Field of his own

It started in the backyard, where fascination with a sport often begins.

The path typically opens up from there, to youth leagues and travel teams, high school squads and the college ranks.

For Tommy Meyer, the path narrowed, but the South Kingstown resident is still very happy to be on it.

Meyer plays field hockey, a sport largely reserved – at least in the United States – for women. It’s a girls sport in high school, and Rhode Island Interscholastic League rules prohibit boys from playing. Some states do permit boys to play at the high school level, but opportunities dry up in college, too. While it’s an NCAA-sanctioned women’s sport, men can play only on club teams.

Meyer first tried field hockey with his sister, Katie, now a collegiate field hockey player at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He fell in love with it and played recreationally when his family lived in Hawaii. Now 15 and a sophomore at South Kingstown High School, Meyer plays for the East Coast High Performance Center and is on a track that he hopes leads to the national team and the Olympics.

His goals require an extra level of dedication and commitment – trips to Massachusetts, Virginia and California for training and tournaments, working on his skills by himself, practices with the South Kingstown High School girls team that he can’t play for – but he doesn’t regret starting down the path.

“It’s worth it,” Meyer said.

He was drawn to the sport by its focus on skill rather than physicality. In playing with his sister, he found he had a knack for it. His slight frame – which might not play well in ice hockey or lacrosse – was perfectly suited to field hockey.

“It involves more skill,” Meyer said. “There’s no pushing. Some people might be good at a sport but all they really do is push and play physical. Field hockey takes skill. There’s no contact. It’s a fair game.”

Meyer’s family has moved around a lot, from South Africa to Ohio and Hawaii. When they were in Ohio, Katie played for a club team that took a trip to nationals. Tommy went along for the ride, and Katie’s coach saw him playing on the sidelines.

“Her club coach said to him, ‘You should really play field hockey,’” said Maureen Rooney, Tommy’s mother. “I think that really made him want to get into it.”

In Hawaii, Meyer and his sister played in pickup games twice a week. Testing his skills on a competitive field made Meyer, then 12 years old, like the sport even more.

“I was good at it,” he said. “It was something that made me stand out, and I just really liked it.”

Upon moving to South Kingstown in 2014, Rooney asked the school’s field hockey coach, Margaret McGregor, to test Meyer for USA Field Hockey’s Futures program. Futures is designed to identify and develop top field hockey talent at the middle school and high school levels in each region. Katie had been part of it before heading off to college, and Rooney thought it presented a big opportunity for Tommy.

The test measures stick and running skills. McGregor put Meyer through the paces and watched him pass with flying colors.

“He’s a very dynamic player,” she said. “He’s fast and he’s very strong with the ball.”

With Futures, Meyer – the only boy on the field – practiced and played alongside some of the best players in New England. At the regional competition, a coach from East Coast High Performance saw him play and invited him to come aboard.

The high performance center fields teams in the U16 and U19 age groups, with players from up and down the East Coast. They get together for training, practices and tournaments, at sites from Boston to Virginia. Each spring, the teams head West for the California Cup and competition against the best development teams from the rest of the country, as well as Canada and Mexico.

“It’s been awesome,” Meyer said. “The way girls play and the way guys play is completely different. The rules are exactly the same, but it’s faster and a little more aggressive.”

Off the field, Meyer lodged a waiver request in 2014 with the Rhode Island Interscholastic League in an effort to be allowed to play high school field hockey for the Rebels. Article 3, Section 2 of the RIIL rule book states that “Competition in the RIIL for girls is limited to female competitors in basketball, cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, fast-pitch softball, tennis, winter and spring track and volleyball.”

RIIL Executive Director Tom Mezzanotte said the request for the rule to be waived in Meyer’s case was rejected by the league. On appeal, a five-member waiver hearing committee and the full Principals’ Committee on Athletics – the league’s governing body – upheld the denial at its meeting Nov. 17, 2014.

“The rule is that boys are not allowed to play female sports,” Mezzanotte said.

The league was taken to court in 1992 by another South Kingstown High School boy, Brian Kleczek, who wished to play field hockey. After a superior court granted an injunction to allow him to play, the case went before the Rhode Island Supreme Court, which vacated the injunction and sided with the league. In its decision, the court wrote, “Because of innate physiological differences, boys and girls are not similarly situated as they enter athletic competition. Some classifications based on gender may therefore be justified.”

Mezzanotte was not affiliated with the RIIL at that time. He said that, to his recollection, Meyer is the first boy to ask for a waiver of the league’s rule since then.

Similar court cases in states around the country had varying results. Massachusetts allows boys to play field hockey – a result of a 1979 state Supreme Court ruling – but controversies remain to this day. A column that ran in the Boston Globe in November urged the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to consider changing its rules.

“It’s been a little upsetting for us,” Rooney said. “One of his teammates gets to play with his high school team. You can see the difference. We’ve got to let that pendulum swing back to the middle.”

The debate over boys on girls teams has centered on field hockey because of its niche in America as a girls sport. Elsewhere, it’s popular for both genders. Men’s field hockey has been an event in the Summer Olympics since 1908.

USA Field Hockey is making an effort to expand opportunities for boys and girls alike with its “Grow the Game” campaign. The organization’s website lists more than 50 club programs around the country that offer the sport to boys, in addition to the high performance and regional development programs sanctioned by USA Field Hockey.

Meyer doesn’t dwell over his lack of opportunity – he just seizes every chance he gets.

In the fall, he served as a team manager for the Rebels, practicing with the team every day and keeping the score book at games. Behind the scenes, he helped the cause as South Kingstown made a run to the Division II championship game.

“I was a little unsure at first, but he was absolutely a part of the team,” McGregor said. “He became a very good addition to our program. I think he was a good challenge for the girls.”

This winter, Meyer is on the high school’s swim team, along with brothers Pete and Aodhan. He ran track in the spring last year and may do so again this year, but his primary focus is field hockey. Last month, he was in Chula Vista, California, at USA Field Hockey’s Olympic Training Center, competing with East Coast High Performance.

In the coming months, there will be train rides to Boston and trips south. At training sessions, there will be late-night practice times – fields are cheaper to rent at night – and early morning wake-up calls the next day.

Making USA Field Hockey’s U21 national team is the next goal. It’s one step away from the Olympic team.

“That would be amazing,” Meyer said. “The US field hockey team doesn’t always make it, but just to say that you’re on an Olympic team – it would be awesome.”

The path doesn’t get any easier, but Meyer will stay on it.

“I think his dedication and his commitment is amazing for a boy his age,” McGregor said. “He’s someone I think should be an example to every athlete.”