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Rough diamonds: High school softball teams continue push for equal facilities

Jack Mowatt sits on the bleachers at Bowie High School. (Kaylan Wallen/Povich Center)
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By Amanda Hernández and Emily Williams

Jack Mowatt, who spent decades umpiring softball in Prince George’s County, Maryland, knew the girls’ softball fields in the county were neglected — uneven, rutted, unsafe — while the boys’ baseball fields were well kept. When it rained, some softball fields did not drain. The fencing was jagged. Some benches were unusable and dangerous.

“Several years ago during a game, I thought: ‘These young women deserve more than this,’” Mowatt said when he testified in 2007 before a congressional committee.

Mowatt’s complaints 15 years ago led to a settlement under Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in public schools. Under that 2006 agreement, Prince George’s County Public Schools promised to adhere to Title IX requirements with a focus on boosting participation and improving conditions for high school girls softball programs as well as other sports countywide.

In the settlement agreed to by Prince George’s County and the National Women’s Law Center, the county promised to provide boys’ and girls’ teams with facilities such as locker rooms and practice and playing areas of equal quality and size.

“We’re going to be a prototype for other jurisdictions in the U.S. to meet Title IX compliance,” Beatrice P. Tignor, then chair of the school board, told The Washington Post in 2006.

The county made improvements. But 15 years later, problems remain.

At Parkdale High School in Riverdale, the softball team still doesn’t have a field at the school — though the county now provides transportation to a middle school nearby.

And at Bowie High School, while the baseball field is well tended, the dugouts at the softball field are collapsing, cordoned off with yellow caution tape.

“There’s still things in this county that could be done,” Mowatt said in a recent interview. “I worry about it.”

“The question is, really, are they continuing to pay attention to the girls’ fields as they do the boys’ fields?” asked Neena Chaudhry of the National Women’s Law Center, who was lead attorney in the 2006 settlement.

Even in a school system that promised to provide parity for girls’ and boys’ teams, attaining that goal remains a challenge.

A push for equal facilities

The Title IX challenge to Prince George’s County schools began with umpires comparing notes.

Mowatt, now retired, said that back in 2004, he and a fellow umpire, Chris Sole, talked about how the boys’ fields in the county were much better maintained than the ones the girls’ teams used.

A former softball coach at Parkdale, Gene Robinson, had also attempted to persuade the county to take action and address failing fields, Mowatt said.

He compiled a book including photos and brought it to the county athletics director. When the county athletics director didn’t respond, Mowatt tried to enlist coaches and school athletics directors. But they didn’t join him, Mowatt said, for fear of losing their jobs.

He went to the county board of education, to no avail.

“We kept pushing and kept pushing and kept pushing,” he said, but got no support.

Mowatt said he was on this campaign for parity but didn’t know that Title IX existed — more than 30 years after the law went into effect.

“Title IX was like something in the closet that nobody knew about,” Mowatt said. And high school girls turned to it far less than college students might, he said.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights typically accepts complaints related to Title IX. But Mowatt’s complaint took a different route. He consulted the National Women’s Law Center, which took the case, identifying it as a violation of the law.

Chaudhry recalled Mowatt arriving at the law center’s offices with binders of photos comparing the county’s baseball and softball fields.

“Jack brought us everything with the binders, I mean literally. It was so amazing,” Chaudhry said.

The law center staff traveled to the fields and identified more Title IX issues. This led to the 2006 agreement between the law center and Prince George’s County Public Schools.

Under the agreement, which included a three-year follow-up period, the school system promised to adhere to Title IX requirements and to fix specific problems — problems observed by both the law center and school officials.

As a part of the agreement’s three-year evaluation period, the school system filed annual reports to the law center, detailing its progress toward completing Title IX goals. These reports, however, were conducted by the school system itself. No independent entity assessed the county’s efforts.

The focus of the agreement was the softball programs. The softball teams had less equipment than the baseball teams, and the equipment they did have was old and worn.

Boys baseball had scoreboards, storage sheds, bleachers, pitchers’ warm-up areas and batting cages –– things most of the softball fields in the county lacked, according to the law center.

At Potomac High, in Oxon Hill, the softball field was so dangerous that the team played at a local recreation center instead, the law center said in its letter to Prince George’s County schools demanding change.

But the issues went beyond softball. Girls’ teams generally received inferior treatment when it came to equipment, uniforms and scheduling, the law center said in its demand letter. At many schools in the county, girls’ fields are used for multiple purposes, such as football practice, which means an increased rate of wear.

