Girls or Ladies

[Lobster Birch]

Unless they're adults, call them girls.

1. Woman is fact, lady is opinion.
2. For school mascots, it is absolutely wrong to call the female teams "Lady" whatevers. It's discriminatory. It says that the boys have the right to the team name and are the 'normal' ones, where as the girls are "others" and inferior to the standard. We've hashed through all that here before.
3. It sexualizes girls to call them ladies. Epstein didn't rape underage women, he raped girls.

Teams that are called "Lady" anything make me cringe.

 

[uncdrew]

If I'm talking about them to someone, it's girls, "our girls this, the girls played hard today, the girls need to start getting loose". If I'm talking to them, it's ladies, "come on ladies, lets get loose" or "Ladies, head over to diamond 3" etc.

I'm the same.

If I called them "ladies" to the parents I might be viewed as a creeper.

 

[soxtroy@yahoo.com]

It may depend on how old the coach is. Some of us have been at this so long that all the "ladies" are girls to us even through 18U. Yes they are young ladies but to us they are still kids. We love them just as we did when they were in 8u. So it may be difficult for some of us to change.

 

[Fluid Fastpitch]

It may depend on how old the coach is. Some of us have been at this so long that all the "ladies" are girls to us even through 18U. Yes they are young ladies but to us they are still kids. We love them just as we did when they were in 8u. So it may be difficult for some of us to change.

When I was 20, I got pissed if someone called me a girl. Now that I'm twice that age, anyone under 25 is a girl, lol. But not to their face. Definitely a difference between the 2nd and 3rd person uses.
I use 'ladies' or 'guys' to their face. Rarely girls. As in "let's go, ladies!" or "Come on, guys! Hustle!". English is maddeningly bad at gender-neutral pronouns. (That's probably the crux of a lot of pc finger wagging.) I take the side that ''Guys", as a plural, in a broad context, nowadays, defines a gender undefined group of people, and is fine in an athletic context. Might be weird to call the contestants in a beauty pageant 'guys'.
As always, I'm not sure how different it is for women vs men coaches. I think I've heard most of the guy coaches use ladies or girls. Never thought anything of either.

 

[badmonkey]

I'm the same.

If I called them "ladies" to the parents I might be viewed as a creeper.

 

[canyonjoe]

If you see and treat your players with genuine respect, whatever you call them is likely to be spoken and heard with respect. No need to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

As for "Lady" in front of a team name? It's never been a big deal for me either way. One nearby high school is called the "Lady Bulldogs," which I can't help but find amusing. Not really any way to get that one right!

Our college was known as the Bulls so the Lady Bulls always seemed odd. They actually changed the Women's teams to the Royals for several years but now it's back the Bulls. I now USC called their female teams Women of Troy and might even still do it.

 

[badmonkey]

Our college was known as the Bulls so the Lady Bulls always seemed odd. They actually changed the Women's teams to the Royals for several years but now it's back the Bulls. I now USC called their female teams Women of Troy and might even still do it.

Faced with the choice of Lady Bulls or Cows, Royals doesn't seem like a bad choice.

 

[Xplode22]

i prefer girls for our 10 12 and 14u program. But I tend to hear women coaches use ladies more often

 

[crisco]

I absolutely agree that the "Lady <whatever>" means they are a modified version of the *real* team. If your mascot is the Devils, all teams should be the Devils, there should not be the Devils and the Lady Devils.

As for what to call players, I alternate between girls and ladies for my kid on 12U and my friends who are mid forties. Sometimes I say girls, sometimes I say ladies. There is no rhyme or reason to when I say either one. DDs coaches say girls, so far.

 

[Mike_Dyer]

The Jackson Ohio Lady Ironmen has a real ring to it..