Action Assignment

While in high school, I participated in three varsity sports: basketball, volleyball and softball. I worked very hard at my three sports but often experienced the down side of being a female athlete in a school where football, boys’ basketball, wrestling and baseball dominated the athletic program. On multiple occasions, my parent’s had to confront our high school’s athletic director and principal about the lack of attention paid to the girls’ sports. There was so little attention paid to the girls’ sports while I was there that on two different occasions, one in a conference championship game and one in a sectional round game my senior year, our softball team was not scheduled a bus to transport us to the game, which was 45 minutes away. We were left to transport ourselves so that we didn’t have to forfeit the games. This is just one example of how girls’ sports were and still are mistreated in my high school.
Once reaching Saint Mary’s and taking my first women’s studies class, I became much more aware of the discrimination that was taking place in my former high school. I began doing a lot of research in to the Title IX act and looking at its true meaning and how my high school complied with it. I have a younger sister who is still in high school and is an all-state volleyball player and my dad is the volleyball coach, as well as a sister who played at the same high school and then played college volleyball. Because of this, I have stayed very connected to the high school and what is going on within it.
After doing the research, I showed my parents what I had found and none of us were surprised. The high school was clearly not in compliance with Title IX, in any way shape or form. As issues continued to arise, my dad was able to take my findings to the administration and present them with facts of their incompliance. My dad has been able to make a lot of progress for his volleyball team in terms of financial supports and administrative support because of the research that had been done. While it may seem that he is using the research to black mail the school, he has honestly only presented it as fact and uses it to show the inequality that exist in the school’s athletic department.