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Patrice Crenshaw

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

6/14/2001

Graduation date: June 1, 2001 AJC Cup winner: Patrice Y. Crenshaw

Patrice Crenshaw served as president of the Tri-Cities student body and
captain of the volleyball, soccer, and wrestling teams for two consecutive
years. She has earned membership into the National Honor Society and the
French Honor Society. She is the nation's No. 2-ranked female wrestler in
the 115-pound weight class, a three-time All American wrestler, and a state
finalist for the Wendy's High School Heisman Award. She plans to attend the
University of Minnesota at Morris on an academic scholarship and major in
psychology/pre-med with a Spanish minor.

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Wrestling USA (USGWA) Article 5/15/2001

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Girls vs.Boys

5/15/2001

I totally agree with the article about how strange it is that
officials find it "inappropriate" that a girl should want to challenge her
opponent, a boy. She has just as much right to do so as any other wrestler.
Being a mother of a girl wrestler,and she is a dedicated wrestler, I would
find it rather offensive if I was told that she could not challenge a
wrestler because she was a girl, and he was a boy. I heard a father once say
to my husband that he should not allow her to wrestle because it hurts boys
self-esteem. Well, what about HER self-esteem...she has lost several matches
in her four years of wrestling, and has been very upset. Not because she lost
to a boy, but because she lost period. Now, if parents would not tell their
little boys that they have to wrestle a girl and they better not lose, then
maybe it wouldn't be such an issue.

p.s. I also have a son who wrestles!
Lily Holman
From: LHolman414@aol.com
Boy-Girl Matches

In high school (and perhaps in leagues for youths) sanctioned matches are
held between boys and girls. I find this odd. Typically schools go out of
their way to prevent physical contact between members of the opposite sex.
They then promote it in a sport build around the closest physical contact.
For parents with daughters:

1) Are there any statistics on the results of these matches? If the girls
cannot have a reasonable chance of winning, won't they lose interest
(assuming their primary interest was athletic competition)

2) Is officiating good enough to prevent injuries?
For parents of sons:

1) Does a boy have anything to win in one of these matches? If he wins, he
was expected to; if he loses, he has the humiliation of losing to a girl.

At a local fair they held armwrestling tournaments. In the under 16 class
there were different prizes for boys and girls. When the winner of the girls
bracket wanted to challenge her male counterpart at the same weight, the
officials refused and deemed it inappropriate.
Very strange

Bear9710@yahoo.com
Tadkc333@yahoo.com
We aren't even in the Title IX game
By Ruben Leon
datamagic@home.com

The problem is with the choices made by those entrusted with compliance

"We just reached the $1 billion mark in sponsorship dollars spent on women's sports, but when you look at men's sports, with over $20 billion, it gives you a sense of where we are and where we have to go.'' - Billie Jean King, at the Women's Sports Foundation Summit 2001, where she gave opening remarks to the Women's Professional Sports Commissioners panel.

Consumers choose to be participants or spectators when it comes to entertainment and/or sports. Sponsors respond to those choices. The above figures indicate that our society prefers to support male sports 20 to 1 over female sports. Financing for a female NBA or NFL is not available because our society does not want a female NBA or NFL.

Billie Jean King is not the only activist who want to force their perception of what is fair on you and I. We should spend our time building a consensus as to what is a fair compliance of the Title IX ruling, and then have the ruling amended to reflect reality.

Here is what I believe is fair.

If a University has 30,000 students and 5,000 wish to participate in University sponsored athletic programs and 50% of the participants are female, then that University should allocate 50% of the athletic resources to female or co-ed athletics. If on the other hand only 20% of the athletes for that University are female the University should make 20% of the University athletic resources available for women.

Billie Jean King would not agree with this. She's talking to people who are part of the policy making process. Who are we talking to?