There is always significant talk of women who invade the arena of men’s sports. Today there will also be talk of men invading sports normally reserved for women. When the tables are turned the stories are just as interesting.

Dylan Stein of New York is the only male on the Fieldstone High School field hockey team. Stein began his field hockey career when a friend asked him to manage the team. He began playing during practice and in 10th grade he joined the team.

Stein has born the brunt of a lot of anger and insults from coaches and other teams but is still playing because he loves the sport. Stein has had to petition every year that he wanted to play, and this year he was told no until his lawyers began preparing for a legal battle. The decision was then reversed.

Bill May of Santa Clara, CA is a member of the Aquamaids, which is the country’s top synchronized swim team. May is the only male on the squad with 89 women. His sister was in the sport, and he just joined in. May even moved cross country to get further involved in synchronized swimming. May began his career in New York, but wanted to compete with a bigger team so he moved to California.

May made the national team, but he is not allowed to compete in international competition such as the Olympics.

Hitting close to home in Waverly, Iowa, Dan Gates is the only male in a local USA Volleyball Girls’ Club Team. Gates’ dad is the coach and let him play on the team since it was cheaper and much closer to home. Gates has a year left to play because once he is 15, the USA Club program won’t let him play in girls’ tournaments.

Thomas Hawkins is the lone man in the Mount Pearl Figure Skating Club. He began skating at the age of 8 and has been hooked since. Hawkins is motivated by the teasing because it inspires him to try harder.

Becoming more and more of a common occurrence, Kent Simmons and Dominic Chan are the sole males on the cheerleading squad. Simmons was the first high school guy to instruct a prestigious national cheer camp last summer. Chan began by being his school’s mascot and then turned to cheerleading.

Many cases of males on female teams have been taken to court and, overwhelmingly, the result is that the males have almost always lost their privilege to play. It is interesting that in previous cases the women have gained the right to play and the men have lost theirs. It is something that speaks again to equality in sports, especially at the high school level.

Title IX says that women and men can play on the same team, but the sport must have no contact. That is one reason men have not been allowed to play field hockey.

In this day of athleticism and competitiveness it is sad that people are denied the right to play the sport they love.

Unless you truly love the sport you would not stick it out through the battle to play and all of the teasing. Therefore someone that dedicated should be allowed to pursue his/her passion.

I applaud these men for fighting for their right to play and for pursuing something that isn’t accepted as a “male sport.” No longer can we only speak of women fighting for their athletic rights. These men are enduring the same ordeals and have managed to come out on top thus far.

Dawn Kanoski is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Chicago Heights, Ill.