|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prep sports not using Title IX 2/8/10 Donna Lopiano has been on the front lines of the Title IX fight for nearly four decades. The former University of Texas women's athletic director and longtime president of the Women In Sports Foundation is fairly well-known for jousting with the giant that is Division I football. Lopiano, who will discuss gains and setbacks in women's sports Thursday in the Quad-Cities, believes the next significant front in the fight for equality will be high school sports.
"There aren't many schools that are in full compliance," Lopiano said of the 38-year-old federal statute mandating gender equity in extracurricular activities provided by educational institutions. "The colleges are doing a little better than high schools because there is a lot more data available in the Equity (on Athletics) Disclosure Act. "That kind of transparency probably could be required of high schools. There is an act before Congress right now." Equality here? Quad-Cities athletic directors and one Hall-of-Fame girls high school coach said schools here should stand up well to the scrutiny. Although Lopiano said the two of the key deficiencies on the high school equity front are in the quality of coaching and facilities supplied to girls, Amy Baker, the volleyball and girls golf coach at Davenport North, said equality nearly has been achieved on both fronts at her school and, by and large, throughout the area. "I think it has come a long, long way and things are getting more equal every year," said Baker, who was a high school athlete herself when President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law in 1972. "It has taken a long time, but they are coming around." Mark Brooks, athletic director at Bettendorf High, and Mike Tracey, Brooks' counterpart at United Township in East Moline, said pay is equal for boys and girls coaches at their schools. And both are confident that is true Quad-Cities-wide. "I can show you the salary schedule for most of the 4A schools in Iowa and there would not be any discrepancy between boys head basketball coach and girls head basketball coach," Brooks said. "Baseball and softball are going to be on the same level. Boys track and girls track are the same." He said that has been the case at Bettendorf for years. Facility-wise, most Iowa schools use the same gyms for girls and boys, and, in basketball, Iowa has gone so far as to schedule girls games on the same Tuesday-Friday schedule as the boys long have played. Many schools have added multiple girls-boys doubleheaders, so both genders play to the same crowds. Brooks, the former boys basketball coach at Bettendorf, said boys and girls teams have been divvying prime practice times equally since he arrived in the mid-1970s. Behind the near 90-year-old Iowa High School Girls Athletics Union, Brooks said Iowa is a leader in sports gender equity. "They are the pioneers," he said. "We had girls competitions long before other states in the union did." More to do? Although Tracey said UT is careful to supply equal pay and facilities for both genders, he said meeting Title IX requirements can be a challenge. "I think Title IX is something you have to stay on top of," he said. "It's the thickest file in my cabinet." He said he thought everyone in the Illinois Quad-Cities did a good job keeping boys and girls on an equal playing field. "I think we are pretty representative," he said. "I'm sure if you wanted to, you could go through every school and find some discrepancy." Rock Island AD Bob Swanson is sure of that. A 1998 complaint that his school's girls basketball court was smaller than the one played on by the boys proved to be unfounded. The girls court actually is 6 inches wider, he said. Still, because a complaint was lodged, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights was required. As a result of that investigation, Rock Island supplies pep bands and cheerleaders for its girls basketball squads to ensure full Title IX compliance. Few other schools do that. "That was a battle," Swanson said. "Our girls teams did not want cheerleaders. I don't know if they felt weird having girls cheer for girls teams. We said it's required and you're going to have it." Gains that matter That level of compliance may be the letter of the law, but Lopiano said it is not the spirit of Title IX. By and large, she is pleased, if not fully satisfied, with progress made to date. "It takes about three generations to manage the type of change Title IX mandates," she said. "I think we are probably 60 percent of the way there." In 1972, she noted, 300,000 girls played high school sports. Today, that number is well over 4 million. "And these kids are healthier for it," said the woman who grew up wanting to play for the Yankees but settled for a career in pro softball. "The whole point of Title IX is to give our sons and daughters the opportunity to play because sports has tremendous benefits in terms of confidence and self esteem. "Research shows that kids who play sports manage their time better and are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college." An ancillary gain from 38 years of Title IX, she said, is a mutual respect boys and girls athletes share, and the changes in public perceptions of girls who play. "I think the majority of the population is excited about girls playing and it is a different place," she said. Source: Quad City Times Megan Willis: The new face of softball 2/8/10 She's 24 years old, blonde, confident, trim, built like a slab of Stonehenge and has been called "one of the hottest softball players in the U.S." But Megan Willis' real beauty comes behind the plate, where she is masked, geared up, squatting with a mitt and using that rifle of a right arm to pick off thieves racing toward an extra base. As we celebrate National Girls and Women in Sport Day on Wednesday, Willis has proven to be more than a pretty face but a fresh face of a changing game. She has a softball story whose pinnacle didn't come with a gold medal swing from her neck in Atlanta; Sydney, Australia; Athens, Greece or Beijing, China.
