A pair of boys helped their respective girls' field hockey teams win Western Massachusetts championships this past fall.

Southwick High School and West Springfield High School won the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference Western Massachusetts Class B and Class C championships, and one of the best players on each team was a boy.

West Springfield beat Franklin County Tech School 4-1 in its championship game on October 25, and Southwick shut out South Hadley 2-0 in its respective title game on the same day.

West Springfield freshman forward Nate Xavier, a boy, played a key role in his team's win over Franklin County Tech (Turners Falls, Massachusetts). The PVIAC all-star netted three of his team's four goals. Additionally, he scored 18 of his team's 37 goals this season (48.6 percent). The team went 14-4-2 this past fall after going 0-17 the previous year.

MassLive named Xavier to its All-Western Massachusetts field hockey Class C First Team this past season.

Meanwhile, Southwick High School junior midfielder Caylum Glynn played a big role on his championship team. He led the team with 10 goals this past season. Southwick went 10-8-1.

While Glynn wasn't a part of his team's scoring effort in the 2025 championship game, he did have one goal in his team's 4-2 Class B championship win over Belchertown in October 2024.

MassLive named Glynn to its All-Western Massachusetts field hockey Class B Second Team this past season.

Why It Happens

Massachusetts is the one state in the country where boys who identify as boys can play on girls' sports teams. They do so every year; some make big impacts on their respective teams.

The state allows boys play girls' sports due to the 1979 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Attorney General v. Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The court ruled 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 opinion 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 a few years old at the time of that decision. It passed via referendum 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 supported the proposed amendment.

Athletic directors for West Springfield and Southwick could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.