Brynjar Karl Athena Head Coach, shared this story on his Facebook page.

I must confess that something regrettable happened last night. Our 7th grade Athena team participated in an official Icelandic boys’ basketball tournament with a gender-mixed rooster. At one point, we had five girls playing against five boys on the court. Mixed gender teams in the 7. grade are against the rules of the Icelandic Basketball Association. I am awaiting the authorities to take action regarding our horrendous act.

In the meantime, upon reflection, I have come to understand the reasons behind the rule:

– It is essential to protect boys from losing to girls. Boys respecting well-coached girls is hardly a good thing.

– It’s still too early to make any changes at this point. Many members of the sports community have dedicated a lot of effort to prevent this progress. If this continued and the rule was changed, it would be like they were wrong the whole time. Let’s wait for the next generation to deal with this.

– It’s unfair to put too much pressure on some of our clubs to improve their women’s game and give girls better opportunities to develop their basketball skills and character.

– It’s disrespectful to girls on other teams when our girls want to play boys and not just girls.

– We must ensure that girls do not develop unrealistic expectations. It can be heart-wrenching for girls when boys eventually mature and they realize their physical advantages.

All that kidding aside. These are some arguments for not allowing gender mixing in the youngest age groups. Please comment with better arguments below. We are desperate to find a good reason why this is not permitted.

I want to thank our opponents from last night for a fantastic game. They displayed exceptional sportsmanship and class.