This week, I came across an article on baseball sensation Mo’ne Davis. Davis is the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shout out in Little League World Series history, and only the fourth American girl to play in the Little League World Series at all!

In 1972, Maria Pepe was the first girl to start in Little League games, but she was taken out of the game when opposing teams demanded it. A suit was filed on her behalf, and in 1973, and the judge ruled in Pepe’s favor. While the ruling was too late for Pepe, it paved the way for Davis and other girls to play in the Little League in future decades. Despite this, less than 0.2% of participants have been women.

Mo’ne Davis played sports as a child, and one day the program director at a rec center in Philadelphia saw her playing football with her cousins. He recruited her to play basketball, and she soon became his best player and the only female on the team. At the age of 13, Davis threw a 70 mile per hour fastball, while the average velocity in her age class is in the 50-60 mph range. While most famous for being a Little League pitcher, Davis actually considers basketball her primary sport and currently plays softball at Hampton University. She is that good of an athlete.

"Probably like a couple of years from now, there'll be a lot of girls here, and then it won't be just like all boys, so they'll have to build like another dorm for girls, so it'll be a huge impact if more girls start playing."

Movements are gradual, change takes time, and progress needs its champions. Maria Pepe and the ruling over 40 years ago made it possible for Davis and other girls to come out onto the baseball field at all. And now, Davis’s success is going to make it possible for generations of girls to see that they have a place in professional sports. Who will be the champion of quality education?

-Reshma

Who will be the champion?