She never made the cut for an Olympic team. Now that the USA-dominated sports has been dropped from the Olympic program, the next generations of players won't chase an Olympic softball gold medal. They'll have to figure out how to keep from hanging up their glove after college, the way Willis has. "My story hopefully shows today's young players that there are still plenty of softball opportunities from college scholarships to coaching to a professional league to keep the game in your life," said Willis, who was the starting catcher for the 2009 National Pro Fastpitch champion Rockford (Roscoe, Ill.) Thunder. "There is a place for their passion, even without the Olympics." Willis, originally of Chandler, Ariz., first laced up her cleats at age 9 and played for the Arizona Hotshots and Phoenix Storm before joining Orange County-based Worth Firecrackers' 18-and-under Gold team. She sought a softball scholarship at a top program. So for two summers, she drove five hours west to catch the Firecrackers' Huntington Beach practices and games, to get better exposure and to play for Tony Rico, who coached young women who went on to earn full-rides at softball powerhouses, become All-America players and, until 2008, Olympians. Willis landed full ride to the University of Texas, where she put her mitt on the famous drops, wicked curves and risers, frozen-rope fastballs and winding-path missiles from left-hander and 2004 and 2008 Olympian Cat Osterman. "Who could ask for a better experience than catching for one of the best pitchers in the world?" said Willis, who won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and All-America second team honors and set Texas and Big 12 records for putouts (762) and total chances (795). Her Longhorns made the College World Series during her sophomore and junior years. But what kept her in the game after college and two cuts at national team tryouts was the upstart NPF. The league didn't have just 18 spots but 100 on six teams, hers coming on the 2007 NPF Chicago Bandits. The NPF's budget, equipment and facilities weren't those of college, where athletes had travel suits, full weight rooms, a training staff and an endless supply of gloves, bats, laundered uniforms and cleats. NPF paychecks were modest, not enough to pay a year of bills or rent. Teams took mostly buses to little towns to play games five days a week – some doubleheaders -- at high schools or converted minor-league baseball stadiums. Some times there weren't locker rooms. Most times there weren't more than 500 fans in the bleachers. "We all knew this was a new league," said Willis. "It wasn't an easy life by any means but we were making sacrifices to start something that we hope will get bigger and better and be there for the future generations of softball players." After one season, her friends who couldn't understand the hold athletics has on a player told her she couldn't play softball forever, that she needed a real job in the real world. She reluctantly listened, retired in 2008 and took a marketing job for 11 months, showing Austin gyms and Pilates studios Lululemon yoga-inspired fitness apparel. The only time she slipped her hand back in a mitt was during major-league baseball's offseason, when she caught the curves and sliders hurled by her husband, Sam LeCure, a former University of Texas and current triple-A Cincinnati pitcher. She missed her game. "Come back to the NPF," Osterman begged in a Dec. 2008 call. "We don't have a catcher. I really, really need you to catch for me." While Willis spent a month deciding, Osterman kept pressing, even texting Willis' husband, "You get her all year. I just want her for the summer. Can I ask Megan for her glove in softball?" So Willis emerged from retirement, trained and joined Rockfield Thunder for the 2009 season. For a time, the Thunder lost more games than it won but in a five-team league, it still managed to make the playoffs. It dropped its first game to Osceola County (Fla.)