On a recent rainy afternoon, Grant varsity softball player Isella Wallace slips on one of the temporary bases as she approaches first.
With spring sports in season, the turf football field in the Grant bowl is converted to make two makeshift diamonds in order to accommodate the Grant softball teams. Players like Wallace struggle to keep their footing in the rain when running on the portable bases. The conflicting lines for both football and softball make it difficult to tell where the infield and outfield are.
“As an outfielder, it’s so disorienting trying to like see where the bases are and see like where the entire field is,” says Nicky Mister, another member of Grant’s varsity softball team. “It’s just so frustrating.”
Softball players scream “heads” with every fly ball, hoping that the children around them hear in time. Umpires frequently stop the game to yell at soccer players and track and field runners to get off the same field that they too use for their respective sports.
While the baseball team has always had a dedicated field on school grounds at both the Grant and Marshall campuses, the two softball teams currently practice and play on the artificial turf football field in the Grant bowl, roughly six miles from the Marshall campus.
There’s no hiding from the fact that a large divide between the facilities available to the baseball and softball teams exists at Grant High School.
The $116.1 million Grant modernization project seemed to be the perfect opportunity to put a softball diamond in Grant Park, and one was, in fact, included in the original plans for the new Grant campus. But recently, the decision was made to take the softball fields out of the plans for the Grant rebuild.
In the latest Grant remodel email update from Portland Public Schools, it was stated that they are still uncertain about including the field due to “reasons ranging from safety, additional budget requirements, maintenance and ongoing negotiations required to operate an athletic field in a popular urban park.”
This is not the first time softball fields have been taken out of PPS school remodel plans. Before their remodel in 2015, Franklin High School removed their proposed softball field. “PPS is showing a pattern of this,” says Grant varsity softball coach Deborah Englestad.
Sexism within sports and a general disregard for women’s athletics isn’t singular to this specific issue. Men’s sports often get a majority of the support, while women’s sports are left as an afterthought.
Title IX states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” But some issues still seem to fall through the cracks.
“If you look at the concept of trying to equalize opportunities for both male and female student athletes, the attempt was to level the playing field,” says Paul Loving, a special counsel lawyer at Adidas America about Title IX. “In this sense I think you could make an argument that by accommodating what is traditionally a male sport, baseball, over a traditional female sport, softball, that you are certainly raising issues that Title IX was designed to address.”
However, there is still a debate among the community on whether it is an issue of Title IX. “There are people wearing shirts that say this is a Title IX issue – I’m not sure that it is,” says Grant principal Carol Campbell. “We don’t own the property, we can’t force the park to make this doable for us … So I don’t know if it’s a Title IX issue or not.”
Whether it’s a Title IX violation, a matter of economics or a concern about foul balls in backyards, everyone in the Grant community seems to have an opinion.
Now, the softball program is taking matters into their own hands. Instead of staying silent, the teams have made and worn shirts that bring awareness to the issue. The varsity and junior varsity softball teams attended a Grant remodel Design Advisory Group meeting in May. “We’re trying to express that these young ladies have a voice,” Englestad says. “When you decide to say that you’re taking a softball field off, for whatever reason it is, but still leave the baseball field in the plans, then that’s a gender equity problem.”
One thing is clear: The softball team will not rest until the plans are revised.
“We’re not standing for it,” says freshman softball player Madyson Roach. “Softball’s not that popular, but to us it’s a passion.”
Perspectives
How do people in the greater Grant community feel regarding the removal of the softball fields from the plans at the new Grant?
Madyson Roach, freshman, varsity softball
“A lot of people don’t even know about the fields and what’s going on. We’re just trying to say, time is up and we deserve our field.
With me being a freshman, I’m going to be there when the (new) field is there. I think it’s a good idea (to have a field on campus) because when I played at Roosevelt they had kids coming out of their school like being able to watch their games. We never have people at our games ‘cause it’s all the way at the other Grant, so if we had a field at that Grant people could just walk over easily and just go watch the game ‘cause most Grant students live right by Grant so it would be easier for them to come watch and actually support.”
