Intramural volleyball rule called ‘sexist’

Co-recreational volleyball at the University of South Dakota has many rules, but one in particular “prevents men from dominating the court,” said co-director of intramural sports at USD, Connor Singhisen.

This rule comes with intramural volleyball, and it states that if there are two or more hits on a side then a female must be included in the play.

“This rule is a fairly nationwide rule and it comes down to the campus deciding if it enforces the rule or not,” Singhisen said.

According to Singhisen, who has been with the USD Wellness Center for two years, this rule will make sure that females get to contribute to the team.

“Guys will always try to dominate the sport no matter the sport, and with this rule in effect, it just helps the females get a chance to participant and be involved in the game as well,” Singhisen said.

Marcus Ireland, a University of South Dakota sophomore co-recreational volleyball player and Student Government Association Senator, isn’t particularly in favor of this rule. Ireland said he believes that the rule has good intent, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t achieve its ultimate goal.

“This rule is supposed to prevent women from being trampled on in the game of volleyball by men, but the females were not being trampled on in the first place so there is really no need for this rule,” Ireland said.

Ireland said he thinks that this rule essentially causes students to not be involved intramural volleyball, because they would have to forfeit points because a female would not be involved in the play.

“This rule is inherently sexist because it tries to benefit the female gender while it restricts the male gender from playing the full sport, because you have be more aware of things that you wouldn’t normally have to be aware of in a regular volleyball match,” Ireland said.

Each year, USD sends out a survey to each of the intramural participants that goes over the rules of each game and the directors are able to get feedback from each participant about each rule.

“There has been fairly neutral feedback about this particular rule, nobody has ever been very against it or very for it so the rule has just remained with the game,” Singhisen said.

Intramural volleyball is now over for the 2016 season but will open again next August for new and returning members.