One big issue with Ludlow High School’s softball team is that the team is treated very unfairly compared to other sports. Our team doesn’t get as much support or funds as any other team at Ludlow High School. Every player on the softball team has the same question: Why is our school upgrading every sports equipment and fields, but not softball?
Funding
One thing that we have been requesting for is a scoreboard. We don’t need one, but it would be nice to at least have one. But our athletic director, Mr. Brillo, said it would cost at least 30 thousand dollars. Many players question why even basic improvements seem impossible when millions of dollars have recently been invested in other athletic facilities.
How come our town has 4.8 million dollars to spend on a new baseball field, football field, and a new track, and they don’t have an extra 30 thousand dollars to add to that for us? Our field is unsafe and hasn’t even gotten updated since 2008. Everybody on the Ludlow Softball team thinks it’s unfair that we have a field that we fear to play on, and the baseball team gets a brand new field that they, not to be rude, didn’t need.
If our team had better funding from the school, then we wouldn’t have any of these problems. We would have a safe field and better equipment then our broken ones that we have now.
Our Field Condition
The condition of the softball field presents serious safety concerns for student-athletes. Every day, we are throwing big rocks and glass shards off our field.
One day at practice, we found a giant rusted nail in our dirt. It’s very scary to think about if someone were to have slid and gotten that stuck in their leg or body. We are also finding broken glass all in our field. This is very unsafe for us players and for other teams that play on our field.
If someone were to get hurt during a game, there would be a good chance that they are gonna sue, especially if it’s a kid from the smaller leagues. It would cost more for our town to get sued than to just fix our field.
One of my teammates, Isabella Leutsch, says that,
“The field is not in very good condition, and the school does nothing to actually help make it better. It’s literally so bad we started making a rock collection of all the huge rocks we found, and that should not be possible if there was actually work done to help make the field better.”
It’s unfair that the baseball, football, and track teams all get brand new fields while the softball team has to play on a field that we can use only sometimes. When it rains, our field becomes so flooded because we are right on a swamp. Last season, almost every single one of our home games got rescheduled because of how bad our field was.
Our first baseman, Khloe Davis, notes,
“Every time we go outside for gym class, there is always someone taking care of the baseball field, yet we struggle to get someone to do something as simple as dragging the field out and lining it.”
Why is it that the baseball team can have someone making sure their field is in good shape and not flooded, but we can’t even get a bus for our team to take us to a game? It just doesn’t seem fair or right to me or anyone else.
Equipment
The equipment that the softball team has is old and needs to be replaced. Most of our nets are broken and are hanging on by a thread.
We all think it’s crazy how we just got a shed for our equipment after years on years of asking for one. It took a total of ten years to officially get the shed. Before, we had to use the seniors’ trunks to hold our equipment, which didn’t even hold all of it. We couldn’t really use our pitching machine because it didn’t fit in their trunks. But now, we can because it is in our lovely shed.
Our team doesn’t even have a rake for our field. Well, it does, but the baseball team has ours and is using our rake for their field. Out of both of our fields, I think the softball team needs its own rake, especially because of the condition of the softball field.
For years, my Coach, Coach Rocker, has been asking for a sliding mat that we can use either outside or inside. It wasn’t until last year that we finally got said sliding mat. We are very grateful for the mat, but it isn’t even that good. It seems like it was a very cheap mat, and there was no research put into finding a good one for our team.
Other Players Opinions
As a team captain, I feel compelled to bring up this issue to help fix the way my team gets treated. Numerous people on my team also feel the same way as I do.
Our other team captain, Caitlyn Peczka, says that,
“We’re 13-5 this year, and have been doing good for at least the past 5 years. So why is our field never taken care of? We have no scoreboard, we play at the middle school, on a swamp that floods at the thought of rain. Not only that, but this year we’ve found nails, glass shards, and boulders in the infield. These are serious safety hazards for our team. You don’t see the boys’ baseball team playing on a field like that. I can only assume we get treated this way because it’s a girl’s sport. I think our town should take our team much more seriously. We have no seniors on varsity, meaning we’re gonna play the same way we have this year, next year. We want to win, but we can only do that with a decent home field.”
Sophomore player Marlie Piela says,
“As a softball player, it can be frustrating to feel like our funding isn’t viewed as being as important as other sports. We work just as hard to represent our school, just like every other team. I believe all student-athletes should have equal access to the resources they need to be successful.”
Even our team manager, Hannah Faulcon, states,
“Since getting the opportunity to be a part of this team, I have noticed so much improvement; however, nobody is there to recognize it. When I was told it took ten years for our coach to get a shed, I was mind-blown. I was told about the new facility which included new track, new baseball field, new football field this was 4.8 million, our team has dugouts that are about 15-16 years old, we get told we don’t have money for a new score board but somehow have money to put in 4.8 million for other sports, I hope that someone has the courage to do something about it. These amazing athletes deserve better!”
Solutions
Members of the Ludlow High School softball team are not asking for special treatment; we are asking for fair treatment. We work just as hard, compete with the same determination, and represent our school with the same pride as every other team. Yet many of us feel overlooked and treated as less important. When other athletic programs receive significant investments while softball continues to struggle with basic needs, it raises questions about whether female athletes are being given the same level of support and attention. The possibility of being pushed aside because of our gender is unacceptable, and it contradicts the equality that Title IX was designed to protect.
The town or school could solve these issues by having the town commit to regular maintenance of our field, removing safety hazards, improving the drainage to help prevent flooding, replacing our bad equipment, and helping plan for improvements such as the scoreboard.
The success of our team proves that we are willing to do the work. Now it is time for the school and community to show that they value softball as much as they value every other sport. Equal effort deserves equal opportunity, and Ludlow’s softball players deserve better.