In 2015, the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletics Association (MPSSAA) made changes to the girls' soccer alignment supposedly to adjust for school enrollment and to ensure balance among regions and divisions. This included moving two teams (Leonardtown in St. Mary's County and North Point in Charles County) from 4A East to 4A South, a region previously composed only of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) teams.These changes, made in the absence of a representative from Prince George's County, disadvantaged girls' soccer players in PGCPS and need to be reversed before the start of the next school year in August 2016. 

Please join our campaign to restore the more balanced 2014 girls’ soccer alignment and equal opportunity for PGCPS! 

Your support is critical for several reasons:

First, the 2015 alignment is unfair to Prince George's 4A South schools because they have to play more games in order to advance in the playoffs. This is because the 2015 alignment led to numerically unbalanced regions with 13 teams in 4A South and only 9 teams in 4A East. As a result, 7 of the 9 teams in 4A East had byes in the first round compared to only 3 of the 13 teams in 4A South. This is an unnecessary disadvantage against PGCPS teams as it denies them equal opportunity. The pre-2015 alignment, with 13 teams and 3 byes for 4A East compared to 12 teams and 4 byes for 4A South, provided for better balance and equity. Tell MPSSAA to restore the 2014 alignment which provides equal opportunity to all student-athletes!

Second, the 2015 alignment goes against the spirit of Title IX as it treats girls and boys differently. Specifically, even though the same schools (with one exception) are represented by both boys and girls teams, the Leonardtown and North Point boys’ soccer teams stayed in 4A East and were not moved to 4A South. As a result, the two schools are in different regions for girls’ soccer (4A South) and boys’ soccer (4A East). MPSSAA has offered only vague responses as to why the 2015 girls’ alignment was necessary, including that "the committee...put more emphasis on travel and geographic alignment than numerical balance"; yet MPSSAA did not apply these same travel and geographic considerations to boys’ soccer, and has failed to explain the difference in its treatment of girls and boys. Tell MPSSAA that it is not acceptable to treat boys and girls differently, and that it should restore the girls’ 2014 alignment which treated them the same.

Third, several months of engagement with MPSSAA has revealed a lack of transparency, accountability, and oversight. Concerns include: (1) that MPSSAA allowed the new alignment to be made without the presence of a representative from Prince George's County, even though PGCPS schools were the most affected; (2) that MPSSAA has yet to provide a reasonable explanation of why individual teams, rather than entire schools and their associated teams, were moved from 4A East to 4A South; (3) that there are no readily accessible MPSSAA minutes or voting records pertaining to the 2015 girls’ alignment; (4) that MPSSAA's classification guidelines on its website differed from those it provided in response to our letters of concern; and, (5) that after months of engagement, MPSSAA has denied our efforts to restore the 2014 girls' soccer alignment, but there is no external body to which to appeal for an independent review. Please join our call to the Maryland State Department of Education to establish oversight and accountability mechanisms, as well as an independent appeals process to review MPSSAA decisions.

Finally, our petition has nationwide implications: The U.S. National Women's Soccer Team (USWNT) has committed to doing more to attract girls of all races and ethnicities to the sport. PGCPS coaches work hard to generate interest and to develop girls' soccer in the County. The girls work extremely hard and ask for nothing more than a level playing field. Maryland unwittingly undercuts both the progress by PGCPS and the efforts of the USWNT to enhance inclusion and diversity within the sport if it allows the 2015 girl’ soccer alignment to stand. 

Please sign this petition and join our fight for equal opportunity for girls' soccer in Prince George's County. Tell MPSSAA to restore the 2014 Girls Soccer alignment before August 2016!