The Crookston High School and Volleyball team is celebrating 50 years of Title IX at their 7:15 p.m. game on Tuesday, September 27, against Hawley High School with a white-out game. The school is inviting all the players and spectators/fans, both home and away, to wear white clothes to show their support of Title IX and the Pirates.
Pirates Volleyball Coach Katie Engelstad reported that the idea came to her when one of her senior player’s mom presented the idea to her and believed it was a fantastic idea to help celebrate 50 years of Title IX. Title IX was created in June of 1972 to stop sex and gender-based discrimination in any school, education program, or athletics. “It’ll be a nice way to bring attention to girls in sports and that it hasn’t been around for as long as you think it has, or male sports, and its fun to just celebrate that,” Coach Englestad explained. Engelstad explained that people can wear any piece of white clothing or some sort of Pirate-themed gear to show their support for the team and the title’s 50th anniversary.
The event isn’t limited to just the Crookston home team, as Engelstad explained that she had contacted the Hawley Volleyball team to ask them to participate in the event as well. While white isn’t an official color or any official sign of Title IX, Engelstad said the team chose white as it was an easy color for both teams and spectators to participate in the event, which was different enough from both teams to stand out as its own event.
Along with the spectators, the Volleyball team is giving two elementary school volleyball groups free admission into the game to participate in the event and help the High School team warm up for the match. “We have a group of 3rd-5th graders that do Saturday morning volleyball and a 5th-6th grade traveling team that does Saturday tournaments. They’ll come, and we’ll have them be there for warm-ups and around the gym, and we’ll have them announced prior to the varsity game to give them that experience of waving to the crowd and mom and dad to get that excitement ready for them,” Engelstad explained. “Hopefully, in a couple of years, they’ll be on the varsity floor as a sophomore, junior, or senior.”
Before the Varsity game, the C and Junior Varsity teams will play matches as well, with the C Team beginning their match at 5:00 p.m. and the Junior Varsity game beginning at 6:00 p.m. Englestad says that while the event is mainly for the Varsity team, she encourages the players and spectators of those games to still wear white to show their support for the event. “It’ll be fun to see everybody in the crowd wearing white and supporting our Pirate athletes,” said Englestad. “But not just our Pirate Volleyball players but all of our girl athletes in general.”
The Crookston Pirates Volleyball White-Out game against Hawley will be a home game in the Crookston High School Gymnasium on Tuesday, September 27, with the C Team’s match beginning at 5:00 p.m., the JV’s match beginning at 6:00 p.m., and the Varsity match beginning at 7:15 p.m. Players and fans are invited to wear white to show their support for the Pirate’s Volleyball team and 50 years of Title IX. Any of the members of the 3rd-5th grade that Saturday morning volleyball program and 5th-6th grade traveling volleyball team will receive free admission to the game and will be able to participate in warm-ups and other activities before the match.
