COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Soccer is almost a state pastime in Colorado. Girls soccer has the third highest participation behind volleyball and track and field, yet before 1977, it wasn't even a consideration.
Donna Sorensen, nee Hoover, played for the Golden High School junior varsity boys soccer team in the mid-70's.
"I was a tomboy and I played with them and could hold my own," she said.
But when the school's athletic director excluded her from the team, sixteen-year-old Donna filed the lawsuit Hoover v. Meiklejohn that would change Colorado high school sports forever.
"It was truly a groundbreaking case," she said. "It was in federal court and it resulted in the judge giving three options to the state of Colorado."
The options were merge the teams, create a girls team, or eliminate the boys team. The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) chose the latter.
"So I thought, 'well, I'm going to be known as the girl who destroyed soccer in the state of Colorado,'" she said.
After only weeks, and some hateful messages in her junior yearbook, the state reversed its decision and created two separate, equally funded teams.
"So, my senior year, I was able to participate in the first state final championships for girls soccer."
While she didn't lift a trophy, Donna walked away with a monumental win, and her teammates recognized it.
"The team awarded me an achievement award and it was a standing ovation. All of the parents and everyone stood up," she said. "For your peers to give you that kind of recognition, it was really quite wonderful. And it wasn't really until that moment that I fully realized what had been achieved."
As Donna sits in the stands 47 years later and watches three of the best players to ever come out of the state of Colorado, Lindsey Horan, Mallory Swanson (nee Pugh), and Sophia Smith, she's proud of how far this state has come, but refuses to take any credit for breaking the glass that allowed them to play on this pitch.
"I'm a very humble person and I really believe that it would have happened eventually. If it wasn't me, there would've been someone very soon who would've taken on or run that gauntlet," she said. "Maybe I had a little impetus for one of them playing for their high school, but I don't take credit for what happened. It's just too big 'a sport."