Standing out for right, wrong reasons

At least Adam Izzicupo knows it's all over.

The goal he appeared to have scored, which would have given Saugus High School a tournament win over Reading High last weekend, was waved off. And Reading managed to punch one in during the sudden-death overtime, ending the season for the Sachems field hockey team.

So the name-calling, the nightly news segments, the complaints from the other coaches and parents, it's all over.

It might be hard to erase newspaper articles that called him a "villain" and said the idea of him playing was "madness," but now that the Sachems and "the boy" have been eliminated from the state tournament, everyone can put it all behind them.

"It was nonstop every day," said Saugus coach Barbara Guarante . "It's been a long season because of all the bad press about him."

In his second season playing field hockey, Izzicupo led the team in scoring , pushed the Sachems to a Northeastern Conference championship , won the conference MVP and propelled them to a 2-0, first-round win over Andover . But he is infamous for being a boy in a sport where a skirt is a mandatory part of the uniform -- and for dominating his competition.

Among the spectators for the second-round tourney game between Saugus and Reading last Sunday was Dan Dill. His daughter Kerrian played for Swampscott's field hockey team, which lost to Saugus twice this season.

"He was the difference in both games," Dill said. He understands that under Title IX, a federal law designed to ensure gender equity in sports and academics, Izzicupo was allowed to play field hockey, just as a girl would be able to try out for the football team, but he said it still "doesn't pass the smell test."

"When you sign up for girls' field hockey you expect a competitive, even, level playing field with girls their own age," Dill said. "But girls playing against boys, it's a decided advantage. He's well within his rights to do it. It doesn't mean you have to like it, but he's within his rights to do it."

After Andover lost to Saugus in the first round, Steve Gross , who had two daughters on the team, felt much the same way.

"The mere fact that he scored both goals -- those were the only goals in the entire game -- I think it does matter," Gross said. "I mean, figure it out. He was the difference. If they won 2-0 and he didn't score, so be it. Or maybe if he scores one goal. But he was clearly the difference. No doubt about it. He's a boy."

Guarante said she wasn't thinking about any unfair advantages when Izzicupo, the captain of Saugus High's ice hockey team, approached her last year about playing field hockey.

"I was just thrilled," she said. "I needed a goalie."

But this season, Izzicupo shed the helmet and pads to play in the field, which has made everything about him more visible -- his speed, his stick-work, and especially his gender.

His skill "definitely gets thrown to the side," Guarante said. "No one sees that except the officials and the three or four coaches in my league that actually like him playing on the field. He has great ball handling skills, he's very fast, as you saw, and that's what they're afraid of."

Earlier in the season, Gloucester athletic director Kim Patience spoke out against Izzicupo's presence on the team, and said one of the girls on Gloucester's field hockey team broke her hand in a collision with Izzicupo .

Reached by telephone last week, Patience declined to comment on the controversy .

Beverly had two boys on its team this year, one of whom led the team in goals scored last season . The school's athletic director, Jon Longley, said the circus around Izzicupo had a lot to do with his individual talent, but more to do with the impact he had on his team.

"I think to be honest with you, if you delve into it deeper, it didn't come down to how good the boy actually was," Longley said. "It came to how good the team was. All of a sudden there was a good boy on a good team and it affected other teams' opportunity to win a game, and that's when people started to complain."

Izzicupo's parents, Jean and Tony , often found themselves in the line of fire sitting on the sidelines next to parents who didn't like the idea of their son playing and weren't afraid to say so.

"We don't listen to it," said Tony , who admitted he was a little leery when Adam told him he wanted to play field hockey. "We just consider the source."

For all the fuss, the argument over whether Izzicupo or any other boy is allowed to play field hockey can be cut down to 37 words.

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

The law that Hawaii Congresswoman Patsi Mink originally wrote to end the gender discrimination she faced while pursuing her education is the same law that allowed Chris Ernst and her female teammates on the Yale crew team to get equal locker room facilities, and is the same law that allows Izzicupo to play field hockey.

Depending, of course, on how you interpret the law.

On its website, the Women's Sports Foundation argues that girls should be able to break down gender barriers, while boys really have no barriers to break.

"Because sport participation opportunities for girls have been historically limited, girls have a right to participate on boys' teams if there is no girls' team (or a team which plays by the same rules) in the same sport," according to the organization's position statements. "Since the opportunities for boys have not been historically limited, boys do not have these same rights. While some state courts have found, and there are those that argue, that such a position violates the individual rights of boys, federal courts have found that protecting the participation rights of girls as a previously discriminated against 'class' outweigh the rights of the 'individual' boy."

Longley has a different interpretation.

"Because of gender equity, you could never say to a male that he can't play," she said. "You'd be sued.

The story, Longley said, comes and goes in cycles. So while Izzicupo may be the most recent, he is neither the first nor the last.

"It's just something that happens every so often. I don't think there's any more interest in boys playing field hockey than there was 30 years ago."