Historical Context 

Before Title IX was passed as a law girls and young women were discriminated from sports in their schools. "Boys sports teams in our high school were the center of attention. Our hockey, football, basketball, baseball, and wrestling teams were all conference winners. They practiced in the middle of the day, fifth period, and again at the end of the day. The choices for girls were limited to cheerleading or G.A.A. after school one day a week. Since I was a swimmer I had to drive downtown YWCA to join a non-competitive team. it always felt like we were second-rate citizens. The positive benefits of sports such as team building, goal setting, and increasing self-confidence were not available to us. It was hard to feel allegiance to a school when you were excluded from its most important activities." (Jean Ewert interview, 2019)