How Title lX Changed the World of Sports
Over a half century ago the world changed. Simply stated the Federal Government prohibited sex based discrimination in sports. Any program that received federal funding could no longer discriminate when it came to sex and sports programs. The impact was immediate and life changing for many young women that wanted the opportunity’s the boys had when it came to sports.
It took a couple years to get all the necessary guidelines in place before it began. It started at the college level first, and then spread into the high school levels and even down to younger kids.
Back in my high school days, the only sports girls played were in their gym classes and the occasional powder puff games. Girls played the sports and the boys were cheerleaders. Looking back there should have been a ban on boys dressing up like hairy legged cheerleaders.
By 1974 Magnolia had it first girls’ basketball team. Those first ten years the girls played with game balls that were sized and weighted for boys play. And for neither boys nor girls the three point line had not yet been established.
Looking back that first year at a team picture, I saw a couple faces I recognized. Maybe you will see someone you know among those nine girls. That year, Mrs. Dave Cisar helped to organize the teams. She selected nine for a varsity team and nine for a reserve team. They completed the first season with Miss Dennis coaching.
The reserves had a five and one season that first year and the varsity won eleven out of thirteen games played. A great start for the new sport and the young ladies who participated. The first years of the girls’ team, coaches were part of the job description for a teacher of certain classes. After a couple seasons, that requirement was dropped after a grievance was filed and up held.
By the 1984 season, Magnolia girls’ team had developed into a first class program. That season for the first time in the school’s history a young lady completed her season with 1200 points. That was accomplished with no three point’s shots. Ms. Shari Moellendick went down in school history as the first girl to reach that accomplishment.
Something to think about. It took over a half century for the first young man, Carter Castilow to score over 1000 in the school’s history. It took only ten years of the girls program for Shari to accomplish that same goal. Were all things equal in my comparison, no. But I just wanted to illustrate, that when given the opportunity girls all over our country, took on the challenge and made history on their own.
Shari explained to me back in those days, it didn’t seem like a major accomplishment to her. She just remembers they were playing Brook when she made the 1000th point of her career. “I just know we won. I didn’t get a game ball, but why would I anyway? Back then we just played ball as a team and never really thought about who was scoring, rebounding or whatever it took to win. Our Coach was Greg Swords. He was very fair, it didn’t matter who you were, and you earned your spot to start. Greg knew basketball and we respected him. We went 22-5 my senior year, losing to Washington Irving, 55-47 in the state championship finals.”
Shari gave a great deal of credit to the girls of her teams that she played with in her high school years. She was named All-State in both basketball and volleyball. She very much enjoyed playing softball for Mr. George Mullet as the teamás coach. Shari expressed that her time playing high school sport was a great time in her life. Today, Shari enjoys watching her daughter, Kalaina play soft ball. She is a senior at Magnolia.
Today we donát think much about Title lX and how it not only changed sports in America, but in our community. With the help of those people who were there at the beginning of Title lX, I have come to understand how the opportunity to play and compete changed not only the lives of young ladies, it helped to make all our lives more diverse and better. Well, maybe not the unshaven, hairy legged cheerleaders of my high school years.
Shari’s is just one story, but Magnolia history goes back over a hundred years. I sometimes wonder how many untold stories have been lost with the passing of time.