Women, thanks to Title IX, have been able to play sports since 1972. Title IX prevented the discrimination of athletes based on gender or race, and thus women were incorporated into the sports world. 

This opened opportunities for women to play any sport they wanted, and they took that opportunity. Schools would provide sports programs for sports for women as interest for high schoolers took root. This would open up the door for professional leagues to take shape as well for those women who would be interested in taking these sports further than school, just like their men counterparts could do.

“I would say the reality of differences for men’s and women’s teams is the perception that guys get more attention than girls sports. Truly our women’s teams over time have been more successful than our men’s teams. Both are highly competitive and have coaches that are committed to furthering the mission of cardinal gibbons and growing young people through athletics,” said Tonya Holmes, director of athletics here at Gibbons.

Women’s talent in all sports has skyrocketed since their incorporation into the sports realm, but there’s still a drastic difference in viewership for men’s versus women’s professional sports. Not only is there less viewership, but they also get less money for the same sport and schedule that the men take on, and there are many women in sports who continually advocate for equality in pay. 

“Professionally seeing women in sports fight for equality in pay has been highly encouraging yet exhausting to see them consistently rise to the level of competition, while still being professional athletes, and often having more challenges to their bodies (menstrual cycles, motherhood, injury, etc) and not having the security of a comparable pay check to be able to rest properly before pushing themselves to return like men do,” Holmes said.

Famous and influential athletes like Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe are in the fight for equal pay, while there are other athletes like Naomi Osaka and Megan Rapinoe who speak out on mental health and working conditions that women face playing sports for a living. 

In every high school, women are offered plenty of opportunities to participate and excel in whatever sport they want to play. Gibbons proudly offers women’s field hockey, volleyball, cross country, softball, golf, indoor and outdoor track and field, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, swimming and diving.

The women’s sports offered at Gibbons provide young athletes with a good program and every opportunity they could need to grow and improve in their sport. These things are all made possible at Gibbons by the amazing athletics program team we have here. 

“Coordinating is much of the job! Not just game schedules, referees for games to happen, maintenance for facilities—health and safety to be able to practice and play games, and this all makes it possible to have teams/games/athletics work daily,” Holmes said.

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