One day after Quaker Valley High School tennis player Annie Houghton became the first girl to win a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League boys' championship, representatives of the league urged schools to come up with their own rules that might stop gender crossing in high school sports.

League officials praised Houghton for her talent and believe her success might open the door for more girls to play boys' sports. What worries the WPIAL is that the door might swing too far the other way.

"I think the concern isn't so much with girls playing boys' sports. It's the other way, with boys playing girls' sports," said WPIAL President Rich Constantine.

"You have to admire what Annie Houghton has accomplished," said WPIAL Executive Director Tim O'Malley. "But we're not concerned about what she did. We're concerned about what's next, and what we can do to protect the integrity of high school sports."

More than 100 athletic directors from around the WPIAL attended the annual league meeting in Green Tree yesterday. Mr. Constantine and Mr. O'Malley addressed the athletic directors and urged their schools to come up with policies concerning gender crossing in sports. Neither the WPIAL nor the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has a rule that prohibits boys from playing girls' sports or vice versa.

"What has happened recently has raised the curiosity of some people who might be involving themselves in a sport of the opposite gender for the wrong reason," Mr. O'Malley said.

In recent years, boys have played on girls' volleyball teams and girls' field hockey teams.

"We've had some threats recently of boys maybe wanting to play on girls' track teams," Mr. O'Malley said.

There is nothing to stop a boy from playing on a girls' basketball team in Pennsylvania -- or throwing the shot put on a girls' track and field team.

The PIAA and WPIAL are powerless to make rules on gender crossing in sports. It has been that way since 1975, when Commonwealth Court issued a permanent injunction directing the PIAA to permit girls to practice and play interscholastic sports with boys. Also, the PIAA can't prevent a boy from playing on girls' teams.

However, individual school districts can come up with their own rules. At least two districts in Eastern Pennsylvania have adopted policies in the past few years. In 2003, Big Spring School District in Cumberland County made a rule banning boys and girls from playing on sports teams of the opposite gender.

In 2004, Wyomissing Area School District in Berks Country adopted a rule prohibiting boys from playing girls' sports.

Mr. O'Malley said he is not aware of any school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania that have rules concerning gender crossing in sports. Shady Side Academy athletic director Gene Deal said his school has had an unwritten rule preventing it. Shady Side is a private school.

"I'm going to try and make sure we now have a formal rule," Mr. Deal said.

PIAA Executive Director Brad Cashman attended yesterday's meeting and said: "As much as we'd like to come up with a rule on this subject, we can't because of the court injunction in 1975. But we've always recommended schools to come up with their own rules."

Two days ago, 22 athletic directors from high schools in the northern suburbs had a meeting and decided to seek the services of a solicitor to come up with a policy on the boy-girl sports issue. That policy then would be presented to individual schools for consideration.

The sports gender subject seems to have come to the fore in the past few months. Mr. O'Malley believes one of the reasons was the attention given to two boys playing on girls' volleyball teams last fall at Southmoreland and New Brighton. Then Houghton's success brought more publicity.

Also yesterday, the WPIAL Board of Control met in Green Tree and part of the meeting was a discussion on the boy-girl sports issue. Members discussed if it would be legal for the league to take a possible stand on the issue but not make a rule. During the discussion, a few members praised Houghton but also said they didn't think girls should be playing boys' sports or vice versa.

Mr. O'Malley realizes a school district's ruling on the issue could stop someone like Houghton from playing on a boys' team.

"I would think to stand the test of the law, you'd have to be consistent with it," Mr. O'Malley said. "I don't think you could permit it one way and not the other."