The University of North Florida celebrates a side out during the second game of its victory over Florida International University on Sept. 3, 2026. The Ospreys improved to 3-1 after their 25-21, 25-20, 10-25, 25-19 win in the UNF Invitational. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on September 11, 2026 at 2:49 pm
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A conservative think tank with a track record of dictating American domestic and foreign policy believes Title IX, the landmark legislation that opened avenues for girls and women in sports, is a failed experiment.
The Heritage Foundation claims women’s sports programs that were created because of Title IX legislation are a failed social experiment.
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Despite that claim from the Heritage Foundation, investment in women’s sports in Jacksonville has never been higher at the professional, collegiate or varsity level.
Heritage Foundation ridicules women’s sports
In July, Scott Yenor, the chair of the American Citizenship Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, published Title IX’s Failed Experiment: Why Accommodating Sex Differences Beats Engineered Parity.
The right-leaning think tank has been successful in converting its research briefs and policy positions into official action in the second Trump administration. Its Project 2025 called for increased military spending; elimination of federal Healthy Start funding; an overhaul to the Federal Communication Commission; and more.
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“Title IX has led to the defunding of male sports at the college level, the failure to grow male sports, despite obvious interest and the unnatural expansion of niche female sports so that schools could try to achieve proportional parity.”
Two days after his initial broadside at women’s sports, Yenor penned a column that claimed Title IX is holding back the U.S. men’s national soccer team. Yenor’s piece dropped on the date of the 2026 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal the USMNT would have played in had it qualified.
The USMNT has failed to reach the quarterfinals in each of the last six World Cups. Meanwhile, the U.S. Women’s National Team are the reigning Olympic champions and have qualified for the semifinals in seven of the previous eight Women’s World Cups.
The Heritage Foundation wrote that social engineering led to women who are not invested in basketball and other sports, play to receive scholarship, not out of true competitive interest. The conservative think tank claims girls and women who do so “are denying men opportunities while creating artificial ones.”
That commentary has not been reflective of the sports culture in Northeast Florida.
Eager for entertainment
“We’ve come to recognize the quality of women athletes has a lot of value to people,” Upshot League Commissioner Donna Orender said at halftime of the league’s inaugural championship game Aug. 29. “They appreciate it. It’s great entertainment. There’s economic value, social, cultural. There’s an entire shift in the way we view women athletes. I think it’s great.
“Jacksonville, I’ve always felt, has been a city that was open, ready and eager for those kinds of entertainment.”
The Upshot League crowned its first champion at Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena last month. In the next 12 months, Duval County will host championship events in basketball, surfing, track and field, and the 50th Gate River Run. Next December, VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena will host the NCAA Division II Volleyball championship.
Jacksonville is one of nine metropolitan areas in the United States with a fully professional women’s basketball team and women’s soccer team.
The Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area is, with 1.78 million residents, the smallest by a wide margin. Portland, Oregon — the second smallest-metro area with both women’s soccer and basketball, has 2.5 million residents, making it 47% larger than greater Jacksonville.
The Upshot League and the Gainbridge Super League are not the WNBA or National Women’s Soccer League in terms of revenue, popularity or cultural cache. However, both leagues employ women as players, coaches, technical staff and front office personnel who otherwise would not have those opportunities.
Zawyer Sports CEO Andy Kaufmann told Jacksonville Today earlier this year that one of the biggest reasons he invested in the Upshot League was to ensure girls had the opportunity to pursue their dreams through sports.
Basketball trailblazer Ann Meyers Drysdale is an Upshot investor who has known Orender since both played in the Women’s Professional Basketball League in the 1970s.
She was the first woman to earn an athletic scholarship at UCLA, was the first four-time All-American in any collegiate sport and was the first woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Meyers Drysdale has either participated in or witnessed most of the advancements in women’s basketball over the last 50 years. She says the Upshot League is a foundation that other women will stand on in the years ahead.
“There’s so many women who came before us. And, we had our time,” Meyers Drysdale said. “The fact they have the opportunity to do it now — our time has passed — we are here to support them.”
There is more work ahead to achieve athletic equity.
“There’s always a need for women’s sports,” Meyers Drysdale said. “As much as it’s changed in over 50 years of Title IX, it still hasn’t changed. You look at the stations, the national TV (coverage), women’s sports is out there. Are they putting them on? No. Not to the extent that they need to be, and could be.
“Whether it’s golf, whether its tennis, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s volleyball, whether it’s soccer, whether it’s ice hockey, whether it’s surfing, there are so many outlets for women. If you can show more of it — and that’s why social media is such an influence with young women and men today — it can help their brand.”
Exposure to new audiences
Women’s sports may be part of the cultural zeitgeist. It remains a growth opportunity.
Last month, Nielsen reported advertising investment in women’s sports has increased by 120% over the last four years.
Nielsen data found a majority of women’s sports fans (69%) view a brand more positively when it partners with athletes who are connected to their interests. That is well ahead of the 47% of sports fans who align with brands and 41% of general audiences.
“With the FIFA Women’s World Cup and LA28 games fast approaching, there are major global opportunities for brands to go big with women’s sports,” Neilsen found. “But real fans want more from sponsors than a drop-in every four years. To win in the next era of women’s sports fandom, brands have to keep pace every day across a complex media landscape.”
This year marked the first time every LPGA Tour event was aired live across the country. Those broadcast windows meant St. Johns County resident Auston Kim’s exploits were seen by more people.
The 26-year-old LPGA professional will represent the United States at the Solheim Cup, the premier team event in women’s golf, this weekend in The Netherlands.
