Girls Sports Not Recognized

By Tavia Rzasa

No matter what sport it is or what school it is at, it seems as though girls sports always get the short end of the stick and something needs to be done about this. Growing up, I have played on many school sports teams including soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and track. It always seems as though boys’ sports receive more and better equipment and uniforms than the girls’ team.

All of this seems to be a violation of Title Nine, which states that there must be equal treatment to both sexes in all aspects of life, including sports. According to Henrietta W. Hay, Title Nine is a law signed by President Nixon in 1972. Thanks to Title Nine, there are women’s sports today. However it seems as though some people try to ignore that the law even exists.

On the girls’ Junior Varsity (JV) soccer team at Nashua High School South (NHSS), we had T-shirts for uniforms. The school does not even provide us with shorts to compete in. Meanwhile, the boys’ JV soccer team has at least uniform shirts. Our coaches are not even provided with soccer balls for us to practice with. Every day we had to bring our own soccer balls to practice. However, if you look across to the next field over, it is clear that the boys’ team has their own bag with at least 15 soccer balls for them to share.

Aside from the soccer team, the girls varsity basketball team seems under graded as well. Originally our basketballs were kept in a blue cart with a lock. Since then, the blue-barred carrier has broken in many places making it easy to slip a ball out the side. With the bars falling apart, we have lost a few basketballs, and those are expensive. Along with the breaking bars, we have had the misfortune of having our lock stolen. Because there is no longer a lock on the cart, the gym classes at NHSS have taken it amongst themselves to use them, even though they were considered off limits. I guess no one cares enough to follow that rule. Having the gym classes borrow, and sometimes not return, our basketballs we have lost more than half the cart. At practice one day we had just eight basketballs only to find that the other remaining eight were in the other gym, not returned after being borrowed.

During basketball competitions, referees seem to call differently in a girls game than they would a boys. From personal experiences, referees call a lot more fouls in women’s sports. They claim this is so women don’t get hurt, meanwhile men are beating each other up and no one minds. It really changes the pace of the game when there are a lot of unfair calls.

Boys’ sports almost always get announced over the intercom when they have a game; especially a playoff game. On March 4, my girls varsity team had a playoff game against Merrimack. Just a few weeks ago, NHSS Principal Mrs. Seusing announced that the boys freshmen team was in the playoffs. As predicted, the fact that the girls varsity team had a big game went unnoticed by the principal and the rest of the school.

Aside from my own personal experiences in the world of high school sports, other organizations of women’s sports are not fully respected either. For example, the WNBA has absolutely no recognition whatsoever. All people care about is the NBA, and don’t even seem to give the WNBA a chance. Usually the only time a WNBA basketball game is on TV is when it’s playoff season for them. Some people can’t even name an WNBA team.

“Sometimes I forget the WNBA even exists because I never hear anything about it,” high school sophomore Jessica Williams said.

Whenever flipping through the sports channels, it is rare to find a girls’ sport competition taking place. It’s almost always men’s basketball, men’s baseball, men’s football, and even men’s hockey. On ESPN’s Sports Center, there is always news about men’s sport teams. On occasion one might see a women’s college basketball game on TV, but if closer attention is paid to the stands, one might notice there are not nearly as many fans as at the men’s games.

No matter what sport it is, it always seems as though women are getting the short end of the stick. Something should be done about this, especially since some of the things happening are against Title Nine. Someday women will get the recognition in sports that they deserve.