the flex given on the policy. The boys team was dissolved earlier in the season because of lack of interest and Walters and his girls team were struggling to field a full roster. Walters made a call to the parents of the boys.

“I didn’t really think about joining the girls team,” Valvano said. “I understood there wasn’t going to be a boys team. I wasn’t going to let that ruin my senior year, though. I wouldn’t even have known about the chance if Doug hadn’t called my mom and said they’re allowing boys to join now.”

The boys did not need to jump through the same hoops that Lytle went through. The district approved easing its existing policy after the Lytle decision.

“The boys are just like any other kids,” Ellwood City athletic director Tony Pietrcollo said. “They wear uniforms, they took their physicals and they filled out the necessary forms.”

That hasn’t made it any easier for the boys to see any action. If the boys touch the field, section opponents have the right to consider the game a forfeit by Ellwood City, no matter the outcome. In a nonconference game against Sharon earlier this season, the Lady Tigers exercised their option to cancel the game because boys were a part of the team.

“The issues are with the other athletic directors, not me,” Pietrcollo said. “Some opposing teams are objecting the boys playing because of safety issues.”

Valvano scoffed at the notion that the boys would be dangerous to the opposing team.

“I think it’s ridiculous, actually,” he said. “I understand where they’re coming from with their girls getting hurt. I’m not aggressive. I’m not out there to kill anyone. I’m out to play soccer. The refs are there to control the game. If I start to get a little rough, they can warn me or kick me out. There are controls in place.”

Walters doesn’t like the prospects of his 0-14 team, which has been outscored 155-1 this season, forfeiting its matches, despite the shortage of girls. The contest at Riverside on Wednesday featured a second half with Ellwood City two players short of a full team.

“We will not forfeit the opportunity to play any more games,” Walters said. “If it’s OK for a girl to play on the boys football team, it should be OK for the boys to play on this team.”

The boys have been allowed to play in one game this week, against Blackhawk on Tuesday. Only one boy was allowed on the field at a time.

(Email: a_petyak@ncnewsonline.com).