Jack Mowatt

Softball Administrator and Umpire - Prince George's County, Maryland

I grew up playing baseball and since 1968, I've been a softball umpire. In 1983, I was appointed Amateur Softball Commissioner in the Washington, D.C. area and since 2006, I have also been the Maryland Commissioner as well. I love it.

As an umpire in Prince George's County, Maryland, I saw field conditions that created many safety problems for the girls. This upset me. I was tired of seeing the girls being treated as second- and third-class citizens, so in 2002, I decided to do something. A friend and fellow umpire and I took pictures of all 21 of the county's softball fields. We documented the conditions that made the fields unsafe, like pipes and tree stumps that stuck out onto the field, backstops with bolts sticking through them, and no fences to protect girls in the warm-up areas. Some fields had no benches. Although the boys' fields also needed some work, they were in much better shape. I compiled all of the pictures into a book and showed it to the people in charge of the fields. They told me they would look into it, but nothing changed. In response, a few other umpires and I decided not to return to officiating on the fields until things were fixed.

After months passed and nothing happened, a former coach and I called the National Women's Law Center. They were terrific. They did a comprehensive review of all of the county's athletic programs to examine how the girls were treated in comparison to the boys. They found problems with more than just the softball fields. In fact, there were significant inequalities in how female athletes were being treated. In a letter to the county Board of Education, the NWLC outlined these problems and explained how they violated Title IX. The NWLC and the County Board of Education then spent the next year and a half coming to an agreement to bring the school into compliance with Title IX.

This agreement is great. Not only did the County agree to improve the softball fields, but to also make sure that all girls have equal opportunities to play sports. The County said it will monitor athletic funding so that all girls' teams receive equal monies, and it will make sure that all girls' teams have equal uniforms, transportation, facilities, coaching, medical and training services, publicity, and security for their games. The agreement was such a big deal that the Washington Post even wrote a story about it. All of these changes have made the girls - and me - really happy.