I will say this: While it was never an "order," I was asked to perhaps "steer" young ladies away from trying to go out back in the day, but I was never told they couldn't. As for competing against them, that was never a rule. I remember (finally) Brooke Bogran from SFT and Chelsea Arhold from Marion as being State qualifiers back in those days, and didn't one of the Oaks in Missouri (Park or Grove) have girl either place or win State back in the early 2000s? As a matter of fact, Maur Hill had a girl for a year or two, as I recall. I'm thinking this might just be a Hayden rule.