On the Frontlines of Freedom : A Chronicle of the First 50 Years of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey

by Patterson, Mary Jo

• ISBN13: 9781469763774
• ISBN10: 146976377X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-01
• Publisher: Textstream

Excerpts

Beth Balsley's football career actually started with lacrosse. In the spring of her sophomore year at high school, she tried out for the lacrosse team. Only boys played on the team, but she didn't care. She had two older brothers, who included her in their games while she was growing up. Balsley loved lacrosse, but her coaches cut her. That's when she decided to go out for football, which had a no-cuts policy. Anyone who tried out for football at North Hunterdon was allowed to practice with the team. "Part of it was, I believed in equality. I didn't like that whole perception about a girl being the weaker sex. And part was that I wanted to play a contact collision sport. I just wanted a physical way to get out my aggression," she said years afterward. No one, however, wanted her on the team — not the football coaches, nor the athletic director, nor the board of education. Balsley circulated a petition and presented it at a school board meeting. Edison Township physics teacher Jeff May — still a plaintiff in the pending moment-of-silence case — read an article about her efforts and called to offer support. When he learned she had no advocates — her parents approved, but only from the sidelines, and they were not about to hire a lawyer — he suggested she contact the ACLU-NJ. The affiliate filed a petition with the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, arguing that excluding Balsley from the team violated education and civil rights laws. An administrative law judge agreed, and ordered school authorities to grant Balsley's request. She suited up for the junior varsity team, and became the first girl in New Jersey to be allowed to participate in a boys contact sport. Balsley tried out as defensive back, but was made a nose tackle. She played in one game, on Oct. 21, 1985, with media from all over metropolitan New York watching. A substitute coach sent her in during the third quarter, when her team was up 17-0. During the next six plays, she took a brutal beating. "I'm the worst player on the team, but the boys have had more years at this," she told The New York Times. "I swear I'll give it everything I have to catch up." Her pluck did not win her many admirers. At school, pretty much everyone ostracized her. Nevertheless, during her senior year, she never missed a practice. One day a coach warned her not to go to practice after school. When she asked why, he said, "You're going to get beat up." "What else is new?" she said, laughing. Later that afternoon she started to wonder what he had meant. She knew as soon as she reported for practice, when three teammates converged on her. "Can I at least put on my helmet?" she asked. They punched her and threw her to the ground. Other players formed a tight circle around them. "They hit me with tackling dummies, I was bleeding on the gravel. Nobody stood up to help me. I thought, 'I can quit, or I can show them this is not how you get what you want.' And I kept going to practice." After high school, Balsley was seriously injured in a car accident. At the end of her rehabilitation, doctors said her brain had suffered lasting damage, that she could not return to college. Balsley was shattered, but her mother reminded her she had heard something similar before. "The coaches told you you couldn't play football, and look what you did. These people don't know what you're capable of." Balsley went back to college, where she managed the football team, and graduated. Then she went to graduate school, and earned a master's degree in social work. She married. Today she works with people with chronic mental health issues. "I try to help them with things society has told them they can't do," said Balsley, now Beth Gross. "I encourage them to move forward and pursue their dreams. I'm 41 years old, but I still don't like people in authority telling others what they can or can't do."