News Page
By Steve Smith
01/03/2007
“No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid.”
BRIGHTON – It’s been 35 years since those words were written into federal law. Those words make up what’s known as Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in schools, both academically and athletically.
Athletics seem to draw the most discussion when the subject is Title IX.
Rules
The law lists three main areas used to determine if educational facilities are in compliance: financial assistance, accommodation of interests and abilities and other program areas.
Though financial assistance (also called scholarships) doesn’t apply specifically to high school sports, the same rules are used for the preps.
“Athletic programs are funded by the institution dollars,” said Rhonda Blanford-Green, assistant commissioner for the Colorado High School Activities Association. “As most institutions receive federal grant and educational dollars, these are funneled into the athletic programs as part of general educational funding.”
Everyone join in
According to the Colorado High School Activities Association, the number of girls participating in sports continues to grow. In 2004-2005, the most popular female sport (by participation) was volleyball, with a total of almost 9,000 participants. Girls basketball (7,700) was second.
In 1973, the year after Title IX started, girls basketball drew 1,700 athletes, while volleyball programs in the state drew almost 1,800.
The least popular sport, according to CHSAA, was field hockey (401 participants in 2005-2006), a drop of almost 20 percent since the 2003-2004 school year.
“I see some phenomenal athletes,” said Ray Garza, former coach of the Fort Lupton High School girls basketball team. “They didn’t draw a lot of attention from the community. But times have changed. I’ve been to some female sports events, and it’s like watching an old-time boys game. The girls are doing things that most people say they can’t do.”
“They are expected to give the same effort in season and during the offseason as the guys,” added Ed Basquez, Garza’s counterpart at Brighton High School. “It’s only right.”
Support
Garza wasn’t a big supporter of Title IX at first. But he’s changed his mind.
“Before, I thought it would take money away from male sports,” he said. “I didn’t think it was going to have much of an effect. Female sports are at another level. Athletes are given more opportunities. Before, there weren’t any.”
Basquez remembers a time when girls didn’t play such sports as basketball and soccer.
“Now, they’re getting noticed,” he said. “If a girl wants to play college sports, there are a lot of opportunities out there that they don’t know about.”
Kerry Brunton, former boys basketball coach at Fort Lupton High School and now the school’s athletic trainer, is pleased with the effects of Title IX.
“When I went to my first reunion, some members of the undefeated girls basketball team were there. I didn’t know we had a girls team,” Brunton said. “They had league play. That was it. And that’s not right. Title IX has been a good, positive change.”
“I think the biggest benefit comes at the collegiate level due to scholarships,” said former Brighton High School volleyball coach Lora Houdek. “Title IX definitely had a positive impact to high school sports.”
On the fence
Not everyone feels that way. BHS swim coach Andrea Maples said the impact on high school sports was small.
“When I was in college, I saw it first hand as a female athlete in swimming,” she said. “We had nine full-ride scholarships to divide among the girls; our men had three. The men got less money for suits, trips, and less guys got a chance to swim at the college level, unless they were very good. A lot of other colleges were starting to cut their men’s teams due to lack of funding.
“Our team in college practiced men and women together,” Maples added. “This was helpful on both sides to provide the competition needed and support to get both teams to do their best.”
Brighton Charter School athletic director Troy Henry said Title IX achieved its purpose. But he also found a down side.
“Now more females than ever are competing at sports,” he said. “If there is a negative one it could be that some male sports have been cut at the higher level to fund the female sports.”
That’s especially true in the world of college athletics. Universities dropped so-called minor sports (primarily wrestling and baseball) to get in line with federal law. It also happened at Brighton High School almost 15 years ago.
“The negative impact Title IX had on our school is the dismissal of the gymnastics program in the early 1990s, I believe,” Houdek said. “The balance between boys and girls sports was unequal. The girls had one more sport than the boys. Unfortunately, gymnastics was canceled because there was not an equal male sport.
“That was the only negative thing at BHS,” she continued. “There were many colleges and high schools that were reversed. They were able to bring in more girls sports.”
President George W. Bush commissioned a panel to examine Title IX. Blanford Green said that may change how compliance is measured.
“The review placed emphasis on all parts of the three-pronged test instead of focus on hard proportionality numbers,” she said. “I think the main focus of the review was to try and support participation for all genders unlike 20 years ago, when it was cut male sports, regardless of interest, to support the underrepresented groups (females).”
Brunton doesn’t think much of the composition of physical education classes at Fort Lupton. Blanford-Green said it’s up to school districts to decide on structure of P.E. classes. Title IX comes into play because what classes are offered needs to be equitable, whether it’s a single-gender class or co-ed.
Brunton would rather see co-ed classes.
“They are together from the time they are little kids up to high school,” he said. About 5 percent of the girls are naturally competitive. But a lot don’t sweat, and the boys dominate the P.E. classes.
“It’s hard on the boys who want to tear someone’s head off,” he continued. “I have to tell them to tone it down because girls are playing, too.”
Maples didn’t see any impact in high school sports.
“ Title IX helps women’s sports in all areas,” she said. “To make up for football, there needs to be some help for men’s teams other than football, basketball and baseball. Only the men’s sports that bring in money get funding.”
Brunton said girls tend to shy away from weight-training classes because the boys’ abilities are intimidating.
“Is it an overreaction? Yes,” he said. “It’s not illegal. But my girls P.E. classes and my boys P.E. classes aren’t going to interact.”
Brighton fields 19 interscholastic teams, nine for girls. Frederick High School fields 13 teams, six of which are for girls. Fort Lupton High School sports 15 teams, seven of which are for girls. Prairie View, the newest high school in District 27J, fields 16 teams split evenly among boys and girls. The ThunderHawks also coop with Brighton High School for their swimming teams.
