Congratulations to Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados for becoming the first woman to play in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). That is quite an accomplishment for her, since she helped her country win gold in Sochi.

The fact that Szabados signed a contract with the Columbus Cottonmouths has further questioned ideas for coed teams. Because the National Hockey League (NHL), along with the National Football League (NFL), do not have an equivalent female team, feminists have deemed such organizations sexist.

Sure, it would be nice to have a team designated for females, but that still would not please feminists because segregation does not equate to equality. Instead, they wish to force integration to establish coed teams.

First off, just because an organization does not have a female equivalent sport, that does not mean that organization is sexist. Perhaps there are not enough women to adequately establish one. Second, while the enforcement of coed teams would help establish gender equality, it should not be required, since each gender is not banned from participating in the first place.4

Since the passage of Title IX, which encourages equal opportunities for women in sports, the number of women participating in sports has increased by 937 percent. There is no law that states women cannot play in male-dominated organizations, but feminists would say otherwise just because there have been few to no women participating.

Manon Rhéaume is credited with being the only woman to play in a NHL exhibition game. While the number of women who have played in an NHL exhibition game can be counted on one hand, at least women are playing in an NHL exhibition game. That translates to women having the opportunity to play in a male-dominated sport.

Jim Schwille is an active member of the cheer squad for the Baltimore Ravens. The point is, both Rhéaume and Schwille have actively participated in sports dominated by the other sex. Clearly, if there existed a law that banned male or female integration in a single-gender-dominated sports, it is not being enforced.

There are separate teams for each sport because of the physiological differences in males and females.

Dr. Cindy Chang, a chief medical officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said that men have greater upper body strength than women.

Men were biologically designed to be the laborers and women were designated to giving birth. That is not to say that women cannot compete with men. Former World Wrestling Entertainment star Chyna is a prime example of this. While that organization is fictional, she performed her own stunts and was physically built like her male teammates.

There are girls who like to play football, but may not want to play professionally. If a girl does want to play professionally, she has the opportunity to do that.  While no female has played on the SCHS football team, that does not mean she cannot. If enough women grouped together to form a girls football team, I am sure schools would start establishing these teams.

SCHS is fortunate enough to see male integration in the spirit squad, traditionally seen as a female sport. It is appropriate to allow male and female integration in sports, but it should not be a requirement that schools enforce this integration.