-based USSSA Pride but came back to win the best-of-three series and capture the Cowles Cup. The Thunder is supposed to get championship rings – eventually. "Returning to the NPF was one of the top three choices and the best experience of my life," said Willis, who will reunite with Osterman next season on the Tennessee Diamonds, a Knoxville-area expansion team created after the Thunder folded. "The NPF gave me a chance to play with the best players in the world, past Olympians and All-Americans, even Div. II players throwing one-hitters against the big-name hitters." Softball made a comeback in Willis' life. She then signed on as a Texas volunteer assistant coach, began offering private lessons and helped start an under-12 Austin Platinum team. She joined former Olympians Osterman, Caitlin Lowe and Kelly Kretchman to run Triple Threat Clinics in the country's fledgling softball communities as well as hotbeds such as Orange County, where there was Dec. 20 clinic at Los Amigos High in Fountain Valley. Willis shared her story, which was just as inspiring as those of the Olympians. "I have more passion for the sport than I ever had," said Willis, the fresh face of softball. "I've made softball my job." Megan Willis may have a model's looks. But she is already a model to softball's next generation. Source:
OC Register
Watley leaving a softball legacy 2/8/10 She's 28 now, hardly close to being called old, and still can run the 60 feet between home plate and first base in 2.6 seconds. Maybe not on every day, but on enough days that the United States softball selection committee didn't have to think all that hard about naming her to its 2010 national team. But Natasha Watley would be lying if she said she hadn't thought about retiring from the sport that has netted her two Olympic medals, an NCAA championship at UCLA and the 2003 Honda Broderick Award as the nation's top female athlete. "I think about it all the time as I'm getting older," she said over brunch at a San Fernando Valley Coffee Bean. "After 2008, when we knew it was the last time softball would be in the Olympics, it was really hard. It was like, 'OK, where can you really go with this anymore?'" Many of her teammates simply left their shoes at home plate after the United States' final game at the Summer Games in Beijing and moved on with their lives. Watley thought about it too, but deep down she felt she had more left to do. "The more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to keep playing," she said. "Softball isn't dying, it can still grow and it can still change lives. "I think it's important that [U.S. national team stars] like Jennie [Finch] and Jessica Mendoza and myself stay out there. Yeah, we're still competing at the highest level and making sure we're representing the USA well, but our roles have changed. "It's about keeping visibility out there, not letting the sport die and being leaders and role models." And so in the gloom of the first few months after the 2008 Summer Olympics, when the U.S. not only lost to Japan in the gold-medal game in Beijing in one of the more shocking upsets but also watched helplessly as the International Olympic Committee pulled the plug on the sport's future participation in the Olympics, Watley charted a new course for herself. As much time as she put in at the batting cages she has spent working on her foundation, which aims to create opportunities for disadvantaged girls to learn and play softball. As much time as she spent in the gym, she'd spend working with the young women she mentors in South Los Angeles through the softball program of Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI). And on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, she's hosting the inaugural fundraiser for the Natasha Watley Foundation, a 5K run and softball clinic at Balboa Park in Encino. "For them, it's not even that I'm a softball player. ... It's just that I'm someone who looks like them to look up to," she says of her work with RBI. "They don't always think they have a lot of options other than become a singer, be a model, be an actress even though there's so many more things they can do. "I've done a lot of speaking at high schools, trying to get more girls into playing softball, and their biggest thing is always like, 'Man, if I were to play that, I'd get my hair messed up and my nails dirty, and no boys would like me.' "That was never a thought I had growing up, but that's why I go out there." Mendoza, the president of the Women's Sports Foundation, has known Watley since they were teenagers and has seen her growth and commitment firsthand to helping the next generation. "I'm really proud of her," Mendoza said. "What Natasha is doing is great, not just for softball for these girls. Her mission is just to get these girls active and be a role model for them. It's got softball in it, but it's more than that. It's just about showing them why they need to get out of the house and start leading a healthy life." Watley was raised in the Orange County suburb of Irvine and started playing softball in elementary school, because that's what girls in Orange County played. When Watley was young, she never realized how few