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Michigan's Most Vital Prep Sports Moment
April 30, 2018
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Did you ever hear the one about an Ypsilanti lawyer, two girls from Ann Arbor – one 18 and one 17 – and a judge from Detroit?
I didn’t think so.
Well, pull up a chair. You might never look at a tennis ball, a pair of track cleats, or a softball in the same manner after this one.
Now this story goes back a bit. We’re talking 45, um, make that 46 years ago. It was handed down to me, so now I’m handing it down to you.
The girls, Cindy and Emily, had met at a tennis club when they were 11 or 12. Both were pretty good players who had done well at tennis tournaments before heading off to Huron High School. But there was concern that the girls wouldn’t have the chance to play truly competitive tennis while in high school. You see, like most public schools of the time, Huron had only one varsity tennis team, and that was filled with boys.
Contact was made with a friend and fellow tennis player to help guide things along when it came time to talk to the school board about the girls joining that team.
The conversation between that tennis friend – Larry the Lawyer – and the school board went pretty well. The board decided to let the girls play on the boys tennis team provided they could pass the tryouts. Well, as you’ve probably surmised, the girls did all right. With the blessing of Coach Jerry, it was decided Cindy and Emily would play No. 2 doubles for the River Rats.
But as we all know, such decisions aren’t always met with cupcakes being served and happiness. People don’t always like change.
And that was pretty much the case here.
State officials didn’t much care for the idea. You see, when it came to interscholastic athletics, according to state rules established in 1967, girls couldn’t play on boys teams. Still, the Huron tennis team made the 60-mile trip up to Lansing on a Wednesday in April for a match with Lansing Harry Hill High School. Coach Jerry met with Hill’s coach, they shook hands, then Coach Jerry turned in his line-up card, to make things orderly and official.
Since there were girls names on the lineup card, not a single ball was served that day. Folks figured this was going to be the case. So the players and the bus turned around and headed back to Ann Arbor. Hill claimed a forfeited match because of that rule.
That set wheels in motion. Larry the Lawyer declared that this was a clear case of discrimination and a violation of Cindy and Emily’s right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment. With that, a lawsuit quickly was filed.
Now, they say that this was one of the first, if not the first lawsuits about such things. And you must remember this all happened back in early 1972, before the arrival of Title IX.
Turns out, Larry and the girls won their case. In Federal District Court, Judge Keith listened to what was said and issued a preliminary injunction allowing the girls to play. A little later in the week, Emily and Cindy won their first varsity doubles match hosted in Battle Creek, much to the dismay of their male opponents.
The next month, the Michigan Legislature adopted a bill allowing girls to compete on male teams, but only in non-contact sports. In late May, the doubles team of Emily and Cindy defeated a doubles team from Harry Hill, 6-3, 6-1.
Of course, as with many of these rulings, there was an appeal. And, as these things usually do, it took a while to move this along. But come January 1973, the U.S. Circuit Court down in Cincinnati agreed with Judge Keith and upheld the preliminary injunction. They, too, thought that girls should be able to participate in varsity interscholastic sports. The Circuit Court did narrow Judge Keith’s decision a bit, inserting the word “NON-CONTACT” into the ruling. Suddenly, it was officially OK for girls to play alongside the boys in sports like tennis, swimming, archery, golf, bowling, fencing, badminton, gymnastics, skiing, and track and field.
Now just because there’s a law, it doesn’t mean everyone’s abiding by it. It would take several more years and the threat or the filing of additional lawsuits against school districts and organizations to truly see things change.
Today, we don’t think twice when we take a seat at a girls softball game, track meet or tennis match. But a short time ago, such things simply did not exist for our daughters. The actions of two girls from Ann Arbor, an Ypsilanti lawyer and a judge from Detroit altered the athletic world – for the better.
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Judge Damon Keith had been appointed to the bench of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in 1967. It was some four and a half years later that the Morris-Barrett complaint landed on his docket. A graduate of Detroit Northwestern High School, he is the father of three daughters. Keith would later be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. In 1995, he became the Senior Judge of that court. His amazing story was later told in a documentary “Walk With Me: The Trials of Damon J. Keith.”
According to media reports, Coach Jerry Shull had been trying to get girls eligible for the previous two seasons, but felt the ultimate solution was to have high schools around the state form all-girls varsity teams. He again served as varsity tennis coach in 1973 (of a team that featured 10 females) before stepping aside in 1974.
Emily Barrett was a multi-sport athlete at Huron High School, competing with the Girls Athletic Club in swimming, field hockey and volleyball as well as tennis during this era of transition. During her senior year, the courts finalized their decision and she again played tennis for Huron. She’d move on to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, after graduation, where she played tennis and field hockey.
A year older than Barrett, Cindy Morris had graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School by the time the case was finalized. She headed off to the University of Michigan and then transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she played No 1. singles and doubles and twice participated in the National Collegiate Women’s Tournament. She later earned her Master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. As Cindy Morris, a sports journalist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, she recalled the words of Judge Keith for an article she was writing in late summer of 1978.
“Indeed, no male could have matched (the) soprano cries of joy when Judge Keith said, yes, go out and run and play and win and lose and laugh and cry and feel that special pride of playing for your school that boys in Michigan have always felt but you haven’t.”
