On Oct. 8, a scheduling incident occurred between the football team and girls field hockey in which the teams reserved space on the BVH field for practice simultaneously. The conflict ended in football maintaining their half of the field–sharing it with girls flag football–and the field hockey team having to practice on a smaller patch of turf on the track nearby. Many players and parents involved in field hockey found this outcome unfair, and in light of it, reflected on equality of facilities in sports at BVH. Senior and field hockey left forward Mackenzie Koeppen felt the issue could have been solved in a more equitable manner, but understands the issue was fast-moving.

“When I got there, I saw we were warming up with less than ten yards of space. The football team was on the left side of the field and the flag football team was [on the right]. I was confused because usually field hockey has fifty yards of space and flag football has the other fifty yards, but football ended up getting the space we normally use. We used a tiny patch of grass on the track,” Koeppen said. “It went fast, so maybe Mr. Cobian thought it was the obvious resolution to our mistakes, but I feel if he had talked to the football coach, we would have been able to split it equally because even flag football had agreed to split the field three ways.”

Equal access to facilities is a crucial aspect of Title IX, a federal law that protects against gender discrimination in sports that receive federal funding, such as those found in public schools. The split of the field ended up being unequal, impacting field hockey the most. ASB Administrator and Title IX Coordinator David Cobian took the situation as a lesson to improve scheduling and communication in the future.

“I took it upon myself to apologize immediately and let it be a lesson on my end to be better with communication and confirmation,” Cobian said. “[As a result of] this experience, I now email coaches weekly to see what their schedules look like. I ask them, ‘do you see a conflict, overlap or discrepancy?’ and to let me know as soon as possible so I can make those changes and follow up with them.”

Unfortunately, the scheduling conflict was not the only instance in which Koeppen and her teammates noticed unfairness when comparing girls and boys sports at BVH. Koeppen noted that last year, banners for field hockey’s senior night were denied by BVH administration despite football having theirs on the fence by the shared field.

“We saw a lot of senior banners for football players, and out of curiosity we went to our coach and asked if it was possible to get ours up. She told us that she had asked for them to be put up last year and was told no by the administration. Dr. Salazar and Coach Hsu were not here, so it was a different administration with a different system, but regardless, that should not have happened. I remember football having their senior photos up there last year, too. It was really disappointing to hear we were denied that basic privilege, but now they are up,” Koeppen said.

Current BVH administration has taken action to negate the patterns from years prior, and impacts have been largely positive thus far. Another problematic situation was mended in relation to warm-up time, in which Koeppen noted that the football team had the field for practice right before field hockey matches, leading to shortened warm-ups and delayed games. This pattern was not reciprocated for football games; the field and track were completely empty prior to their matches. Senior football captain and free safety Alexander Yepis observed this, noting the hustle necessary to ensure field time is shared adequately.

“I definitely saw it happen,” Yepis said. “We need time to warm up and they need time to warm up. At the same time, our coaches are yelling at us to get up and out, but a lot of our players do not listen and take their time. I try to hurry up and get out of there because I know the field is shared, and players should be keeping each other accountable.”

Notably, after requests for reform were made, field hockey had the field to fully warm up before their senior night game; they went on to win 5-0. Important reparations like this have been felt in other areas, including pre-game hype and decoration. Cobian shared the administration’s efforts to develop high energy for all sports, not solely limiting it to football.

“When it came to this year’s teams like girls volleyball and flag football, I made sure they had the same ambience as the football team did on Fridays,” Cobian said. “For example, I asked the coaches if it was okay if we provided a DJ, and it was a great experience. I find value in having a sense of recognition and acknowledgement for sports [across] all genders.”

Players like Koeppen have seen and welcomed these shifts warmly, but are still deeply concerned that it took a scheduling conflict and field hockey speaking up to highlight the inequality between sports and see any change occur. The warm-up predicament was just one example of this, and among his awareness of that circumstance, Yepis also recognized publicity–a key component of Title IX–being lower for girls sports than that of boys, using girls flag football as an example.

“Football gets more publicity because it is the biggest [sport] and generates the most money. A lot of the money football gets goes to other sports because of Title IX. Boys basketball also generates quite a bit of money because it is bigger,” Yepis said. “Because of this, no one really sees the other, female side of sports. I know flag football is doing really well and I do not think they get as much publicity as they should.”

Koeppen and Cobian corroborate the idea that highlighting the schedules, records and achievements of all sports is incredibly important to levy the larger cultural trend of women’s sports being passed over for men’s. Despite this fact, publicity remains a complex aspect of equality. Emails can be sent out by the administration about upcoming games consistently, but that does not mean field hockey games will automatically see the same turnout as those for football. With this in mind, both football and field hockey are in the playoffs for their division, along with sports such as girls flag football. It is ultimately up to the students at BVH who receive those emails and reminders to attend, support and uplift their teams. Cobian ended with a message to BVH students, encouraging them to show up for their peers.

“I am asking BVH to support their student-athletes who are not only going to school and doing their homework, but also going to practice, working hard and competing,” Cobian said. “It gives me chills when I see students out there giving it their all, whether they are winning or losing. They are out there competing and representing our school. We have solid teams across the board–number one, two and three seated teams–and I hope to see BVH supporting their peers and student-athletes.”