Emma Royko of Naperville is still one of the guys. She's just not part of their team.
Since kindergarten, she has played soccer, basketball and baseball with a group of neighborhood boys she has grown up with.
But, at age of 8, the tow-headed tomboy's being told "no girls allowed." It's not the boys who are banning her, though, it's the adults.
Wheatland Athletic Association no longer will allow her to play alongside her male teammates in recreational basketball and baseball leagues. Also, Heritage Family YMCA wouldn't allow her to play basketball with the team this winter after allowing her to do so the previous season. And the Naperville Park District already has accepted her team into its "premiere" soccer league this fall, but indicated it can play only if Emma doesn't.
Why is this happening?
"Probably because I'm a girl, and they have girls' leagues," Emma said. "But most of my friends are on that (boys) team."
"They say, 'Eventually, she's going to have to play with the girls. She can't always play with the boys,'" said her mother, Cindy Royko.
Do you agree with these organizations' decisions? Is age 8 too early to start seperating boys from girls when it comes to sports teams? Why should it matter anyway - if Emma is at the same skill level as her male buddies, shouldn't she be allowed to play sports with and against them?