Jocelyn Alo appreciates what Title IX has provided for her and other female student-athletes. But the all-time NCAA softball home run queen from Hauula, who led Oklahoma to the past two national championships, said there’s still a long way to go for gender equity in sports.

The reigning two-time NCAA player of the year was among the three finalists for the Honda Cup, which goes to the top athlete of the year in women’s college sports. She’s also a finalist for two ESPY Awards, including Best Record-Breaking Performance, along with Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and Allyson Felix.

Alo is undoubtedly one of the most impactful athletes in Hawaii sports history.

Now we will see if what she has done — and will do — helps elevate her sport to the point where more women can earn a living playing it.

“I wouldn’t be here if not for Title IX and wouldn’t be getting all these awards and recognition,” Alo said in a recent phone interview. “And Title IX has helped give me a platform to advocate, because we’re still not where we want to be yet.”

When asked for an example, Alo cited a recent name, image, and likeness deal she heard about in which a male high school athlete agreed to multi-million dollar compensation.

“I think equal pay is an issue. You have an NIL deal for someone not in college yet, who signed for $2.7 million,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re not even in college yet, and there’s All-American women athletes, winning championships and making Top 10 ESPN plays.’ Where’s the investment in that? This kid hasn’t even been to college yet.”

Another male high school athlete, quarterback Jaden Rashada, will receive $9.5 million in an NIL deal with Miami booster John Ruiz, according to a report on On3.com. The website also reported that University of Florida boosters offered Rashada an arrangement worth $11.5 million.

Female athletes, including Alo, have also made NIL deals since the NCAA began allowing them last year. But none are believed to be anywhere near as lucrative as those offered to top football prospects.

“I understand men put in the work and time, too, but women have to go in with double the time and effort to to get the same amount of recognition,” Alo said.

On3.com has a Top 100 ranking of high school and college athletes based on “NIL valuation.” All 100 are male football and basketball players.

Alo finished her college career last month with an NCAA record 122 home runs. She is the first player to hit 30 home runs in three seasons.

Last week she debuted as a professional player in Women’s Professional Fastpitch as a member of the Smash It Sports Vipers.

Alo leads the Vipers with a .600 batting average in her first 15 at-bats, but is still looking for her first home run as a pro after Monday’s game against Team Mexico.

The Vipers are off until next week. They and the WPF’s other team, the USSSA Pride, begin a tour of the midwest Tuesday with the first of three games in Evansville, Ind.

“It’s been good, I feel very comfortable, very well taken care of,” Alo said. “It’s just a hard adjustment personally because I’m a little burned out.”

College softball has gained popularity in recent years. Alo said she thinks the same can happen with the pro game for the same reason: an increase in home runs.

Pitchers used to dominate fastpitch more than now. Most games were low-scoring duels most often decided by slap singles, sacrifice bunts and defense — small ball. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s still part of the game. But home runs move the needle for the general public.

“I just think the game continues to evolve. I think one thing that evolved over time is the size of girls. We’re getting bigger, and girls are starting to watch their favorite Major League Baseball players hit and incorporate that (power) into their games,” Alo said. “I think women are accepting their bodies for how much weight they can pick up, and the strength they can add.”

Jocelyn’s father, Levi, noticed her strength at an early age. And she never tired of practicing — swinging at 500 pitches twice a day.

“When she was young, she could just hit the ball hard,” Levi Alo said in an article in The Oklahoman last month. “Every team that she’s played on, whether it be baseball or softball, like she could just straight out mash the ball. From when she was 7 years old, she was just mashing balls and I was like, ‘Man, this could be pretty good.’ I still didn’t think as big as I do now, but I definitely thought she was going to go to school for free.”

Levi put Jocelyn and her three sisters in organized wrestling at a young age, too.

In the summers as a young teenager, Jocelyn played travel softball in southern California. She was quickly noticed by college coaches, and started receiving scholarship offers before she got to high school.

As a sophomore at Kahuku, Alo won the state 184-pound wrestling championship, with a dramatic victory in the last few seconds of the final. Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso later said watching video of Alo as a wrestler helped her decide to offer her a softball scholarship.

She transferred to Campbell and focused on the diamond. Opposing pitchers often focused on not giving her anything to hit.

Still, Alo homered and tripled as the Sabers won the 2016 state championship game. In 2017, her senior year, Campbell repeated, despite Alo being walked on a regular basis, including every plate appearance of the championship game.

History repeated itself, as Alo led her college team to championships her final two seasons.

She made an immediate impact, leading the nation with 30 homers as a Sooners freshman. Alo hit “only” 24 home runs combined in 2019 and 2020, partly because of a slight sophomore slump, and then a junior season shortened to 24 games by the pandemic.

Then came the national championships, featuring monster back-to-back seasons by Alo. She hit 34 home runs in each of them. Although many of them came at clutch times during big games, the most emotional was on March 11, 2022, at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium — the site of those high school championship games.

In a nonconference game against the host University of Hawaii, Alo hit the 96th home run of her college career. It broke the all-time record set by Lauren Chamberlain, another Sooners superstar, in 2015.

Alo’s status as a Hawaii and Oklahoma legend and a superstar in her sport was already cemented. Her fame continued to grow with every home run, on the way to another national championship.

JOCELYN ALO

Home: Hauula

Professional: Smash It Sports Vipers of Women’s Professional Fastpitch

National: Team USA

Education: Degree in human relations from Oklahoma University (Big 12 All-Academic second team, 2019), graduate of Campbell High School (2017)

College sports major achievements: Two softball national championships at Oklahoma and two-time national player of the year (2021, 2022), four-time first-team All-American

NCAA career records: home runs (122), slugging percentage (.987), total bases (761)

Additional Oklahoma career records: Batting average (.445), on-base percentage (.557), hits (343), runs (281), RBIs (323), extra-base hits (126)

High school sports achievements: State wrestling individual champion at Kahuku High School (2015), two state softball championships at Campbell (2016, 2017)

June marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. To commemorate this watershed event, the Star-Advertiser will publish a series of stories celebrating the achievements of female pioneers and leaders with Hawaii ties.

Click here to view the Title IX series.