A boy helped the Somerset Berkley girls' field hockey team in a state championship for the second consecutive season.

Somerset Berkley defeated Hingham 3-0 in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 state championship game on Saturday, November 15.

Somerset Berkley's top player is junior Ryan Crook, a boy who also plays baseball. He played a key role in the victory; he had two assists, according to game recaps.

Crook has excelled for Somerset Berkley over the past three seasons.

Most notably, last year, he scored both of his team's goals in its 2-1 MIAA Division 2 state championship win over Norwood. That season, he was also named the South Coast Conference's Most Valuable Player for girls' field hockey.

Crook and his family have been heavily involved with Somerset Berkley field hockey. His mother, Jen Crook, is the team's head coach. Also, his older brother and sister also excelled for the team when they were in high school.

His older sister Cami, a 2021 Somerset Berkley graduate, played women's college field hockey at Providence College, an NCAA Division 1 school.

Additionally, his older brother Lucas, who graduated in 2020, was a field hockey star; he is the leading scorer in school history (142 goals and 122 assists).

Cami and Lucas helped Somerset Berkley win back-to-back Division 1 state championships in 2018 and 2019; Lucas scored the game-winning goal in overtime in his team's 2-1 state championship victory over Nashoba in 2018. As a senior, Lucas was also named the South Coast Conference's most valuable player. Another boy, Alex Millar, was also a key contributor on those teams.

Massachusetts is the lone state where boys who identify as boys can play on girls' sports teams. They do so every year, and some make a big impact on their respective teams.

The state lets boys play girls' sports due to the 1979 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Attorney General v. Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The court determined that the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's policy of the time, which said "No boy may play on a girls' team," was unlawful. The court's view was that it violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution.

Here is what the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution says:

All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.

 

The Equal Rights Amendment was somewhat new at the time of that decision. It passed at the ballot box in the November 1976 general election; 60.4 percent of voters supported it, and 39.6 percent opposed it, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office. Every county in the state voted in favor of the proposed amendment.

Statewide, in the fall 2024 season – the most recent data available – 225 MIAA member schools had field hockey; 55 boys played for those teams, according to participation survey data from the MIAA.

The athletic director for Somerset Berkley could not be reached for comment this past weekend.