Meet Mo’ne Davis. She is the superstar of the Little League World Series and the first Little Leaguer (male or female!) to grace Sports Illustrated’s iconic cover.
She is also bringing to light a problem for female athletes in the US- lack of opportunities to play school-sponsored baseball competitively.
You see, young females normally have specific ‘girls’ teams’ for other sports. However, with baseball there is nothing. Not even the National Federation of State High School Associations is aware of one school-sponsored female baseball team in the US.
That means Mo’ne’s illustrious baseball career will be over by high school. There is no doubt she will be given the option to play softball in high school and college, and while it is considered a variant of our national pastime, it’s still a different game.
“We’re fighting a culture that’s decided that softball is an equivalent sport to baseball,” Justine Sigeal, founder of Baseball For All told Time.com. “Girls are not encouraged to play baseball. And if you tell a girl she’s not encouraged to play baseball, what else won’t she be encouraged to do?”
For top versatile athlete’s like Mo’ne, they luckily have varying options. Mo’ne told ESPN that she plans to play basketball at UConn, then eventually she would like to move on to the WNBA.
