The world of female sports has developed into a whole new ball game. It’s not just a guy’s game anymore. While women have been playing sports competitively for over 60 years, participation continues to rise thanks to many trailblazers, such as Aleah Ortiz, Miranda Schmillen, and Keala Tom.
Aleah Ortiz played on one of Hawai'i's first high school flag football teams.
Level playing field
For Aleah Ortiz, flag football isn’t just a game. It’s also about equality.
“I’m proud to be part of history in the making for Hawaiʻi sports,” says Ortiz, who played for Kailua High School’s inaugural girls flag football team, reaching the state tournament in her senior year. “We finally got our foot in the door being on par with the boys.”
Ortiz always wanted to play football just like her older brothers. She became a cheerleader so she could watch their high school games. No longer on the sidelines, Ortiz has made the most of her opportunities both physically and mentally. “Because if your mind is right, then your body is right,”
she says.
While balancing sports with schoolwork and everyday life has been a challenge, the sacrifices have paid off with a scholarship to play at Olivet Nazarene University in Chicago. Along the way, football continues to teach her many lessons on and off the field.
“You’re not going to win all the time,” she says. “But that’s how you learn. Coach tells us that winning a game proves nothing if you’re not learning or improving. So win with a purpose.”
Miranda Schmillen knows her way around the court.
League of her own
Growing up, Miranda Schmillen begged her mom to let her play basketball. Instead, she was enrolled in dance classes and pageants. She wasn’t allowed to try out for the girls’ basketball team until she started attending McKinley High School. She showed up every day for preseason practice and conditioning. She was not only chosen, but she made the varsity team as a freshman.
“Definitely not because I was a great basketball player yet,” she says. “It was sheer determination. I worked hard ‘cause I wanted to play so bad.”
High school basketball led to opportunities to attend Mainland colleges on scholarships and travel to Europe for tournaments and basketball camps. Along the way, her teammates have become her family.
Schmillen, 31, knows her way around the court enough to earn a spot in a local men’s league. And although she occasionally experiences sexism on the court, she tries not to let it get to her game.
“It’s sad that even today we have to deal with stereotypes in women sports,” she says. “If anything, it makes me want to play that much harder.”
Team player
Soccer didn’t just make Keala Tom a better athlete. It made her a better person.
While many girl athletes are labeled as “tomboys,” Tom was fortunate to have been surrounded by strong women who instilled the importance of resilience, strength, and authenticity. “Values that have stayed with me throughout my professional career outside of sports,” she says. “It’s important to embrace what makes you different.”
Soccer has been a part of Tom’s life since age 5. She played for Leahi Soccer Club, in high school for Sacred Hearts Academy, and in college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Tom, 30, has a competitive edge. But soccer also taught her when to pull back to do what’s best for the team, a lesson that she applies to her job as enterprise program manager at HMSA. “Not everyone is going to be a starter,” she says. “Sometimes, it’s about stepping into whatever role the team needs most.”
Although Tom doesn’t play soccer anymore, she has this advice for young athletes: “Work hard but also remember to have fun and enjoy being a kid,” she says. “In the end, it’s just a game.”
From the Basketball Court to the Courtroom
Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Justice Sabrina McKenna got hooked on playing basketball during 7th grade P.E. class. But she was told to only cover half the court and play defense. Those were the girls rules at the time. They thought girls couldn’t handle running full court. “That got me upset,” she recalls. “I was pretty competitive even back then.”
So McKenna spent her lunchtime shooting hoops on her own. Her love of the sport grew all the way to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she tried out for the emerging Rainbow Wahine basketball team, created shortly after Congress passed Title IX. The 1972 law authored by the late Rep. Patsy Mink provided equal opportunities for girls and women in athletics and academics.
McKenna not only made the team. She was awarded a scholarship. She credits Title IX for giving her that opportunity, which allowed her to continue on to law school and eventually be appointed to the state’s highest court.
Ahead of her time
Mink championed Title IX to change some of the barriers girls and women faced in school and the workplace. Mink herself was shut out from going to medical school. But she never gave up. When she was told she couldn’t be a doctor, she became a lawyer instead. The third-generation Japanese-American from Paʻia on Maui trailblazed many paths. She was the first Japanese-American woman to practice law in Hawai'i and the first woman of color and of Asian descent to be elected to Congress. Title IX has been her lasting legacy. The law also benefited men, allowing them to seek careers in nursing and other jobs that were once reserved for women.
The late U.S. Congresswoman Patsy Mink is known for her Title IX legislation.
Mink died in 2002. In 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and said: “Every girl in Little League, every woman playing college sports, and every parent – including Michelle and myself – who watches their daughter on a field or in the classroom is forever grateful to the late Patsy Takemoto Mink.”
Continuing the legacy
McKenna never got a chance to thank Mink for helping to open doors for her and others. “Just think that in 1972, women made up only 7% of law school graduates and only 9% of medical school graduates,” says McKenna. “There was only one woman judge. Today, 50% of judges in Hawai'i are women.”
After nearly 55 years since Title IX’s passage, female athletics really have come a long way.
“Title IX was an absolute game changer,” she says. “And seeing the caliber of the athletes today is just unreal. I’m excited to see the opportunities they now have.”
Read an interview with Wendy Mink, Patsy Mink’s daughter, about her mother’s legacy.
Photos by Brad Goda
Patsy Mink photo courtesy Wendy Mink.
FA26F