Thursday’s Opening Ceremony was broadcast on Golf Channel. All three days of matches are also on Golf Channel. It’s a far cry from the Ryder Cup, the preeminent men’s team golf tournament, that has multiple weekend windows on NBC.
Northeast Florida athletic achievement
Kim is not the only professional from these parts.
Local graduates are currently in the National Women’s Soccer League and digging out careers in beach volleyball. Meanwhile, former Florida Miss Basketball winners, Ribault graduate Rennia Davis and Nease graduate Camille Hobby, just finished pro basketball seasons last month.
Northeast Florida has a long history of being home to excellent girls and women in sports. The region is home to gold medalists in swimming, gymnastics and bobsleigh. Ribault’s famed girls track and field program has produced both gold medalists and members of the Florida Legislature.
Local athletes have shown all they need is an opportunity.
Mandarin graduate Michelle Moultrie went from walk-on softball player at the University of Florida to SEC Player of the Year and Olympic silver medalist.
Where Duval differs
In recent years, there have been more opportunities for Duval County girls to follow like Moultrie, like Davis or like Sandalwood graduate and Utah Royals goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn.
In the 2025-26 academic year, Duval County Public Schools reported 4,542 girls competed in high school sports, compared with 4,234 boys.
Duval Schools has invested money in locker rooms specifically for girls wrestlers. The district has invested money from the 1-mil tax referendum voters passed in 2022 to build softball cages, girls weightrooms and beach volleyball courts.
Florida participation data
Statewide, more boys participate in sports than girls.
The Florida High School Athletic Association recorded that 136,857 girls participated in the 2025-26 academic year. That number broke the previous record set in 2018.
Despite a COVID-19 influenced dip in participation, the percentage of Florida girls who have participated in high school athletes has increased by 11% over the last decade.
Nevertheless, the 2026 athletic participation figure is 27% below the 174,376 boys who participated in sports last academic year. The FHSAA, as well as the National High School Federation, count a two-sport athlete twice in its athletic participation counts; a three-sport athlete thrice; etc.
Girls have become a larger percentage of sports participants in Florida. In 2026, they represented 43.9% of all athletic participation. In 2006, girls represented 38.8% of Florida athletic participation.
How Florida mirrors national trends
The National High School Federation reported last month the number of girls who compete in high school sports hit a record high during the 2025-26 academic year. Nationally, 3.65 million girls participated in sports.
It spotlighted wrestling and flag football as the drivers of the growth. That has also been the case in Florida
A decade ago, 295 girls in Florida participated in wrestling. They were often relegated to being members of boys teams. Today, the Florida High School Athletic Association has sanctioned wrestling as a sport. There were 2,328 girls who competed in wrestling in the 2026 academic year.
Oakleaf High senior Kailani Barrientos won a state title in the 135-pound weight class earlier this calendar year to cap off a 22-1 season.
Meanwhile, Florida has led the way in recognizing flag football as a varsity sport. The 12,424 girls who competed in flag football last year are a 66.5% percent increase from 2016.
Flag football’s growth in Northeast Florida has been spurred by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ commitment. The team has sponsored tournaments for girls of all ages, provided travel stipends for teams to compete in national tournaments and awarded $9,000 in scholarships annually to graduating seniors with superlative grades. The Jaguars have also sponsored a varsity flag football Coach of the Week with a $1,500 grant.
Girls golf and girls lacrosse are also sports that have grown faster than Florida’s participation rate over the last decade. Both have witnessed an 11% increase in participation since 2016.
Girls basketball participation is fractionally higher today than in 2016. Meanwhile, indoor volleyball — which was Florida’s most popular girls sport a decade ago — has seen a 15% spike in interest, with 20,146 participants in 2026.
Lessons through sports
Janice Washington has witnessed the evolution of women’s sports from a perceived obligation to a perceived growth opportunity.
She helped Campbell advance to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in 2000. As a coach she helped Lincoln University advance to its first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in 2022. Today, Washington is the head coach of the Greensboro Groove in the Upshot League.
Washington says sports are an environment where young women can grow in all aspects of their lives through sisterhood.
“Being able to develop those skillsets that are needed in the real world — like being dependable and responsible and accountable — all of those things come when you play on a team and when you’re playing sports,” Washington said. “You can get those traits and pick those things up when you’re doing other things. But, when you’re involved with sports, those things are so important to team dynamics. Being someone that’s on a team that requires other people to depend on you, it’s something that’s so important.”
As Washington spoke, the Ribault High girls basketball team stood 10 feet behind her and watched the Upshot League Championship.
‘A great area to do it’
Athletic opportunity is what allowed Elizabeth Gregg to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Evansville. She competed on her collegiate golf team, before focusing on a career in academia as a sports management professor at the University of North Florida.
Gregg says women’s sports have provided an avenue for people to encounter girls and women with different backgrounds, body types and beliefs.
“It allows little girls, teenagers, adolescents and adults to see women show up in different ways. … People are desperate for safe spaces. That’s what women’s sports provides,” Gregg says.
“I don’t know if it’s the chicken or the egg. Women’s sports have always been a safe space for women who are different to be themselves — and all of themselves. Not everyone is athletic. But, being a fan, or being aware of those people, provides an example of people who show up in ways gender norms don’t always tell them to.”
Gregg adds that Northeast Florida is a haven for girls and women’s sports.
“Donna Orender and Zawyer Sports have created this incredible (opportunity) — what I expect will become the G-League for the WNBA,” Gregg says. “We have the LPGA (headquarters) down the road (in Daytona Beach.) We have the ATP in Atlantic Beach. In terms of women competing or having opportunities in sports, this is a great area to do it.”
