Since 2001, Jody Patrick has served Flint Hill as a coach, teacher, advocate, mentor, and friend to both students and colleagues alike. This year, the School surprised her with a special honor in recognition of her already immeasurable legacy.

During the annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day luncheon held at the Upper School on February 1, Director of Athletics Dewayne Robinson announced the creation of the Jody Patrick Spirit Award. The award recognizes a female student-athlete, coach, or faculty member who has had an immense impact on student-athletes and sports at Flint Hill.

“It’s about time Jody got an award named after her,” remarked one of Jody’s colleagues, Stephanie Batbouta. 

For Stephanie, an Upper School Learning Specialist, the former Head Varsity Girls’ Soccer Coach, and a college athlete herself, working alongside Jody has been a privilege. “You want your daughter to be coached by a Jody Patrick,” Stephanie said. “She paved the way for so many of us as a pioneer in the Title IX movement.” 

As both the namesake and inaugural recipient of the award, Jody accepted the honor by reflecting on the ways her life has been transformed by Title IX, the federal law that barred discrimination against women and girls in sports.

“My generation’s female student-athletes were the beneficiaries of the hard work of Patsy Mink, Edith Green, and Birch Bayh. Through their determination on Capitol Hill, previously locked doors have been opened for millions of girls and women in sports, education, law, medicine, engineering, politics, journalism — the list goes on.”

Jody grew up the youngest of nine siblings in the suburbs of New York City, as well as in the Finger Lakes area of Upstate New York. She admired watching her older brothers compete in team sports and developed an athletic prowess that rivaled theirs, especially on the basketball court.

When she got to high school, there wasn’t a girls’ basketball team so she tried out for the boys’ team. After making the first cut, she learned that the school had decided to offer a girls’ team. “As a Catholic school, the administration wasn’t beholden to Title IX’s federal mandate,” Jody points out, “but they realized that offering a girls’ team was the right thing to do.” Jody had the choice to continue with the boys or go over to play with the girls. “In the end, I wanted to be with my friends, girls who also dreamed of playing the sport that they loved,” she recalls. 

Following a stellar high school career, Jody entered the world of collegiate sports, scoring more than 2,000 points for the University of Rochester and setting 14 school records. She went on to coach with UMass/Amherst, Georgetown, and Cornell before landing at the helm of Flint Hill’s Girls’ Basketball program. After 21 years, she left that post as the winningest and longest-tenured girls’ varsity basketball coach in the school’s history, leading her players to five state tournament finals. 

These days she supplements her role as the Director of Physical Education and Lower School PE teacher by coaching multiple Middle School teams, including the Middle School Girls’ Basketball team. Jody relishes the opportunity she has here at Flint Hill to connect with young athletes. “We have to prepare students how to be a member of a team,” she says. “They will be on a team for the rest of their lives — in family, in friendships, and in their career. It’s about teaching life lessons, not just about athletic pursuit.”

Though Title IX has suffered a misleading reputation for “taking money away from the boys,” as Jody puts it, she’s heartened that the country is bearing witness to the fruits of the law’s impact. She celebrates the movement’s pivot from advocating for equal representation and participation to demanding equal treatment and equal pay.

“To be honored with this spirit award 50 years after Title IX’s passage means so much to me and my family. I have been given a gift, but it needs to continue to grow,” Jody says. “Title IX is only as strong as its supporters; its tenets need to be passed forward to the next generation and beyond — Pass it forward, Huskies!”