By Adam Aucoin
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Senator Birch Bayh, from Indiana, was direct and to the point in his 37 words that would change the landscape of gender equality from that point forward.
It read, “No person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Fifty years ago to the day on Thursday, President Richard Nixon signed that bill into law, which would commonly be referred to as Title IX.
The impact of the president’s signature on that bill was massive in the moment and is still felt today.
High school athletics, or athletics in general, aren’t specifically mentioned in those 37 game-changing words, but its application to sports has been vast since.
It leveled the playing field at educational institutions, which in turn did the same in athletic programs in college and at the high school level.
I’m much too young to have seen the early impacts of the law. When I was growing up in the late 1990s and 2000s in Massachusetts, female sports were treated with the same respect as the ones I played. I respected those female athletes, just as I did my fellow male athletes. The opportunities were equal, just as they should be.
I can only imagine the difference Title IX made in those early years when the perception of female athletics wasn’t as clear.
The first Vermont field hockey state championships were held in 1970, the first high school female state championships of any kind in the state. Essex beat Middlebury 2-1 in that title contest.
Track and cross country were just a year behind that.
The first girls basketball state championship games were held in Vermont in 1972, the year of Title IX’s passing. The Division I game was a classic, where Bellows Falls’ Debbie Higgins hit a pair of late free throws to give the Terriers a 43-42 win over Spaulding.
Those women were laying the groundwork for what was coming next. Two years later, the first softball state championships were held and girls soccer championships began less than a decade after the passing of the bill.
Girls lacrosse and girls hockey have built loyal stables of athletes in the last couple decades.
When I think about the impact of Title IX in present day Vermont high school sports, I think about moments and how those moments possibly wouldn’t have happened without the law.
Moments that I’ve witnessed in person over my two and a half years working at the Rutland Herald like the Stowe girls soccer team finishing their Cinderella run in the 2020 Division III tournament or the Cyr sisters coming up in the biggest moments for West Rutland teams this school year come to mind. The list goes on and on.
There wouldn’t be any firsts without Title IX.
Earlier this month, South Burlington earned its first softball state championship in program history, knocking off heavyweight BFA-St. Albans, a perennial power, in a pitching duel that will long be remembered.
That same weekend, BFA’s and Hartford’s girls lacrosse teams earned the first girls lacrosse titles for both of their programs.
Last school year, Peoples Academy’s Angie Faraci became the first female coach to lead a boys soccer team to a state championship in Vermont history.
There wouldn’t be dynasties without Title IX.
The Proctor girls soccer team has been to the Division IV state championship game in 11 straight years. I was a sophomore in high school the last time they weren’t in that game.
Rutland and Mill River have dominated the state’s cheerleading landscape for many years.
Teams like CVU girls soccer, BFA-St. Albans girls hockey and Stowe field hockey. among many others, wouldn’t have had an opportunity for their historic success over these past 50 years.
The road would be much harder for Vermont female athletes to find success in their sport at a professional level. Montpelier’s Amanda Pelkey may not be an Olympic hockey gold medalist, Shaftsbury’s Nicole Levesque may not make it to the WNBA and Montgomery Center’s Elle Purrier St. Pierre may not make her Olympic dreams a reality without that law.
Those 37 words were game-changing then, they are now, and in 50 more years, they will surely remain that way.
adam.aucoin @rutlandherald.com
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