A half-century ago, a momentous piece of legislation was enacted that forever altered the landscape of athletics in the United States. On Saturday, Sept. 10, the Rye Neck Athletic department celebrated the passing of Title IX, shining a spotlight on the school’s girls sports programs—both past and present.
On Saturday afternoon, Rye Neck’s girls varsity fall sports teams participated in a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a landmark civil rights law passed in 1972 that protects people from discrimination based on sex in any education programs that receive federal funding. The result of Title IX was the proliferation of girls sports across the nation, paving the way for the record involvement numbers of today.
Longtime Panthers’ softball coach Joan Spedafino—who was inducted into the Westchester Sports Hall of Fame in 2021—emceed the event which featured a speech by one of the district’s most celebrated athletes, Shelly O’Malley (neé DaBramo), a 1972 graduate who was the first female to be named a Con-Ed Scholar Athlete Award winner.
O’Malley, who would go on to compete in gymnastics at Springfield College, said it was an honor to be invited back to her alma mater and astounding to see how many girls were currently participating in interscholastic sports.
“It’s overwhelming, awesome and exciting to see,” said O’Malley. “To see all the girls now, they start young, they love it; the together and everything that sports brings with it.”
A unique event, Rye Neck has been one of only a handful of school districts to recognize the Title IX anniversary this year, something O’Malley said speaks to the strength of the community in general.
“I’m a big Rye Neck fan, I have been for 50 years; the school, the administration, they recognize women across all sports and it’s what makes it special,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been able to develop lasting friendships here.”
Athletic Director Joe Ceglia, who said a committee began to explore a date for this event as early as last spring, echoed O’Malley’s sentiments and pointed out that the school district has long championed girls in sports.
“We have such a rich tradition of female sports here and so many teams that have done well,” said Ceglia. “And we have so many good, strong, female coaches we felt that we should recognize this and celebrate this.”
In addition to the ceremony, which began at 1:30 p.m., the Panthers’ girls teams played a slate of home games, including contests featuring the varsity soccer, field hockey, tennis and volleyball.
Ceglia added that the chance to reinforce the ideas of Title IX was an especially important one, given that today’s student-athletes may not understand just how much of an impact its passing has had.
“That’s why you do something like this, so they are made more aware of this,” he said. “You bring back an alumnus who was directly impacted by this trailblazing process to break through those doors.”
Looking at the host of female athletes on Saturday, O’Malley acknowledged that tremendous steps have been made in terms of leveling the playing field in high school sports, something she envisioned would be the case some 50 years ago.
“Because I was raised from seven years old to do sports, I could see this moving in the right direction, even back then,” said O’Malley. “You could see the strength in women, so I’m really not totally surprised.”
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