African-Americans rose to the highest levels of the sport, but her parents did. "My dad always wanted me to play basketball growing up," Watley said. "My parents had Laker season tickets growing up; I used to go to the Forum every week. "Softball just kind of fell into my lap. I think some girl in first grade handed me a flier and asked if I wanted to play. I was an only child, so I was like, 'Sure, why not?' And I just fell in love with it. "I have no idea who that girl was, or what she's doing now, but 'Thank you.''' When she got to UCLA and started collecting awards and All-American honors every year, then-Bruins coach Sue Enquist started talking to her about her unique opportunity as an African-American woman in softball to share her experiences with others and help grow the sport. At first, Watley didn't understand exactly what Enquist was speaking of. "Sue would always tell me, 'Tash, this [RBI] is going to be huge for you,'" Watley recalled. "But I was like, 'I didn't grow up there. I'm an only child; I got everything I wanted. "Then I realized that's kind of the point. I got everything I wanted, I had parents that created opportunities for me, and these girls don't have that. That's when it clicked. They don't even know these opportunities are out there." Over the years, Watley's work with RBI has increased. The group even renamed its annual softball league in her honor. She's hoping her foundation helps expand opportunities for the program. "None of us are training for the 2012 Olympics any more. That's not an option," Mendoza said. "And we may not play as long as we would have because of that. But not having the Olympics has made it even more important for us to think of the legacy we want to leave in the sport. "And you can really see Natasha doing that." Source:
ESPN USSSA State Meeting - February 13, 2010 2/8/10 The USSSA State Meeting will be held February 13th at the Rosemount Community Center at 2:30pm Items on the agenda for the meeting include:
USSSA Fastpitch organization does offer national tournaments hosted in the Orlando, Central Region World Series in St. Louis, Kansas City, and other Midwest cities in all age groups. Plus this year Minnesota and Iowa directors are working together to host the Midway National Championship in Minnesota. It will be a 4 day national type event, open to any teams that play in a USSSA tournament this year. This Midway Championship will have all the amenities of a national tournament starting with an opening ceremony also a border battle with Iowa at all age group. Down and Dirty in Eagan, Minnesota Irish College Showcase, Bloomington, Lakeville, Becker, and Rosemount are all USSSA Tournaments. Anyone that joins RAAA Rosemount tournaments by APRIL 20th the tournament host will cover your USSSA team sanctioning fee. More information can be found at http://usssaregion5.com/ and http://mnsportsgroup.com/.Call Tim Johnson 651-322-1628 for any information about sanctioning your tournament(s) or team(s) USSSA. Submitted by USSSA Minnesota High School Athletics Accountability Act Could Encourage Gender Equality in High Schools 2/6/10 Rep. Louise Slaughter, D. N.Y., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, D. Maine, have introduced the High School Athletics Accountability Act of 2009, which would significantly increase the effectiveness of Title IX protection in high school athletic departments. Title IX of the Education Amendments, passed in 1972, has helped close the gap of inequality in resources given to men and women at all levels of education. Though it prohibits gender discrimination in any educational programs that receive federal funding, its effects have been most noticeable in athletics. Before 1972, only 2 percent of college athletes and 7 percent of high school athletes were female. By 2001, those levels had increased to 43 percent and 41.5 percent, respectively.
Increasing women's participation is just one way to ensure
gender equality. Numerous studies show that women who participate in sports are
more likely to do well in school, and less likely to use drugs. Source: CivilRights.org FREE Admission to the Gopher Softball Metrodome Tournament! 2/2/10 Download and print a copy of the free admission flyer for each person attending. See flyer for information on "High School Day" and the "Kids Clinic" too!
NFCA Division II Top 25 Poll - 2010 Preseason 2/1/10 The NFCA Division II Top 25 is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches, two representing each of the eight NCAA regions. Final 2009 records are shown. First-place votes are in parentheses.
