I live so close to Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood Field that I can listen to the PA when the windows are open.  I love being able to walk to competitive sporting events, but over the years my husband and I became very aware of the disparity of support for the men’s and women’s teams, even as the women’s teams are often more competitive that then men’s.  While the men’s teams often have the cheerleaders and band (yes, JHU has both!), the women’s teams’ support is usually made up of parents and a smattering of friends.  Occasionally, the men will drop by later in the season to support a winning team.  But usually, it’s just us and the parents.  This is so unusual that we have sometimes been asked by parents, “who is your daughter,” on the assumption that we must be parents (or grandparents) of a player.  Either that or some potential stalkers of their daughters.  We are generally accepted only when I tell them I did graduate work at JHU and that our kids were female athletes, and we think their kids deserve the same support the men get.

I never played competitive sports, attending a Southern girl’s prep school where I was repeatedly removed from the soccer field for being “too aggressive.”  My loudest cheers have been for the soccer fullbacks who now get cheers and rewards – and no penalties – for playing the way I wanted to play.

Which brings me to this past weekend.  Hopkins sports are all D3 except lacrosse, which is D1.  Over the years, I have watched as preteen boys showed up a men’s games wearing their jerseys, carrying their sticks and waiting for Hopkins players’ autographs.  Until recently, there was no such adoration for the equally talented women players.  But over the last 5 or so years, that has started to change.  This past weekend, Hopkins’ Homewood Field hosted the final four of the women’s NCAA lacrosse championship, and I cheered.  Something felt different.

It has been 50 years since Title IX went into effect.  (FYI, what follows is a discussion of gender impacts of Title IX.  I am very aware of many other issues that still have not evolved nearly as far as this one, but that is not my focus here.) Women at least have access to collegiate level sports, but from what I’ve observed, we are a long way from nondiscrimination.  For example, the JHU women’s D1 lacrosse games are free, while the men’s teams cost $12 a regular season game, even as the women made it to the NCAA tournament and the men did not.  What happens to that money?  I don’t know, but it’s hard to believe that the argument “the men bring in more money” hasn’t been used somewhere to justify some seemingly minor different treatment.   But I digress…

Let’s focus on the good stuff.  The women’s championship aired on ESPN yesterday, for the first time not being relegated to a lesser channel than the men’s final.  The final game was sold out.  And the games were amazing!  UNC’s comeback in the semifinals was one for the record books.  All three games were won by only one goal.  This was competitive lacrosse at its best.  (Congratulations to the Tarheels for a great championship, but also to BC, Maryland and Northwestern for great seasons.)

Most of all, this was a win for the women and for the girls.  All four of the championship teams are coached by women whose collegiate careers were made possible by Title IX.  Jenny Levy is the only coach UNC women’s lacrosse (a program started in 1994) has ever had.  BC’s Acacia Walker-Weinstein, Maryland’s Cathy Reese, and Northwestern’s Kelly Amonte Hiller all played for the University of Maryland and have led their teams for over a decade (or several).  These are women who also have families and lives outside lacrosse, who can show their players not only how to win at lacrosse but also at life in general.  When they coach their players to do something, the player knows that coach has done the same thing.  I can’t underestimate how important it is for me to see the team huddled around another woman.

But that’s what made me cheer.  What made me cry was when we drove past the stadium just before the gates opened and there they were.  Those preteen girls in their team jerseys, carrying their sticks and coming to the sold-out game to cheer on their heroes.  That’s what it is really about, isn’t it?  The opportunity to dream, to see your future in someone who looks like you?  The players and the coaches look liked something they could accomplish.  As a recent article at boston.com about BC player Charlotte North sums it up, “I want to be like her”  And Isn’t that the really the point – what we can see we can believe. 

As I said before, there is a lot of work before I will be willing to say that Title IX has been effective.  The teams and the crowds were far too homogeneous to say that sports are inclusive, especially this particular sport that was co-opted from Native Americans.  While we still have a long road ahead, though, I want to stop and celebrate our progress to date.  And now it’s time to turn on the men’s championship – on the same channel I watched the women yesterday!