Basketball

When Title IX came along—giving girls equal opportunity to play sports—I had a special celebration. I was very happy that the girls I was teaching would have the chance for the wonderfully liberating experience of playing competitive sports.
When I tell people today that I played basketball in my youth, they laugh (if they know me well) and look incredulous (if they’re polite). Yes, I played basketball from sixth to eighth grades. I was short, fat, and clumsy, but I remember those years with pride and humor. I can still smell the old junior high gym and hear the eerie echo of hightops on the wood floor. I remember the ugly blue gym suits that we washed once a semester—whether they needed it or not. They had grippers and names embroidered over the left breast—whether we had them or not.
Some people were really good: fast, agile, accurate, coordinated. The rest of us played for the companionship and social status. I still remember my joy when I quit and realized that I would never again be weighed in public. Maybe that’s why I’ve always avoided Weight Watchers, in spite of my obvious need.
I know they say games teach sportsmanship, teamwork, and ethics. I learned other things, too, playing basketball for the Mustangs (junior high girls’ version). I learned:
· There was one place where I didn’t have to care about how I looked.
· The harder I worked, the easier it got.
· Sacrifice (even of carbonated drinks and late nights before games) had its rewards.
· It didn’t matter how good your “man-to-man” defense was when Nazareth played zone.
· What it feels like to do your best and lose, to do less than your best and win, and how to tell the difference.
· Where to sit on the bus if I wanted to gossip and where not to sit if I wanted to sleep.
· How to make it look like I’d showered, even when I hadn’t.
· How to run more laps than I could count.
· To appreciate and depend on my friends.
· That you don’t have to be the best to contribute.
· What sportscasters mean when the talk about “heart.”
· It didn’t really matter how many showed up to watch, and a whole lot of people showed up to watch the boys.

Mostly I learned that title IX was a good thing for women who would encounter the world with energy, creativity, and enthusiasm.

Thanks, Olton Schools, for making the commitment even before federal legislation required it!
Glenda Holladay Eoyang