Oh yeah, spring vacation.

That had to be the reason officials of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference were not answering their phones or returning messages Friday afternoon.

Too bad.

It would have been fascinating to hear what the folks who control high school sports in this state had to say about the latest development in what is known as the "gender issue" in sports.

Wednesday of last week, Annie Houghton of Quaker Valley High School won the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League tennis championship. What made her accomplishment notable was that she whipped the best boy tennis player in Western Pennsylvania to take the trophy.

A girl is the best boy tennis player in Pennsylvania high schools. Houghton may also be the best girl tennis player in western Pennsylvania, too, but since she didn't play any girls, it's hard to say.

Girls playing on boys' teams are not exactly unheard of.

In Connecticut, we ran across a few cases of female athletes playing on boys' teams, but because the CIAC was on spring break, they couldn't be confirmed.

In lieu of the CIAC's institutional memory, we called on the Connecticut Post sports staff to see if they recalled girls playing on boys' teams in Fairfield County. Subject to the vicissitudes of memory, here's what we came up with.

? Aleena Cacchillo was a highly regarded goalie on the Emmett O'Brien tech boys' soccer team. Cacchillo showed her potential early. At age 8 she was the

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only girl playing in the 150-player Seymour Pop Warner youth football league. What? Oh, left guard. ? Pam Pillo of Shelton starred on the Notre Dame High School boys' tennis team and even made the Connecticut Post all-star team as a senior. She now plays for Sacred Heart University.

? Girl wrestlers on boys' teams would once have caused gasps at church coffee hours. Now they're all but commonplace. Both Central High School and Bullard-Havens Technical High School have co-ed wrestling teams. ? Ginny Capicchioni was a star goalie on the Sacred Heart University women's field hockey and lacrosse teams. Later she was the first woman to compete in a regular-season game for a major men's professional league when she was in the goal for the New Jersey Storm of the indoor National Lacrosse League.

So far as we could find out, no girls have played in contact positions on any varsity football teams for any state high schools. There have been a few place kickers, however.

The day after Houghton won her tennis championship in Pennsylvania, league officials urged high schools to come up with rules that would stop gender crossing in sports.

The problem, the officials told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was not so much the girls getting into the boys' sports, but the other way around. If girls can play on boys' teams, what is to stop boys from trying out for girls' teams? So Brad, you say mean old coach Schmorgle says you are too slow to do the 220-yard dash for the boys' track team, well just saunter over to the girls' gym where the track squad is holding tryouts. Bound to be somebody you can beat.

Actually, it has already happened in Massachusetts. (What hasn't?) At schools without a boys' field hockey team, boys have started going out for that sport, causing much consternation in athletic circles.

With the tendency in this society to sue for almost anything, how long will it be before the parents of some mediocre boy athlete takes the girls' volleyball coach to court for discriminating against their son?

Get ready CIAC, it's coming. Charles Walsh's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can reach him by phone at 330-6217 or by e-mail at cwalsh@ctpost.com.