Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, athletic opportunities for women and girls have increased exponentially. As a result, young women have had the opportunity to excel in athletics and expand their educational opportunities. Sisters Karli and Tanya Timko are two exceptional student-athletes whose presence in high school athletics demonstrates why the opportunity to participate in sports is so important for young women.
Karli and Tanya made history in Pennsylvania sports this season when they became the first tennis duo to win a WPIAL title in a boys’ division. This weekend, at the PIAA tennis tournament in Hershey, PA, Karli and Tanya will compete to continue their historic attempt to become the first girls to win a PIAA boys’ title in any sport. The sisters, students at Chartiers-Houston High School, were permitted to compete on the school’s boys’ team because the school doesn’t have a girls’ program. Thus, both male and female athletes at Chartiers-Houston have reaped the benefits of Karli and Tanya’s competitive spirit.
We wish Karli and Tanya luck this weekend as they defend their perfect record. The words of their trainer, Chuck Taylor, are perhaps most fitting to conclude with. He says of the girls’ receptions in the boys’ circuit: “I heard one coach teasingly say, ‘Bring them girls on,’ ” said Mr. Taylor. “And I said, ‘You better be careful what you ask for. They are coming.'”