The article was about a lawsuit originating in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where a girl was fighting to be allowed to compete in contact sports against boys.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) The first high school match in 1972 for Ann Arbor Huron's Emily Barrett, left, and Cindy Morris was reported on for the Battle Creek Enquirer. (Top middle) The 1972 Ann Arbor Huron varsity tennis team, including Morris and Barrett. (Middle) The Ann Arbor Huron lineup card shows Barrett and Morris' names for a match against Lansing Harry Hill that was not played. (Below) A Lansing State Journal clipping tells of Hill electing to not play the match.
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Westwood Streak Grows with 1-Point Win
October 4, 2018
By Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
ISHPEMING – The last two seasons, Ishpeming Westwood and Iron River West Iron County have emerged as the top Division 2 girls tennis programs in the Upper Peninsula – and whenever they battle, it’s always a close finish.
It couldn't get much closer Thursday, as the Patriots edged the Wykons 20-19 to win their third straight U.P. Division 2 title and their ninth in the last 10 years. This also was the second year in a row Westwood beat West Iron by one point.
Not only did the two squads have to battle each other in competition, they also had to fight the elements as a cold wind blew across the court for most of the day. Westwood coach Chris Jackson said he wasn’t sure how the day would play out, especially with the weather, but that it ended up going as expected.
“Everything from the weather to the competition with West Iron, we knew that was going to be difficult,” he said. “We weren’t sure how the weather conditions were going to affect things, but everything kind of played out the way that the seeds went. It was almost like the tournament went as scheduled with the exception of maybe one flight.
“Our girls responded and they were just amazing today. We had our ups and downs, and we were down in a couple of matches and in the first sets of some finals. But a couple of the kids responded well and that was the difference today.”
While the Patriots celebrated, it was another excruciating way to end the year for the Wykons. However, West Iron coach Joe Serbentas viewed the result from a positive standpoint and said he was proud of how his team performed.
“It’s always a close one with Westwood,” he said. “They’re a good program, they’re solid, and we knew coming in that it was going to come down to a few flights here and there at the end like it did last year. … They got five championships and we got three, so that was the difference today. But I can’t take anything away from our girls. I thought we fought really hard, and the ones we lost (were) a couple of three-setters. It was a tough way to go out because it’s competitive and I’m sure the girls are disappointed, but it’ll make them hungry, the ones that are coming back next year.
“I thought Katarina (Serbentas) has done great all year, and she was excellent today (she defeated Westwood’s Madi Koski at No. 1 singles). That win puts her record at 20-2, which is a very good year. We did everything we could. Westwood was just a little better today.”
What helped put the Patriots over the top was their singles play, as they took three of the four flight championships. Westwood’s Jillian Koski took the No. 4 match in two sets, while Kaylee Larmour (No. 3) outlasted West Iron’s Livea Mazurek in three frames. The most competitive singles match was at the No. 2 spot, where the Patriots’ Tessa Leece defeated the Wykons’ Izzy Hoogenboom in three sets. After losing the first set, Leece said she was a little concerned, but a chat with Jackson helped calm her nerves.
“I was pretty confident, but after the first set, I was really, really nervous that it was not going to happen,” she said. “But then my coach gave me a really nice pep talk that was very motivational, and it boosted me up. Then I decided that I wanted to win this, so then I was just determined to do it.”
When asked about what he said to Leece, Jackson replied that he told her to focus on what she could control and not on what she couldn’t.
“It’s the same as in any other sport,” he said. “Tessa has come a long way in her game, and the difficult thing for her is in the past she’s relied on her ability to just get a lot of balls back. I think sometimes she fights between ‘do I hit harder?’ or ‘do I try to get balls back?’ I think she was fighting herself a little bit there in the first set and the beginning of the second, but I think she settled on the style she wanted to play and she committed to it and got a good result.”
Over on the doubles side, Iron Mountain, which finished third overall, had its only championship match appearance at the No. 1 spot. However, Saylor Swartout and Claire Montgrain couldn’t top West Iron’s Eden Golliher and Tori Bociek. The other three matches were between the Wykons and the Patriots with West Iron’s Emily Nelson and Anna Malmquist taking the No. 2 match in a three-set thriller. However, Westwood’s Ellie Miller and Meghan Johnson took the No. 3 title and teammates Jenna Wealton and Claire Giles defeated the Wykons’ Aurora Dahl and Madison Berutti at No. 4 to add to the title drive.
Ishpeming took fourth with six points and reached the semifinals in four flights. Munising finished fifth with three points, with Chantelle Harger (No. 3 singles) having the Mustangs’ best individual performance as she made the semifinals. Ironwood followed in sixth place and Gwinn in seventh. The Red Devils had one semifinals appearance with McKensi Koval and Leilah Anderson making it at No. 4 doubles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Westwood’s Ellie Miller serves during a semifinals doubles match against Munising’s Skyler Campbell and Lori Mattson at the Upper Peninsula Division 2 Finals. (Middle) The Patriots' Meghan Johnson also serves against Campbell and Mattson. (Photos by Corey Kelly.)