Single-gender sports
The idea of girls playing traditionally male sports is not as unusual as it was, say 30 years ago. Katie Hnida was a place-kicker for Chatfield High School and at the University of Colorado. She was the first female to score a point in an NCAA Division I football game when she attended the University of New Mexico.
Golden High School’s Brooke Sauer became the first female to qualify for the state wrestling tournament in 2006.
Thanks to recent federal court decisions, though, Blanford-Green said the trend might not continue for boys who want to play predominantly girls sports, such as volleyball.
“There have been federal cases won in favor of keeping the sport single-gender regarding boys on predominantly girls teams,” she said. “If a boy will change the dynamics of play, then they cannot play on a girls team. This applies for all single-gender sports. He (who want to play prep volleyball) is not out of luck. There are several non-CHSAA teams available for boys to compete on.”
Title IX’s future
In some cases, such as Brighton Charter School, it’s tough to talk about the future of Title IX. Henry said that was the result of fluctuating numbers of male and female students who enroll at the school.
“I don’t think the future lies in Title IX but in the city, districts and parents,” Houdek said. “Funding is where all athletics are taking a major hit. Good coaches are hard to find as well. For instance, only three coaches have applied for my position (Cody VanArsdale is the new BHS volleyball coach). That is not a good pool.”
Garza isn’t sure what the future holds for women’s sports.
“I can see a girls wrestling program, but not a football program,” he said. “Wrestling isn’t a cost-prohibitive program. I could see a seven-on-seven flag football league, but not one with physical contact.
“These won’t be offered at every school,” Garza added. “Schools with the numbers will be able to add more sports. I can see female hockey and maybe some of the extreme sports.”
Maples sounded excited regardless of what the future holds.
“ Colorado has the most fit people in the country living here. Sports will always play a large part in men’s and women’s lives due to all the opportunities to get involved here,” she said. “Girls sports are popular now and have gained popularity in the last 10 years and will continue to grow. I am looking forward to preparing girls and boys to participate in college athletics and get a life changing experience from it.”
Houdek would like to expand Title IX to include equal media exposure for boys and girls sports.
“I find it equal for basketball, but the other girls sports don’t get as much publicity as the boys,” she said.
in closing
Garza said Title IX gave female athletes a chance to show what they could do.
“Before, they were above water but paddling like hell below,” he said. “Now, it’s a case of ‘Let’s make something of this opportunity.’”
“It makes a world of difference,” Basquez said. “One of my daughters went to school for sports and got a degree. It’s the best thing that could happen.”
Brunton understood the pain of cutting sports, particularly at the college level.
“No matter where the money comes from, it’s not fair to spend 60 percent of it on men and 40 percent on women,” he said. “It’s been a good thing for women’s sports. It’s all about kids and equality.”
“The perception of Title IX is more positive as people (institutions, administrators, parents, etc.) become more educated to the law and work to make all programs equitable,” Blanford-Green said.
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Four-girl Vintage wrestling group places eighth
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The Vintage High School girls wrestling team was able to sneak in one more tournament before the calendar year ran out, and it was definitely worth it.
Because of the holidays, only four wrestlers competed yet Vintage took eighth out of 28 teams at the Lady Lancer Invitational at East Union High in Manteca.
Rebecca Medieros, competing in her first tournament of the season, was 3-1 with a pair of pins on her way to a third-place finish. Medieros joined the team part way into the season but has progressed rapidly.
“She’s a fierce competitor, and just like the rest of the first-year girls, she takes instruction well and isn’t afraid to ask questions when she doesn’t understand something,” said Missouri Valley College wrestler and Vintage graduate Michele Querin, who is helping coach the team during winter break. “It’s going to be fun to watch her develop.”
Chelsi Aguayo also secured a third-place medal, after bouncing back from a disappointing loss in the first match.
“Chelsi just came back from an injury last week, so she’s still getting back up to speed.” said Querin. “After that first match, she just refocused herself and earned that third-place medal.”
Alexis Soto and Abrah Saunders also competed for Vintage.
Soto, also making her first tournament appearance of the year, secured a fourth-place finish. Querin said Saunders basically wrestled better than anyone else on her team, but faced top-ranked opponents in each of her five matches.
“It’s too bad she doesn’t have a win to show for it,” Querin said. “By this time next year, girls aren’t going to be looking forward to wrestling her.”
Next up for Vintage is the Cougar Girls Invitational at Newark Memorial High School in Newark on Saturday.
Vintage hosts the ASICS Napa Valley Girls Classic Jan. 12-13. The event was the first girls high school tournament in the nation and the largest of its kind.
• Vintage sixth in tourney
Vintage took sixth place out of 24 teams at the inaugural NorCal Twilight Classic, which was held recently at St. Patrick/St. Vincent-Vallejo.
Audrey Garza, the team’s only senior, captured the heavyweight championship with an impressive second-round pin over San Leandro’s Shauntia Beck, the state’s sixth-ranked heavyweight.
“Audrey has worked her tail off this year, and it’s just great to see it all come together with a first-place finish,” said Vintage coach Jim Lanterman.
Chelsi Aguayo, coming off a hip injury and competing for the first time this year, took second place, losing in the championship match 6-3.
“The fact that Chelsi got to the championship match is amazing as this was the first competition she’s seen this year. When she works out the rust, she’ll win close matches like this,” said Lanterman.
Heather Farace, the team captain, took sixth place with a pair of pins. Abra Saunders and Sarah Michalek also made contributions as the team made its best showing this season.
Vintage has 10 girls on its squad this year.
“We’ve been competing with three or four girls every tournament. But now, we’re getting everyone healthy again. We should keep getting stronger the rest of the season, and make some noise in the team standings,” said Farace.
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