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The California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Championships each year is among the best high school state meets in the United States, always seemingly generating future Olympic medalists.
Last weekend’s meet was in the national news, but this time it was for all the wrong reasons.
AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old junior from Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County, competed as a transgender athlete and the biological male won two events and was second in another in the girls’ division.
The issue is as polarizing as any in the United States right now, and that brought the state meet and the city of Clovis into the limelight.
Pretty much every news organization had stories over the weekend, and I spent a lot of time reading as many as I could so I could see how it was being covered.
Some news outlets tried to politicize it as expected, while others spent time reporting the event, listing the facts of the event.
It’s the facts that are the key to the entire controversy.
In full disclosure, I am against biological males competing against biological females in any sport and I feel that way for one reason and that reason is a fact – it’s not fair for the females.
It is a fact that biological males have an advantage physically over females, a fact substantiated by years and years of times/marks, as well as medical studies.
There have been years of studies that confirm a male has inherent biological athletic advantages such as taller body height, more lean muscle mass, greater muscle mass, larger heart and lungs, and higher maximal oxygen consumption to name a few.
Even after hormone therapy, while the levels may decrease, they are still substantially larger, giving biological males an advantage.
Once again, these are documented facts.
I have been covering, coaching or playing sports for most of my life. I have three daughters and have worked hard at making sure they had a chance to be successful.
I also believe you can be whoever you want to believe – you want to identify as the opposite sex, that is your right; but the playing field should always be as even as possible.
Now, about this past weekend I have some definitive thoughts.
* There should be no blame on Hernandez. We are talking about a 16-year-old kid here, and it is ridiculous the blame and hatred Hernandez has experienced. I feel adults must bear the brunt of criticism. Flying banners over stadiums should not have happened and people expressing themselves inside of the stadium were wrong. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
* I realize what free speech is, but it’s wrong to torment a 16-year-old kid. How about showing some respect when doing so? And that goes to both sides of the equation.
* It would take nothing more than the people of the CIF saying plainly: biological males compete against biological males, and biological females compete against biological females. It is honestly that simple.
* CIF has not had the intelligence to do that and has done nothing but throw gas on the fire. First, they allowed females displaced for a berth in the state meet by a biological male. Then, CIF added, “Anyone finishing behind a biological male would be appropriately rewarded a medal based where they placed among female competitors.”
* All that did was confirm it is unfair for the girls to compete against biological males. Making those concessions made things worse. How else can you look at it?
* If an argument about males not being allowed to compete against females was made in court, you could use CIF’s plan for this past weekend as evidence. You need to go no further.
It is time for the adults in the room to step up and make some sense of the situation. At the CIF, people are put in positions of importance to make sports fair and safe for all high school athletes. Perhaps it’s time for them to do their jobs.
CIF State Track/Field results
Here are the results for East Bay Athletic League athletes that made the finals, as well as the winner of the event and time/mark.
Boys
4×100 relay: 1) Servite 40.27; 4) De La Salle 40.80.
1,600: 1) Conor Lott (Clovis North) 4:04.84; 10) Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) 4:12.43.
100: 1) Jaden Jefferson (De La Salle) 10.27
200: 1) Prince Buchango-Ba (St. Ignatius) 20.79; 4) Justin Jefferson (DLS) 20.86.
3,200: 1) Eyan Turk (Woodcreek Christian) 8:51.62; 10) Trey Caldwell (De La Salle) 9:05.28; 17) Tadhg Murray (De La Salle) 9:22.78
High jump: 1) Joshua Harel (Notre Dame) 6-09; 5) Benjamin Stout (Amador Valley) 6-07
Long jump: 1) Leo Francis (Santa Margarita) 25-00.75; 4) Kaleb Pleis (San Ramon Valley) 23-09.50
Triple jump: 1) Keith Catlage (Cajon) 51-04.5; 7) Anthony Dean (De La Salle) 47-06.5.
Girls
800: 1) Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad) 2:02.28; 12) Ava Padilla (Monte Vista) 2:13.48
4×800: 1, Santiago 8:49.61; 13) Monte Vista 9:09.98
HJ: 1) AB Hernandez (Jurupa Valley) 5-7; 5) Rachael Osicka (California) 5-6.
NCS Baseball
De La Salle kept its roll going, taking a pair of games easily to win the North Coast Section Division I title.
The Spartans beat Foothill 10-1 in the semifinals, then beat College Park 11-2 to win the title. Next up is the CIF NorCal playoffs. The Spartans are seeded No. 1 and open play Tuesday at home against Del Oro.
After finishing the EBAL season 5-8, including losing its last four games, the California Grizzlies made a run in D-III of the NCS playoffs, winning four straight to win the title.
Cal beat San Leandro (6-2), Washington (4-0), Freedom (7-4) and Marin Catholic 6-1 in the D-III championship game. Cal is seeded eighth in D-III and plays at top seeded Roseville.
NCS Softball
No NCS titles for the EBAL this year, with Foothill the lone team still playing, advancing to the CIF NorCal tournament.
The Falcons fell in the NCS semifinals to top-seeded Liberty but rallied in the third-place game outscoring Livermore 16-13 to finish in the top three in the division.
The Falcons were seeded eighth in the 8-team field, in the D-II playoffs and open at top seed Vanden on Tuesday.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
