Playing High School Football

Okay, this isn't strictly Title IX-related, but here's a New York Times article related to Holley Mangold, a high school student in Centerville, Ohio who plays on her school's varsity football team. She's not a kicker (as you might expect since there's occasionally a news item about a female kicker on a high school or college team), but an offensive lineman. Holley is the younger sister of Nick Mangold, who plays center for the New York Jets, and plays at the same high school her brother used to attend.

The reason that Holley's presence on the otherwise all-boys' team isn't Title IX-related is because Title IX has a specific carve-out for contact sports -- under Title IX, there is no right for girls and boys to play contact sports together, nor is a school obligated to create a separate opportunity for a student from an underrepresented gender to play a particular contact sport. Nevertheless, it's good to see opportunities like Holley's arise; the article highlights how she overcame the reluctance of her coach to allow her to play, and how much she and her teammates enjoy the sport.