At Forestville High, which has since closed, the girls’ locker room was in such poor shape that girls changed in a classroom or the bathroom instead, the demand letter read. The softball field also flooded so badly, the letter added, that the team had to practice on the school’s parking lot. The baseball team practiced on its own field.

Girls made up roughly 50% of the Prince George’s County student population, yet their participation rates in athletics were as low as 35%, the law center found in 2004. On its face, that fails the proportionality test of Title IX, which requires the percentage of girls playing sports to be roughly equal to the percentage of female student enrollment.

Over the evaluation period, female participation in sports increased less than 1%, according to a Howard Center of Investigative Journalism analysis of county participation data. The analysis shows the participation data remained relatively stagnant throughout the three-year evaluation period, the 2006-2009 school years.

According to the 2009-2010 county progress report, the participation rates during the evaluation period were similar to regional and national participation numbers.

Despite repeated requests for data over four months, Prince George’s County school officials did not provide numbers on what percentage of girls have been participating in athletics in recent years.

The biggest thing they were hoping was that the three of us would go away.

Chaudhry said she was happy with the 2006 agreement and felt a personal connection because she grew up in Prince George’s County.

“We did a press conference with [the then superintendent] and we were trying to really show what can happen if a school says, ‘OK, we’re going to fix it. We’re going to step up and do the right thing,’” Chaudhry said.

But today, Mowatt said he was unaware of any enforcement during that three-year period.

“Like anything else: Nobody pushes it, it just goes away,” Mowatt said. “The biggest thing they were hoping was that the three of us would go away.”

While the county agreed to the terms outlined in the agreement and covered by the law, Mowatt said, the problems with some of the softball fields countywide haven’t changed. The language detailing three years of enforcement “fell on deaf ears,” he said.

Collapsing dugouts at Bowie

Today, Bowie softball players say they can see the inequities on their fields.

Katelyn McDermott, the varsity softball captain at Bowie High, said the softball bleachers are splintered and the dugouts are collapsing into a sinkhole.

Cassidy Francis, McDermott’s co-captain, said the players set up buckets for the opposing team to sit on because the dugout is too dangerous to be used.

“When I walk by the boys’ field, they have concrete dugouts and nice bleachers,” McDermott said. “It doesn’t really feel even in that sense.”

Bright yellow caution tape surrounds a hole where the softball dugouts at Bowie High School are falling inward.

The law center’s original demand letter, which described safety issues found at softball fields countywide, also noted a drainage issue at Bowie. It’s not clear if the problems of 2006 are related to the water damage today.

Bowie High officials have not responded to questions about the Bowie softball field’s condition, despite phone calls, emails and a letter.

Despite the problem with the dugouts, Luanne Smith, Bowie’s softball coach, said she feels the girls’ softball and boys’ baseball fields at the school are mostly equal — though she acknowledged that the baseball dugouts are nicer than the softball dugouts.

“I know that our athletic director is going to put just as much time and effort into the girls’ softball field as into the boys’ baseball field,” she said. “That’s the hope. That’s the goal.”

Gabriela Popol, a Bowie graduate who played softball, recalled having to leave class early to check on the softball field and ensure it was in shape for a game. When it wasn’t, she and other players would rake the field, she said, adding that Smith would often use a tractor for proper field preparation and maintenance.

“It was difficult because we would always have to take the time out of our practice or before our game to warm up … to do all of this stuff,” Popol said. “Whereas [the baseball team] wouldn’t really have to do anything.”

As a sophomore, Popol noticed a small hole in the dugout area. As the seasons passed, the hole only got bigger, sinking inward.

“Luanne would constantly ask … ‘Can we get this fixed?’ and she’d be on the phone about it, complaining about it,” Popol recalled. “I don’t think anything was ever done.”

Instead, Popol said, Smith tried fixing the dugout herself. McDermott also said Smith tries to pack dirt into the dugout so it doesn’t fall into the ditch.

It would have never happened to the boys.

Today, former coach Sarah Bible believes that the drainage issues identified in 2004 were never fully resolved, contributing to the problems with the dugout.

“We had to pretty much till the field every time we had to play a game if we had rain,” Bible said. “And we would go through so many bags of quick dry, or so many bags of what they call Turface, even just to get a game in.”

The disparities between how boys’ and girls’ teams were treated went beyond the condition of the playing fields.

Bible remembers how panicked she was on the day of their state championship final in 2003, when no bus arrived to take Bowie High’s softball team to their game.

“It would have never happened to the boys,” Bible said.

The bus had been sent on its regular after-school run before it was supposed to pick up the team. Finally, the players piled into cars and drove themselves to the field. They arrived late, almost missing a chance to warm up.

Bowie High lost to Glen Burnie’s North County High.

