COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — In Vista, Calif., heroes wear softball uniforms. Their names: Danielle Ellis and Sydney Prenatt.
Ellis and Prenatt resist such praise. But at Rancho Buena Vista High School, where the pair were teammates on the Longhorns softball team for four years before graduating in 2018, that’s how they’re remembered.
“They absolutely must be considered heroes. What they did was selfless and it will help so many girls in the future,” said Ava Bradford, a former Rancho Buena Vista softball player.
The story of Ellis and Prenatt is rare. A four-month survey of Title IX and high school sports by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found that many high school girls lacked the information to recognize Title IX violations and demand change from school officials.
Not Ellis and Prenatt.
On May 8, 2018, as their teammates watched, they read a letter from the Vista Unified School District board telling them that the board had approved the construction of a new softball field on campus. They had won their fight for equal treatment.
“It was a really powerful moment,” Prenatt said. “I almost started crying…”
As seniors, the friends and teammates were students in a government class taught by Timothy Leary, a beloved figure at the school for 26 years. In the first unit of Leary’s class, Ellis and Prenatt learned about the five concepts of democracy, including civil rights and Title IX guarantees of gender equality in sports. As they discussed the law and its purpose, a light bulb went on about their softball field.
“Sydney and I sat down and analyzed Title IX as law. We’re like, ‘OK, this is a big deal. This is a very important issue,” Ellis said. “We always noticed the differences…but we didn’t realize there was a specific law that dealt with that.”
The softball field was off campus at Buena Vista Park, a third of a mile from the school. Softball players had to provide their own transportation or walk. Ground conditions were below average. The softball team’s storage facilities did not match the baseball team’s. Players had to walk to their classes with their softball equipment. Park restrooms were also sometimes locked, and there were instances where athletes said they felt their privacy was being violated by passers-by.
“It just made us feel underappreciated and undervalued (by) the school,” Ellis said. The baseball field for the boys was far superior. It was on campus, had better field conditions, had a clubhouse to store gear, had access to school restrooms, and had batting cages. The baseball team determined when to use the field. Because the girls were playing in a city-owned public park, it was more difficult to schedule games and practices.
“From our perspective, it was so obvious, the inequality,” Prenatt said.
After consulting with their government teacher, Ellis and Prenatt focused their year-long class project on their softball field and the IX title. They approached the school principal in the fall for help. He was not supportive, they said. Attempts to contact the principal, who has left the school, have been unsuccessful.
“That’s when we knew we had to go to the school board,” Ellis said.
“(Danielle) and I were both shooting at each other and going, ‘No, why would we stop because this is such a gross violation,'” Prenatt said. “We also knew the team softball deserved better and that our coaches deserved better, which is why we weren’t really discouraged not to hear (which we wanted).
They decided to go to a school board meeting on April 12, 2018, after their softball game against Ramona High School. They were dressed in their uniforms as they gave a speech about their proposal for a new domain.
“We ask that you stand with us so that future girls don’t have to grow up thinking that equality has to be earned,” Prenatt told the board. “They grow up believing that equality is expected.”
On Leary’s advice, they then made an emphatic gesture to get the council’s attention.
“Basically, (Leary) told us if you really wanted to make a statement, right after you give your speech, you walk out,” Ellis said. “That’s what we did, we walked out, then our teammates, our parents, everyone got up and walked out with us.”
About four weeks after the school board meeting, Ellis and Prenatt received the letter with the big news that the district was going to build a new softball field for Rancho Buena Vista High School.
“We read the letter to our entire team and we all started jumping and screaming,” Prenatt said. “It was a really good time, and it really made us feel seen and it made me really happy for future softball players.”
The new softball field, part of Vista Unified’s $247 million Measure LL Facility Bond project, opened in February 2021. By then, Ellis and Prenatt had graduated.
But this was the next generation of softball players with their own turf to play on.
“The goal was definitely to have the girls come after us on a softball field on campus, something comparable to the baseball field,” Ellis said. “The bigger goal was just to do better for the next generation, to give them something more than we ever had.”
Bradford, who was a freshman at the time of the school board meeting, was one of the softball players who got to play on the new field as a senior when it opened. “We have so much gratitude for what Sydney and (Danielle) have done,” Bradford said.
Ellis and Prenatt’s Title IX story lives on in Leary’s government classroom as he teaches Title IX to his students.
“I use (Danielle) and Sydney in my class in my explanation every year now,” Leary said. “What’s so inspiring is that they were determined and it shows what you can achieve and what you can accomplish…when you don’t take no for an answer.”
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. Motamedi writes for the Povich Center which is part of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. See the full project at https://cnsmaryland.org/titleix/
