Field hockey conundrum: Should boys hold back?

The Woodland Hills field hockey team is enjoying the best start in program history, and with that comes attention.

Woodland Hills is 7-0, even knocking off Class AAA powers Fox Chapel and Norwin, with three boys on its roster: seniors Dante Costa, Jared Hanley and Tim Bagwell. The WPIAL permits them to play, even though the sport is mostly played by girls.

"Now that we're winning, it's going to be a 'boy issue,' " said Wolverines Coach Jim Haberfield.

Woodland Hills finished 3-9 and missed the playoffs in 2010, with Costa, Hanley and Bagwell all on the team. So Haberfield isn't apologizing for winning now.

"They're playing to win," Haberfield said. "And I'm not coaching them to lose because I don't want to lose, either. This is the first time that these kids have ever won, and it's good for them. It's good for the whole school."

The debate centers around whether it's appropriate for boys to go all out or whether they should take it easy on the girls.

Fox Chapel Coach Jen McCrady purposefully deploys sophomore midfielder Kyle Pawlikowski in a reserved role.

"These boys are going to play to win. And how coaches dictate how they fit into their style is up to them. But I'm not going to play that kind of game," McCrady said.

Costa denies having an unfair advantage, claiming he's routinely beaten to loose balls and, because of technique that he lacks, doesn't strike the ball as well as some girls. But he does admit to holding back, fearful of what fans will say if one of his shots hits a female player.

"When we played Fox Chapel, I hit a girl in the hand (with the ball). She turned out to be fine, but I felt terrible," Costa said. "I could hear people in the crowd yelling, 'C'mon, he's a guy. He shouldn't be playing anyway.' You feel bad."

Molly Reese coached Greensburg Central Catholic, which had five first-year boys, to a WPIAL Class AA runner-up finish last year and remembers the heat she took.

"We made it to the playoffs the year before, and nobody seemed to acknowledge that," Reese said. "Plus, six years prior to the boys being on the team, we were a club sport. We made it to the finals, and the boys had nothing to do with that until the very last year."

Unlike the boys at Woodland Hills or Greensburg Central Catholic, Penn-Trafford junior Harry Miller didn't come out for the team to boost numbers. An avid hockey player, Miller was coaxed into playing by two female friends and fell in love with the sport.

"I got stopped in the hallway by two teachers at Penn-Trafford, and they started asking me whether it's fair for guys to play field hockey," Miller said. "I just thought, 'How's it fair for us not to?' We don't have our own league. And they can be just as good as we are. It's all mental; it's all about aggression."