Maia: a summer tale of thwarted potential.

These unusually warm temperatures have me reminiscing about last summer. Each summer, I have the joy of working as a youth t-ball and baseball coach for my city’s recreation department. Despite the league being co-ed, by the time children reach the ages of three through seven, children have already been so heavily sex segregated that male players greatly outnumber female players. 

That’s why when I saw Maia, obviously a female player, stroll up during her team's first practice I was so overjoyed. She would be the lone female player on her individual t-ball team, and her mother expressed slight concern as I distributed what would be Maia’s uniform and game schedule. I quickly reassured her that I think it would be an awesome opportunity for her child and that Maia would have no problem making new friends and enjoying the game regardless of sex.

Throughout practice, Maia seemed to be enjoying herself. She filled the hour with enthusiastic questions, giggles, smiles, and overall just adorable five-year-old innocence. With exclamations such as “Only six days until our first game!” and “Batting is my favorite!” 'twas quite obvious how excited she was to be playing t-ball this summer.

Then came the end of practice. Maia ran over to her mother to tell her all the fun she had today in practice. No lie, I could hear their conversation. Regardless of the fact that her child was completely okay with being the team’s sole female representative, Maia’s mother did not hesitate to hand me back Maia’s uniform (which already had her child’s name on it, thus it could not be reused) and inform me that she was taking her child out of the league.

So let me get this straight, Maia can’t play t-ball  because she won’t be surrounded by children of her own sex during practices? If Maia is the only female student in her AP Calculus class or in medical school or any other activity she so wishes to participate in will her mother encourage, not even encourage, force her to quit? Perhaps I'd possess a different opinion if Maia herself had expressed discomfort, but that was far from reality. This mother's action of pulling her daughter out of a program solely due to its lack of female participants suggests to her child that certain activities are better fit for boys and it's best if girls stick to their own realm. Ehh, way to instill good values in your daughter?

I really wish Maia would have stuck around, not only would her mother and daughter have benefited, but Maia had the potential to prove girls can be just as athletic as boys to all her male teammates.