The Women’s big mistake was taking on boys teams, the men’s side would at least hold back a bit but the boys team’s will be ruthless lol.
Anecdote. There were 2 girls on our (American) football team in high school. They were BEASTLY, like twice the size of the guys and pushing everyone around… for one year. As soon as the guy’s voices started to crack all of a sudden the girls were out on injury 80% of the time. They didn’t come back the next year.
EDIT: Yes in the states. Yes at “middle school” age but I come from a rural area where middle and high school for 3 towns were in the same building. We didn’t differentiate