Boone Rush, junior, varsity baseball
“I feel like, in general, softball just isn’t as supported of a sport by either the school and the students. It’s not as watched or talked about or supported in general so maybe they think it’s less important.
If baseball is getting a field and they have space for both, then they should do both. You can make a baseball field that could potentially do both if you have a portable mound and portable bases. It would take a while because you would have to move the fence and move the bases and move the portable mound but it would probably still be a better situation than having to play in the bowl, because I don’t even think you have a fence in the bowl. The bowl … shouldn’t even be used for a softball field because you can’t put the bases into the actual turf. I wouldn’t want to play there.”
Deborah Engelstad, varsity softball head coach
“I just think it is a direct, in your face, ‘we value men’s sports over women’s sports’… There’s just not a genuine attempt to provide equity among the facilities in this term meaning softball over baseball, but I think there’s other inequities among other women’s sports that exist here. I would love to see PPS and Grant High School do the right thing.
I was just talking with someone who said they are paying for the construction of the baseball field through bond money but yet softball was told, ‘Maybe we could fundraise to have a softball field,’ which again is an inequity in itself. Why would we have to fundraise if the boys don’t have to fundraise? And it’s not a thing about baseball versus softball or that I don’t believe in our boys’ program … I think they have an amazing program and Kabza (the varsity baseball head coach) does a great job with them. It’s more about the inequities about what’s provided for the females and what’s provided for the men. So I’m gonna fight the battle because I think it’s a travesty that in this year, 2018, that we can’t have the same for our females that we have for our men.”
Isella Wallace, junior, varsity softball
“It makes me upset because the sport I’ve played for so long isn’t getting the recognition it deserves … I also know that Debbie (Engelstad) has been fighting really hard to get us a field and it just seems as a community we aren’t being heard. It feels like our teams don’t matter to Grant High School. It just upsets all the softball teams and I think we are done hearing dumb excuses about why we aren’t getting a field.
I think this is an example of inequality because not only seen in the fields but (men’s) sports are given way more funding and equipment than (women’s) sports. They are also given a lot more attention, like our men’s basketball team and our football team compared to our rugby team and softball team.”
Kelsey Porter, softball head coach, Roosevelt High School
“I’m a school counselor and softball coach and alumni at Roosevelt and so I was a part of the … (Roosevelt modernization) design team, and I was on that team specifically to advocate for a softball field. A lot of (the) time female athletics cannot be prioritized in schools and so it’s definitely concerning that Grant doesn’t currently have a softball field that is part of their plan.
I also think, honestly, our design team had a lens for gender equity. We have a very small amount of land, just like most PPS properties, and so we had to get really … creative. In order for us to get two fields we had to have a baseball and softball field that overlapped and then we had to advocate for lights so that we could play all the way up until 9 PM so that neither program was at any kind of disadvantage to play everyday.
We just played (in the Grant bowl) and the girls deserve a lot better than that, especially if the boys are getting a new stadium … So is it, you know a question of, because it’s a male sport that’s very dominant in the league, is there more of a focus of developing a strong focus in the league as opposed as the girls?”
Bryan Schaller, junior varsity softball head coach
“I’m real disappointed in the whole thing. I, being a coach and seeing how hard these girls work every single day, guarantee … they deserve this field just as much as the guys do.
I think bringing awareness to anything is going to bring attention, whether it solves the issue at Grant this year or if it solves the issue at a school in the next ten years, at a different school. I think any awareness to this topic is going to eventually bring some sort of solution.
As hard as it is to go against people who employ us and sign our paychecks, it’s in the fair fight for these ladies to come out here and work everyday. And if that means we’ve got to put our reputations on the line to fight for what they deserve, then we as a staff are behind that 100 percent.”
