Rubama: Former Kempsville athlete Kendall Tata, AD Carol Chory reflect on gains as Title IX celebrates 50th anniversary. ‘But we really have so far to go.’

Kendall Tata remembers the day like it was yesterday.

She was at field hockey practice when she noticed several members of the boys cross country team running through the field.

“I thought, ‘I want to do that,’ ” she said.

Unfortunately, it was the late 1970s, and Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach did not have a girls cross country team. In fact, the school had only five sports for girls.

When she went to administration, she was told that she needed to find five other girls to form a team.

So, Tata, just 15 years old, went out and found five friends to form a team.

But because girls cross country wasn’t recognized as a full-fledged Virginia High School League sport, the Chiefs were able to compete only in district and region competitions, and they won both.

That changed in Tata’s senior year when the VHSL held the inaugural cross country state meet.

“It was a huge deal all over the state,” Tata said this week. “I think I wanted to be part of something bigger, and I saw that when the boys were running and felt girls could run also. I feel privileged to have felt that desire and to have had tremendous support from all realms of life.”

Tata won the individual title and the Chiefs won the team title.

“It is very humbling to be part of our small team of six who won the first Virginia cross country title and many ladies pioneering opportunities in girls athletics,” Tata said. “I wish for girls today to get a glimpse of the beginning of their sport of choice and carry on with integrity.”

Tata thinks about this as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX. She beams with pride as she sees just how far athletics have come for young girls.

Tata admits she didn’t realize the significance of what she and her teammates had accomplished in 1979, as it was just seven years after Title IX was introduced.

This federal civil rights law has been credited with profoundly changing education in the United States by barring sex discrimination in the nation’s schools. Title IX, along with other equity laws, helped unlock access to educational and athletic opportunities, paving the way for inroads into historically male‐dominated professions. The work of five decades of Title IX’s impact is writ large in every sector of American society.

Tata realizes now that they were pioneers.

“I still remember when people told me that girls can’t run that far,” said Tata, who also won two state track titles in the 3,200 meters. “So, it was just an opportunity to try to run that far, and we showed that we can.”

Tata, who now coaches cross country and track at William Monroe High in Stanardsville, said it’s hard to imagine now that there weren’t many sports available to girls then.

Tata credits Carol Chory, who served as athletic director at Kempsville from 1979 until 2010. Chory has been inducted into three halls of fame: the Virginia High School in 2007, the Kempsville High School in 2008 and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association in 2016.

“She has been a huge voice in the support and push of women in sports,” said Tata, who got into coaching because of Chory and just finished her 37th year as coach. “I thank Carol for being a trailblazer in the progress of women’s sports and breaking down barriers in athletic equality.”

Chory also thinks the world of Tata.

“Kendall Tata is awesome,” she said. “I refereed for her when she was playing field hockey. Then I was lucky enough for her to come back and I watch her get the girls cross country team together and put the first girls cross country team on the map and win a state championship. It warms my heart to know kids went through Kempsville and came back.”

It also makes Chory proud to see how far athletics have come under Title IX, beyond high schools.

She points to the landmark agreement between U.S. Soccer and women’s soccer stars that ensures equal pay for male and female players.

“That was huge,” Chory said.

Chory attended a VHSL luncheon on Thursday in a special ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of its passing at Alumni Hall at the University of Virginia.

She said the luncheon was special for many reasons, including having current athletes paying homage to those who went before them.

“It was an awesome ceremony,” she said. “And a lot of young people came up and spoke and said they knew nothing about Title IX, and they had played sports all their life. It was awesome to know that there is a generation now that really realizes the amount of things that had to be done to allow them to play sports.”

Chory can remember a time when there were few high school sports for girls. When she began as athletic director at Kempsville, the school had just five sports.

“We ended up adding 12 sports,” she said. “That shows we more than tripled the number of girls that participated in women’s sports.”

But Chory said that while there have been great gains made for women in sports, the fight is not done.

She points to how professional women’s basketball players still have to go out of the country to make money or how some colleges still aren’t in complete compliance with Title IX.

“We think we’ve come so far,” she said, “but we really have so far to go.”

Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com. Follow @LHRubama on Twitter.