A youth sports organization in Indianapolis is facing criticism after an eighth grader was benched from her school’s football team because of her gender.
Cece Lucia made her debut as a kicker for St. Simon the Apostle middle school in Hamilton County Sunday but was later told she wouldn’t be allowed to play again.
The Catholic Youth Organization, which oversees the league, warned the team would forfeit any future games if Lucia continued to play due to a policy that bans girls from playing football.
Lucia’s family and several supporters quickly took to social media to oppose the organization’s policy.
“My sister, Cece Lucia, had to opportunity to kick for Saint Simon's football team yesterday. Today we got news that the CYO organization will not let her due to being a girl,” Lucia’s sister, Madeleine Lucia, wrote on Facebook Monday. “She kicks better than anyone I have seen, especially since it's 30-40 yards of the field! If you are ready to help change this discrimination please let me know! We are in 2014, it's about time for a change in our sports world.”
Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee and Katie Hnida, the first woman to play NCAA Division I football, also tweeted support for the young kicker.
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McAfee called the incident an “unbelievable situation” and later told reporters he thinks “it’s a shame whenever you see a girl who is successful and is good and has a chance to have a bright future in a sport to be cut off from it.”
“’Hey, you’re a girl, you can’t play football’ is not really happening in 2014 is it?” Hnida tweeted. “When it’s handled right way (treated equally, etc) having a girl/woman on the football is a great experience for all involved. #LetHerKick.”
Executive Director for the CYO in Indianapolis, Ed Tinder, said the organization does not plan to reverse their decision, but noted the latest incident could spark a review of the policy.
"Without question this issue received a lot of public attention so it will get reviewed," he said. "My opinion is that we would do it sooner than later."
Tinder said as far as this season goes, "the policy is what it is" and added that it has been a policy for 75 years.
"There's really two instances here. One is just a blatant disregard for a longstanding policy and doing so on a platform that allowed it to be recognized and applauded by fans at the game and it's kind of like saying, in many respects, 'We don't like that policy so we're going to do our own thing here,'" Tinder said. "Treatment of that situation, that's just a completely different thing than girls playing football."
Tinder said the policy has not been changed mainly because of "the consistency that exists between the other sports and the gender specificity of them."
"If you let girls play football, what's your rationalization for not allowing boys to play kickball?" he said. "It's just probably a consistency of enforcement."
Lucia’s family later released a statement on the issue, according to NBC affiliate WTHR.
"Cece just loves football and simply wants to kick field goals. We hope this incident can be resolved quickly," they said.
