I was disheartened to read the story this week about the potentially increasing fees for the DCR fields in Dorchester, most especially Toohig Field where the girls softball league plays and practices. I hope the state rethinks this position and lets ADSL pay the traditional community rate they have paid over the years, which allows for so many girls to participate without astronomical costs, and gives them first rights to the field.
Elected officials surely don’t want to engage in a battle on these grounds. This news comes at a time when the girls program is at its zenith. There are more girls than ever in Dorchester trying their hand at softball for the first time, or returning for multiple years as they get better and better. If it keeps up, I dare say the neighborhood will be poised to produce some very good softball players in the near future for the high school and college levels. This is in no small part due to the coaching and leadership that is fantastic year after year.
But this program’s success was not always the case. In case anyone doesn’t know this, girls youth sports in Dorchester routinely get the shaft – in almost every sport. Speaking from experience, I can say that girls are usually tossed aside so that an overindulgence of resources can go to boys.
As the biggest neighborhood in Boston, it should be a shock to Dorchester that girls have so few options and so few fields to play on. Mixing them in with the boys is basically showing them the door – particularly after a certain age. The softball league is about the only thing I know of that girls truly have.
My girls have been involved in the softball program since it revived several years ago. The first year there were about 10 girls and they were simply “instructed” every Saturday at the Hemenway. It soon began to grow and went to the Toohig, which at the time was a humiliating place to play in due to it being so run down and flood-prone. Even days after a rain event, the dugouts would be flooded and the field would be a mud pit.
I was surprised to see the girls get such an unfair draw when the boys/co-ed teams had such great fields to play on all over the neighborhood. After years of advocacy, something was finally done.
Last year was the first year the girls league had fully functioning field with drainage, a proper infield, new fencing, and better upkeep. Now, after one year of having a nice facility to play on, it is being threatened by market-rate programs that want to displace the girls and new fee policies from the state.
Once again, Dorchester girls are getting shafted.
This should not be the case now or ever again. Everywhere you turn these days, the discussion is about equity. Why is equity not part of this conversation?
The girls league should at least be allowed to remain at Toohig Field with their typical arrangements.
They fought for it. They should own first rights to it.
– Seth Daniel, Athelwold Street