Source:
National
Fastpitch Coaches Assoc MFL Info and Meeting Notice 2/1/10 The Minnesota Fastpitch League (MFL) is gearing up for an exciting summer season in our third year. MFL is expanding service to all ages and all levels (A/B/C) for 2010, not just "A" (aka Elite) as in past years. The league will be dual sanctioned ASA & USSSA, and is guaranteeing entry into a choice of either the ASA of MN State, or USSSA State. Dates for these events are included in the referenced Q&A document link contained below. The MFL has no qualifier, allowing participation in multiple state tournaments if your team desires.
MFL is the one metro league that has already committed to be ASA, and is offering flexible options that allows a variety of pathways so you can pursue the tournaments you desire (both state and invitational). If you have interest in attending an ASA NQ or ASA National event this season, at this time you will need to play in the MFL. With 14A and 16B ASA Northern Nationals in Mankato this summer it may be even more attainable for teams to play in a top notch event. ASA continues to offer a wide variety of services beyond just the national tournaments. Information on the ASA of MN program can be found at http://msf1.org/PDF/Softball/Youth/FP%20Q&A.pdf . The insurance and umpire infrastructure you've been enjoying has been due to your team and league's ASA status. By playing ASA sanctioned events, you can be assured that all teams are ASA sanctioned, insurance is in effect, and staffed with ASA trained umpires. USSSA has grown into the second largest fastpitch organization in the country and offers national tournaments hosted in the Orlando and Central Region World Series in St. Louis, Kansas City, and other Midwest cities. These tournaments offer terrific competition from around the country and Minnesota teams have finished very well. In addition, for select teams, the USSSA has introduced a Conference USSSA series of events that will provide the most competitive teams a chance to play the best in the region at multiple venues. More information can be found at http://usssaregion5.com/ and http://mnsportsgroup.com/. The next MFL meeting is February 13, Rosemount Community Center, 1pm, and is open to associations and coaches. The registration meeting will occur in late March or early April. A Q&A on the league can be found at http://mnfastpitchleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/MFL-QnA.pdf . To make sure you understand your options this season given the changes, you are encouraged to attend. If you would like to keep abreast of activity relating to the league, please feel free to visit our website at http://mnfastpitchleague.com. We wish you the best in softball in 2010. Minnesota Fastpitch League Early Worm Fastpitch League for 12U's 2/1/10 The Rosemount Irish Dome will be offering the "Early Worm Fastpitch League" for 12U's from March 7 to May 2. Registrations are being accepted through February 14. More information is available at this link. A Survey of Youth Sports Finds Winning Isn’t the Only Thing 1/31/10 At a time when sports tutors seem as plentiful as piano teachers and high school games are routinely nationally televised, Peter Barston has learned something important about youth sports.
Adults may lean toward turning children's games into an approximation of professional sports. But ask young players what they want, and the answer can be disarmingly simple. More than training to be a Super Bowl star, more than even winning, youngsters play sports for fun — at least they do in Darien, Conn., Barston said. He has not proved that scientifically. But a research project spearheaded by Barston, a sophomore at Fairfield Prep, makes an intriguing case that while parents dream big, their children focus on the small stuff. Since August, Barston has toured youth leagues in Darien, asking this question: Why do you play sports? So far, he has polled about 255 members of the Darien Junior Football League, who range from fourth grade to eighth grade, and 470 boys and girls in the same grades from the Darien Y.M.C.A. basketball league. Barston, 15, has begun to survey players in the local softball program. Next up are baseball players and, if he receives permission from league officials, lacrosse players. The project was born of curiosity — and happenstance. Last summer, his father, Mike, who serves on the board of the junior football league, attended a workshop by the Positive Coaching Alliance, a national organization advocating a kinder youth sports culture. The presentation referred to a 20-year-old study by scientists at Michigan State's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports who had polled young athletes about their reasons for participating in sports. Barston and his 12-year-old brother, Stephen, took that survey at their father's urging. Then, with his father's