WHS offers various team sports for both boys and girls, but a sport that is seemingly the same for both genders can have many differences, such as the rules applied, the amount of contact allowed, the equipment, and more.

   In sports such as lacrosse, how combative the players are allowed to be is a main point of difference between how boys and girls play, which also relates to differences in specific rules and what constitutes a foul. This is particularly true in relation to checking, which is a common defensive technique in the sport.

   “If [girls] check from across their body, [they] will be called for a foul,” said freshman lacrosse player Anna Ferris. “You have to [check] really quickly, while boys can fully slash their sticks.”

   In general much more physical contact is tolerated in boys lacrosse.

  “They’ll call slashing if you have one hand on your stick,” said sophomore lacrosse player Charles Balz. “Otherwise, you can kind of just hit people any way you want.”

   Due in part to these different levels of contact, the equipment worn by each gender also differs. Typically, boys are required to wear more equipment than girls are. Research demonstrates that because boys lacrosse is a full contact sport, players are more prone to injury.

   “Male lacrosse teams had significantly higher head impact rates than did female teams of the same sport,” according to PubMed Central (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), a site that compiles medical research for the public.

   These kinds of possible injuries are one reason why boys lacrosse players have to wear more protective gear.

   “[Boys lacrosse players] need chest pads, elbow pads, gloves and a helmet,” said Balz. “I don’t even think girls wear gloves; they just need eye protection.”

  In basketball neither boys nor girls have to wear any protective gear, but there is one major difference in their equipment.

   “The basketball is a different size,” said sophomore basketball player Zack Reisenberg. “There is a larger basketball for boys, and for girls it’s smaller.”

   Unlike lacrosse, the differences between boys and girls teams in relation to fouls and other rules are not significant in basketball.

   “There are [no rules] that are specific to girls basketball versus guys basketball, it’s all the same,” said  basketball coach Jackson Goldman.

   Because of the same regulations on physical contact being tolerated for both sides, some focus on how girls handle combativeness differently than boys.

   “I think guys tend to pretend that they got hit harder than they actually did to try to make the referees make a call,” said Goldman. “[For] the girls, it’s not as common and they are usually just taking the full brunt of the contact.”       

   Some sports are not exactly the same for boys and girls, but they are still often compared, such as softball and baseball. The differences are more obvious in relation to the equipment and some aspects of play, even if the two sports seem quite similar.

   “The ball for baseball is smaller, and the bats are bigger than softball [bats],” said freshman softball player Lissette Rizik.

   Additionally, since softball and baseball are known as two different sports, there are different methods of play in each.

   “Softball pitchers throw underhand from 43 feet, while baseball pitchers throw overhand from 60 feet 6 inches,” according to gorout.com.

   Those who play these sports have strong opinions about which pitching format is more challenging.

   “[Softball players] have to do an underhand [throw]  in a more complicated way than baseball, and with more precision,” said Rizik.

   In softball, there are other methods of batting and playing that vary or do not exist in baseball, such as slap hitting and bunting.

  “Slap hitting is a batting technique where the player hits the ball while moving toward first base,” stated gorout.com.

   Even though there are specific differences, some players feel the overall play of the games is more similar than different.

   “Softball is basically the same thing as baseball,” said Rizik. “[Both] have the same layouts.”

   Overall, there are many differences regarding boys and girls sports, but some remain with feelings about what the most apparent difference is.

   “In general, there’s more rules set in place to protect girls in comparison to guy sports,” said senior Matteo Buchbinder.