How timely. Like I noted below, our league is having a spirited debate about coed vs gender split teams for our younger Recreational teams. Plenty more to come on that. However, one theme that comes up often is the mental impact on the girls of playing with the boys and how the boys treat the girls they play with.

There’s a new movie coming out June 1st called Gracie (IMDb), which chronicles the story of a girl determined to play soccer with the boys because there is no girls team at her school. It was inspired by the childhood of actress Elisabeth Shue, who was part of quite the soccer family, and who had to tryout and play on the boy’s teams for three years before she decided to focus on gymnastics in high school. Her brother John was captain of Harvard’s soccer team and Andrew Shue played professionally in Zimbabwe and briefly for the LA Galaxy. Who knew! Here’s the trailer:

The film is quite the Shue family production, as the movie is being directed by Davis Guggenheim, Elisabeth’s husband, and both Elisabeth and Andrew Shue are listed as producers (among others). Andrew and Elisabeth also star in the film as the coach and Gracie’s mother respectively.

Granted, this may not appeal to you hardcore MLS fans, but as most parents of daughters playing soccer will tell you – sometimes they question how good they really are, especially when playing with the boys. A film like this, no matter how sappy, will probably be a good one to see. My only concern is that it is rated ‘PG-13’ for ‘brief sexual content’, so don’t know if I’ll be bringing my eight year old daughter to see it! But I’m sure she’d love to see a girl taking it to the boys on a soccer pitch. Course given what passes for acceptable content on TV these days – it may be tame!

If you happen to catch it in early June – let us know what you thought!