Today, McDermott said, the collapsing dugout is an issue that she believes would have been resolved quicker if it had happened to the boys’ baseball field.

The baseball players “don’t have any ditches to worry about right now,” McDermott said.
The Bowie Bulldogs have made the state quarterfinals every year for the past four years, except for the 2020 pandemic year.

“We’ve shown that we have the right to be playing here and we have a right to a good field,” McDermott said.

Progress and the future of Title IX education

In its 2006 agreement with the National Women’s Law Center, Prince George’s County Public Schools agreed to provide “an athletics program that would treat all PGCPS students fairly.”

While that statement remains subjective, the county made progress at several schools. The school system back then did not even have a Title IX coordinator, though that was required by federal law. Now, the district has designated Title IX responsibilities to the Equity Assurance Office.

It’s unclear, however, whether all stated improvements have held up countywide.

At Parkdale High School in Riverdale, the girls still do not have a field. Brian Moore, the athletics director there, said no space was allotted for a softball field when the school was built in 1968, before Title IX.

Instead, girls have traveled to Charles Carroll Middle School,a six-minute drive, to play on a field that Moore said is well maintained.

“[Parkdale] does not provide transportation to or from the field; rather, the girls must find their own way there and back,” the 2004 demand letter read. “It is our understanding that this is not an isolated situation — girls on several other softball teams must travel to their ‘home’ fields, while their male counterparts on the baseball team do not.”

Today, Moore said, the athletes have transportation.

The boys’ baseball field is on campus and carefully fenced off, along with other fields, to protect them. Groups that want to use them need a permit.

One school that made immense progress since the agreement was Central High School in Capitol Heights, said Luanne Smith, who previously coached softball at Central. As a result of the agreement, the school received a new field that addressed safety concerns.

The old Central field was located next to a gravel road “that used to be about a foot from first base in foul territory,” Smith said.

“The field ended up being … one of the nicest fields in the county rather than one where you go ‘Yeah, coach isn’t going to play there because it’s not safe,’” Smith said.

Still not well known

Despite the progress at Central and other schools in the area, Title IX is a broadly applied law that most student athletes do not know much about, advocates say.

“I’ve never actually had anyone explain to me what Title IX is,” said McDermott, the Bowie softball co-captain.

Her co-captain, Francis, agreed, adding that no one had ever mentioned Title IX to her before. She knew that Title IX discussed gender equity in sports, but her knowledge of the federal law didn’t go beyond that.

The county’s athletics handbook for students and parents includes no mention of Title IX. The handbook is only available online, Shirley Diggs, the coordinating supervisor of the school system’s Office of Interscholastic Athletics, said in a statement sent by a school system lawyer.

The lawyer, Lori Branch Cooper, is the equal opportunity employment administrator for the school system. When asked how parents and students learn about Title IX in sports, Cooper said in an email that Diggs “is currently in the process of updating the handbook to include information on Title IX.”

The emailed statement from Diggs’s office said she was new to the position and “continues to familiarize herself with past and current practices, and is therefore unable to provide a response to the remaining questions at this time.”

The original complaint letter from the law center noted “insufficient” Title IX training provided to teachers and administrators.

In the emailed statement, Diggs said only athletics directors in the county “take the Title IX video and assessment for safe schools in our county.” Coaches are not required to, Diggs said in the email from Branch Cooper.

“We make sure there is equity within our athletic program with the number of boys/girls sports, equipment, and uniform distribution, use of facilities, and funds evenly distributed into accounts per sport,” Diggs said in the statement.

We won the battle, but we’ve lost the war.

Chloe Feyes, a former Bowie softball player, said that many in society still believe it’s normal for boys in sports to receive better treatment than girls. But it’s time to change that, Feyes said.

Schools, she said, must take on the responsibility of improving the way Title IX is handled to ensure equity between boys and girls sports. If the boys’ team is getting something, she said, then it should be offered to girls’ teams too.

Mowatt still worries about the future of softball in the county, as 15 years later he continues to visit the fields, snapping pictures of conditions that he finds unsatisfactory.

The National Women’s Law Center “fought for us and went to war,” Mowatt said. “We won the battle, but we’ve lost the war.”

The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism collaborated on a four-month investigation into Title IX and high school sports. Support their work at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Nike Spotlights Global Women’s Soccer Stars in New United Pack Cleats

Nike United cleats pack promotional image showing headshots of women's soccer stars flanked by neon lights.
Nike tapped six international women's soccer stars for their latest cleats. (Nike Football)

Nike put global women's soccer stars in the spotlight last week, debuting their new Nike United Pack cleats collection.