encouragement, Barston began pondering a local version. I thought it would be really interesting to update it for Darien, he said The survey is a single page listing 11 reasons children might have for playing sports, including the laid-back (to have fun, to make friends) and the purposeful (to win, to earn a college scholarship). Like the Michigan State researchers, Barston instructed the Darien players to assign points based on the importance of the reasons for a total of 100. From the mound of data he gathered, Barston found a striking pattern. No matter how he categorized the responses, the most important reason youngsters gave for playing sports was the same: to have fun. That was the top response from football and basketball players, from boys and from girls, and from players in each grade from fourth to eighth. In the basketball survey, 95 percent of boys and 98 percent of girls cited fun as a reason for playing, nearly twice the number who mentioned winning. Barston does not say that his poll is statistically accurate. But it is a window into what offensive linemen and power forwards think about sports and might say to their parents and coaches — if they were asked. It shows kids are out there to get away from their lives and have a good time with their friends, Barston, a recreation league second baseman, said. They're not out there just to win. His preliminary findings are not far from what the Michigan State researchers Martha Ewing and Vern Seefeldt concluded in 1989. Their study of 28,000 boys and girls around the country asked, Why do you play sports? The top answer then was fun, followed by to do something I'm good at and to improve my skills. Winning did not crack the top 10. When told about Barston's survey, Ewing said: It's a great project. Within communities, parents and sport organizations need to do more of it — talk to the athletes. Barston said his initial reason for undertaking the survey was simply to compare the views of young athletes today with those from 20 years ago. He estimated that he had spent more than 100 hours on the project, and now he is thinking bigger. Barston has been toying with the idea of starting a Web site where he would post data and encourage other young people to start Why Do You Play? projects. The Web site idea is very preliminary, he said. I am trying to think of ways to spread the word and get other people to do this in their hometowns. Parents and league officials in Darien have praised Barston's efforts. Guy Wisinski, a member of the junior football league's board, said the survey was a touch of reality for adults. It reminds us why kids play sports in the first place, he said. It's not about winning a championship in the fourth grade and having that be a life achievement. Source: NY Times Gopher Softball Skills Clinic - Kids Clinic 1/21/10 Join the Gopher Softball Team on the field at the Metrodome on Saturday February 13. Minnesota will play Arkansas at 1:00PM and the clinic will start on the field at approximately 3:00PM. The clinic is free and open to children 12 and under! All participants will receive a free ticket to all of Saturday's games! Participants need to bring their own glove. Tickets can be picked up at Gate D of the Metrodome on the day of the clinic. This is open to the FIRST 100 REGISTERED. ALL PARTICIPANTS NEED TO PRE-REGISTER! No Walk-Ups for this event!
Minnesota High School Day -- Free Admission to Gopher Games! 1/2110 Come and watch Minnesota vs. Iowa State and Minnesota vs. Drake on Friday, February 12 at 3:00PM and 5:00PM at the Metrodome! Please fax your softball team roster to Rori Carlo by Monday, February 8 and your team and coaches will receive FREE admission to the Gophers’ games. This FREE offer is only valid for these games. Friends and family are welcome to join your softball team at the game, additional tickets may be purchased for only $3! To order additional tickets, please call the ticket office at 612.624.8080 or 1.800.U.GOPHER. Please mention the promotional code – SOFTBALL HIGH SCHOOL DAY. To order on the web, go to gophersports.com. Then click on buy tickets, then click on promotions. You will then enter the code highschoolday. Friends and family tickets must be ordered by February 5th, 2009 to receive tickets by mail. Tickets ordered after February 6th will be held for pick up at will call. Team tickets will not be mailed and will be available only at Gate D at the Metrodome on the day of the game. For any additional questions please call Rori at 612.625.4879 or carlo42@umn.edu. Tickets are first come, first serve and will be available until sold out. SO SEND IN YOUR TEAM ROSTER TODAY! (with an estimate of the number attending). There will be another High School Day later in the season,
if you can not make it to this one. See Original Information from the U of M
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
