(Not \u2018One of the Boys,\u2019 But She Plays Like It)<\/p>\n
As a reporter for the Mayefield Messenger, Thomas Carroll captured the soul of his hometown by writing about \u201creal people,\u201d not just those considered newsworthy.\u00a0 His feature stories were well regarded and occasionally came to the attention of the metropolitan daily, the Beacon Light, which published Thomas\u2019 stories under the heading \u201cDispatch from Mayefield.\u201d\u00a0 The following is one of these Dispatches, published in 1976.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>Not \u2018One of the Boys,\u2019 But She Plays Like It<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>By Thomas Carroll<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>Mayefield Messenger<\/b><\/p>\n
Marty Ledbetter is no male chauvinist.\u00a0 He\u2019s a coach who likes to win, and winning means getting the best players possible for his Mayefield High baseball team.<\/p>\n
Karen Wilcox isn\u2019t really a feminist; rather, a ninth grade girl who likes to play baseball, and she plays as well as many of the boys around town.<\/p>\n
Karen is now a member of Ledbetter\u2019s Mustangs team, the only girl ever to make the squad.\u00a0 Both coach and player treat the situation matter-of-factly, saying there are \u201cno problems at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Karen first tried out for the team, Ledbetter didn\u2019t really think she had much of a chance.\u00a0 In his four years of coaching at Mayefield, other girls have tried out, but none before came close to making it.\u00a0 But he utilized the same standards as he does for boys, and when the season started, Karen was a member of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe bats with confidence,\u201d he says, \u201cand is really working hard.\u00a0 She has a good arm and is as fast as any boy on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karen will be playing left field, but is not scheduled to as a starter.\u00a0 In the season opener last week, she didn\u2019t get an opportunity to play because the game was close and Ledbetter kept his first string in.\u00a0 The coach insists she will play in the future.<\/p>\n
Mixed sports teams are a relatively new phenomenon in the county school system, allowed by the federal Title IX rules.\u00a0 A school that doesn\u2019t offer a girl\u2019s equivalent to a \u201cnon-contact\u201d sport must allow boys and girls to compete together.\u00a0 Since Mayefield High doesn\u2019t currently offer softball for girls, Karen was eligible to try out for baseball.<\/p>\n
For Karen, baseball is not a substitute for softball.\u00a0 If the alternate girls team was offered, she still would favor baseball, because, she says, \u201cit\u2019s more work and I like things that make you work and run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides her fondness for the game, Karen had a little bit of women\u2019s lib in her motives for making the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople said a girl couldn\u2019t make it,\u201d she says with a smile of determination.\u00a0 \u201cI wanted to show them girls could do it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know if I was good enough, but I gave it a try.\u201d<\/p>\n
She acknowledged that coach Ledbetter treated her fairly in the tryouts, but feels it was harder for her than the average boy to make the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the boys were judging me as a girl, not as a baseball player.\u00a0 But I worked hard and showed them I could do it.\u00a0 Now we all get along well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boys do accept her now.\u00a0 When her name was inadvertently omitted from the original roster, it was the boys who were the most vocal in insisting she be listed.<\/p>\n
The internal problems ironed out, Karen still hasn\u2019t had an opportunity to show what she can do in a game situation.<\/p>\n
But the time will come soon, her coach insists.\u00a0 And Karen will be ready.<\/p>\n
And we will follow up with this story.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Robert J. Marton)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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