For the first time ever, the apparel giant is bringing together six athletes to launch a series of performance cleats. The subsequent United Pack was developed collaboration with some of the sport's biggest international names.

The United Pack hit shelves last week with three styles of boots: Tiempo, Mercurial, and Phantom. Each boot is paired with two top international footballers, whose names are emblazoned on the heels of their cleats.

Of course, the United Pack collection is one part of a larger Nike initiative. In recent weeks, the brand has bet big on women's sports via everything from Super Bowl ads to signature shoes.

Three nike united pack women's soccer cleats hover against a purple background.
The purple and Volt United Pack lineup pairs players with updated Nike mainstays. (Nike Football)

Spain and USWNT get top Nike United Pack billing

Spain midfielder Patricia Guijarro and USWNT center back Naomi Girma are backing the Tiempos, while forwards Lauren James of England and Spain's 2023 World Cup champion Salma Paralluelo feature on the Mercurials. The Phantoms showcase USWNT attacker Sophia Wilson (née Smith) and her Portland Thorns teammate, Venezuela's Deyna Castellanos,.

The collection honors all six players by emblazoning their names onto the cleat's sock liner.

A purple and Volt colorway also links the line. As does the upper surface, which is designed to look like shattered glass in a nod to the "new generation of athletes breaking through to the next era in football."

"What I like the most about this boot is that it was created with six different players who come from different backgrounds and play for different teams, but we all came together to create something special that we can share with the world," said Wilson in a Nike's press release.

"Being a part of this boom and just making people respect women's sports is exciting," added Girma. "It's going to be even better for the next generation."

Where to buy Nike United Pack cleats

Fans can now purchase the Nike United Pack cleats online and at select retail locations.

NCAA Softball Shows Growing Parity as Clearwater Invitational Kicks Off

Oklahoma State's Tallen Edwards scoops a grounder at the 2024 Women's College World Series.
No. 10 Oklahoma State stumbled twice in their 2025 NCAA softball opening weekend. (BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN/USA TODAY NETWORK)

The 2025 NCAA softball season is off to the races, with early season stumbles from perennial powerhouses illustrating the sport's growing parity.

No. 6 Tennessee, No. 8 Texas Tech, and No. 10 Oklahoma State all suffered weekend upsets. Tennessee fell 7-1 to No. 17 Nebraska while Texas Tech lost 3-1 to No. 19 Mississippi State in extra innings.

The Cowgirls, subsequently, turned heads during last weekend's Puerto Vallarta College Challenge.

After claiming a 9-6 victory over No. 9 Florida State on Thursday, Oklahoma State then stranded nine baserunners en route to a 6-1 loss to unranked Louisiana Tech on Friday.

After righting the ship with a mercy-rule blowout against Northern Colorado on Friday, the Cowgirls' bats fell short in a run-rule loss to the Seminoles on Saturday.

The 2-2 season start cost Oklahoma State six spots in the rankings, sending them sliding from their preseason No. 4 position.

Florida State catcher Michaela Edenfield looks up before the 2023 NCAA softball championship series.
Florida State will join other top NCAA softball teams at the 2025 Clearwater Invitational. (Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Top NCAA softball teams take aim at Clearwater's competition

The Cowgirls will have to get right back in the saddle. Oklahoma State will now join six other Top 25 programs in Florida for Thursday's Clearwater Invitational.

No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 Texas A&M plus the Cowgirls and Seminoles lead the 16-team lineup. The SEC's No. 12 Alabama, No. 16 Missouri, and No. 24 Kentucky will also compete.

The annual event often serves as a postseason preview. This year's field includes three of last year's Women's College World Series contenders, with 14 represented in the 2024 NCAA tournament.

UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley winds up during a 2024 NCAA softball game.
No. 4 UCLA and No. 10 Oklahoma State will kick off the Top-10 tilts at the 2025 Clearwater Invitational. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

How to watch NCAA softball at the 2025 Clearwater Invitational

All 40 games at the 2025 Clearwater Invitational will stream live across ESPN platforms. This includes 19 nationally televised matchups.

Clearwater runs Thursday through Sunday, with Oklahoma State kicking off the Top 10 action against UCLA at 3 PM ET on Friday. Live coverage of the Cowgirls vs. the Bruins will air on ESPN2.

Unrivaled Sets 1v1 Semifinals After Two Rounds of Head-to-Head Action

Mist BC's Aaliyah Edwards looks on during an Unrivaled 3x3 basketball game.
Aaliyah Edwards advanced to Unrivaled's 1v1 semifinals on Tuesday. (Rich Storry/Getty Images)

Unrivaled Basketball's 1v1 tournament blew through two rounds of cutthroat action on Tuesday night, setting up fierce competition for Friday's semifinals.

Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards, Rose forward Azurá Stevens, Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier, and Vinyl guard Arike Ogunbowale all advanced past their head-to-head opponents.

Each of the four semifinalists will take home at least $25,000, with $50,000 on deck for the tournament's runner-up and $200,000 awaiting the champion.

Additionally, with one player from four of Unrivaled's six teams still standing, two-thirds of the offseason league are still in the running for a piece of the $350,000 purse. The rules dictate that each 3×3 teammate of the champion will receive their own $10,000 check.

Edwards's star 1v1 turn propels her through Unrivaled quarterfinals

In what's shaking out to be the contest's top storyline, No. 8 seed Edwards shut out No. 1 seed Breanna Stewart 12-0 in the first round to earn a second-round bye. She then went on to take down a surging No. 3 seed Allisha Gray to secure a slot in the semis.

"Shouldn't be surprised," the 22-year-old Mystics star said after downing Gray 12-6. "Played my first year in the league, now I'm tapping into myself, and the confidence is showing and the work is showing."

Elsewhere, height and offensive versatility proved a winning formula for both No. 6 seed Stevens and No. 1 seed Collier, while No. 1 seed Ogunbowale is the last guard still standing.

All three ousted WNBA teammates to advance, with Ogunbowale sending her former Dallas Wings compatriot Satou Sabally out 12-8 while Collier handed fellow Lunar Owl and Minnesota Lynx contender Courtney Williams a 12-4 defeat. Stevens dominated her LA Sparks teammate Rae Burrell, sending her packing with a 12-2 victory.

How to watch Friday's Unrivaled 1v1 semifinals

Notably, Friday's semifinals will be heavy on UConn grads, with Notre Dame alum Ogunbowale the lone non-Husky hitting the court.

Ogunbowale will try to halt Edwards's run, while Collier and Stevens — who played together on two of UConn's Final Four rosters — will go head-to-head in the other semifinal.

Unrivaled's 1v1 semifinals and subsequent best-of-three championship series will tip off on Friday at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage on TNT.

WNBA Considers Former Franchise Cities as Expansion Team Bids Mount

Charlotte Sting guard Dawn Staley directs a play during a 2002 WNBA game.
A bid to revive the Charlotte Sting has been submitted to the WNBA. (Garrett Ellwood/WNBAE/Getty Images)

The WNBA faces no shortage of cities interested in securing the league's 16th team. But some recent expansion bids are tapping into old memories and new promises as historic markets aim to get back into the game.

According to reports, the owners behind NBA side Charlotte Hornets are part of a group trying to bring back a team to the home city of the Charlotte Sting. The Sting were one of the original WNBA franchises, helping launch the league in 1997 before eventually folding in 2007.

The bid to return professional women's basketball to North Carolina is led by CardWorks SVP Erica Berman. The Berman family are already investors in Unrivaled, the offseason 3×3 basketball league that's currently stacked with WNBA stars.

Charlotte is far from the only vintage WNBA market hunting a return. The former hometowns of the Detroit Shock (1998-2009), Houston Comets (1997-2008), and Cleveland Rockers (1997-2003) have also entered the expansion ring, after all formally submitted bids to the league.

There's also new evidence that the WNBA is looking to revive some of the historic teams. Within days of the league's January 30th bid deadline, the WNBA filed trademark applications for the Sting, Shock, Rockers, Comets, and Miami Sol should any of those cities secure the newest franchise.

The Houston Comets' Roneeka Hodges, Sheryl Swoopes, and Dawn Staley discuss a play during a 2006 WNBA game.
Retro WNBA teams like the four-time champion Houston Comets could return to the league. (Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

Rookie expansion teams join historic WNBA heavyweights

Though some cities have history on their side, competition is fierce when it comes to WNBA expansion. The league has seen an explosion of interest from numerous ownership groups all vying to receive a franchise nod.

In addition to the throwback cities, new markets in Austin, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, and Philadelphia have also expressed a desire to join the league.

The WNBA is currently on track for 16 total teams by 2028, with Golden State, Toronto, and Portland already claiming the 13th, 14th, and 15th franchises, respectively.

With just one slot still up for grabs, leadership faces tough decisions as the league must turn down — or, at least, table — multiple bids as it considers a healthy growth rate.

However, for many ownership groups, building a WNBA team is more a matter of when, not if.

When asked about the Shock's potential return during a recent Detroit Pistons game, NBA commissioner Adam Silver cut to the chase.

"I actually think it’s really just a question of when the Shock comes back.," he said. "Over time, there’s going to be a lot of expansion in the WNBA." 

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