As the old saying goes, “baseball is America’s pastime.” It was so important that during the second World War, Major League Baseball executives created all women’s baseball teams since most of the young men were away fighting. The blockbuster hit movie, “A League of Their Own” details this era that not only provided fans with entertainment but proved women could be fierce competitive baseball players.
One South Mississippi family found themselves in the middle of a battle they didn’t anticipate when it came to the game. Their daughter Jewel has been playing baseball since she was 5-years-old on city recreational teams, eventually making All Stars and travel baseball. With the 7th grader aging out of the recreational program, she wanted to join the middle school team.
That’s where the problem came in. The girl’s mom, Shannon van Duijvendijk says the Ocean Springs School District refused her a tryout for the baseball team.
This is the same school district that has had girls step out of their football cleats to put on a homecoming crown after kicking for the high school team. So the decision seemed a bit confusing for the community who chimed in to support the parents petitioning for Jewel to play on the middle school team.
Jewel is one of two girls planning to try out for the baseball team that many of their male teammates are competing for. But it was van Duijvendijk’s husband who was determined to make sure his daughter got to play the game that she loves.
“It was actually my husband. That sense of injustice rose up in him and he was just like ‘no, uh uh.'”
The initial call came from the school’s athletic director who told them that it was a state rule that girls couldn’t play on the baseball team because softball was considered an equivalent. That’s when Mr. van Duijvendijk started contacting every person he could find in Jackson to help get his daughter a tryout. But the quest to speak with someone on the state level proved to be futile.
