Sports and the sexes
I’m not a woman hater at all. Far from it.
Give me the company of the fairer sex on any day of the week even if it means going to mall and spending an hour and a half in Bath and Body Works.
That said, for all of the good Title IX has done for women and high school girls sports, I still have a lot of problems with it.
If you don’t know what Title IX is, here’s what it’s all about in a nutshell. It was a law passed by Congress in 1972 mandating equal educational opportunities for all in education. Unfortunately it isn’t enforced as an education law, it’s mostly used to make sure women have equal treatment in athletics.
It’s become about having comparable facilities, funding and opportunities that their male athletic counterparts have.
I read a story in the Defiance newspaper that Defiance High School is under Title IX scrutiny after complaints to the Office of Civil Rights in Washington. Softball facilities in Defiance pale in comparison to the baseball field and the baseball coaches are paid much more than their fellow coaches on the softball field. Sounds like those complaints have legs and I imagine some kind of action will be taken by the school in Defiance to remedy the situation.
Where I have a problem with Title IX tends to be at the college level. Minor men’s sports like wrestling, track and field, swimming and cross country are all being eliminated at schools across the country as a result of Title IX. In fact yesterday James Madison University cut 10 sports because of Title IX you can read the story here. The law mandates that one of the ways to meet Title IX is to have the number of athletes at your school mirror your student body. If 55 or 60 percent of your student population is female then 55-60 percent of your athletes should be female.
Do women at the college level really have as much interest in athletics as their male counterparts? Drive by the intramural fields at BGSU one evening and you tell me? I would say no. You could start a wrestling team at BGSU tomorrow and have 20-30 kids show up to compete probably.
In college, Title IX has been more about cutting opportunities for men and adding a few opportunities for women to level the playing field. To me that’s just not right.
BUT and this is a big BUT. Without Title IX high school girls sports wouldn’t be where it is today. There might not have been a Caity Matter driving the lane for Bluffton High School or Ohio State or Findlay High School’s Stephanie Swiger knocking down kill after kill for the BGSU volleyball team. And there might not be as much interest in sports by girls at even younger ages if it weren’t for Title IX.
It’s been a blessing and a curse both at the same time.
NOTEWORTHY:
BEN WATCH: I cannot confirm or deny it, but there’s been some Big Ben sightings around town this week. Evidently he and his body guards were in town at some point.
WEIRD ONE: Did you read the story about the Cory-Rawson and Vanlue game? What a wild one that was 58-26? Over 900 yards of offense, and nearly 180 yards in penalties. People have told us that Vanlue’s Nick Lee is one of the best quarterbacks in the BVC and he showed way last night passing for 298 yards. Outsiders say the Wildcats have 6 or 7 kids that can play for anyone in the conference but they wear out and depth is killing them.
BACK OFF TROJAN FANS: The FHS fans have been talking the Trojans up on various Internet message board in the last week. OK FHS beat a struggling Worthington Kilbourne and thumped Lima Senior. Some fans have been using the word…dare I say it…Playoffs? Puh-leese. They are 2-4, maybe they have a chance to win the GBC but the playoff thing isn’t going to happen. They still have a lot of work to do just to win next week. This doesn’t refer to everyone but quit running your mouths and let the kids play ball!
NB NUMBERS: North Baltimore started the season with 24 kids on their roster but have suffered through a rash of injuries in recent weeks. With Hopewell-Loudon, Mohawk and Seneca East still on the schedule, health has to be a concern. I’ve heard rumblings about the school worrying about having enough bodies to play on Friday nights.
STICKY SOCCER SITUATION: Findlay High School’s girls have all but wrapped up the GBC soccer title and all-conference voting takes place next week. They’ve pretty much ripped through the competition in the conference playing their varsity team in some GBC matches and their JV team in others. That’s created some hard feelings among the league coaches and some interesting scenarios regarding who makes the all-league teams. Who do you vote for all-league Findlay’s JV players or their varsity players that may not have even played against your team during the regular season?
CONFERENCE COMPARISON: Someday soon I’m going to blog about which conference is better in sports the BVC or the MAL. They are two adjoining conferences I know relatively well. Could make for an interesting debate.
NO SUNDAY BLOGGING: No blog tomorrow, church, family and work take precedent. Have a great weekend we’ll be back at it on Monday.
NEWSWORTHY:
Third Kenton teen in deer decoy case sentenced
Pennsylvania family chased by rabid coyote
Ohio U players aren’t suspended for runs ins with the law
CG beats Jefferson in volleyball
Saturday’s Courier Sports (Includes games stories on Findlay-Lima Senior and Arlington-McComb)
Bellevue tames Galion Tigers
Schmitt leads Allen East past Bluffton
Titans top Bath
Mansfield Area football boxscores
Defense powers Harding past Sandusky
PH nudges Delta
Give me the company of the fairer sex on any day of the week even if it means going to mall and spending an hour and a half in Bath and Body Works.
That said, for all of the good Title IX has done for women and high school girls sports, I still have a lot of problems with it.
If you don’t know what Title IX is, here’s what it’s all about in a nutshell. It was a law passed by Congress in 1972 mandating equal educational opportunities for all in education. Unfortunately it isn’t enforced as an education law, it’s mostly used to make sure women have equal treatment in athletics.
It’s become about having comparable facilities, funding and opportunities that their male athletic counterparts have.
I read a story in the Defiance newspaper that Defiance High School is under Title IX scrutiny after complaints to the Office of Civil Rights in Washington. Softball facilities in Defiance pale in comparison to the baseball field and the baseball coaches are paid much more than their fellow coaches on the softball field. Sounds like those complaints have legs and I imagine some kind of action will be taken by the school in Defiance to remedy the situation.
Where I have a problem with Title IX tends to be at the college level. Minor men’s sports like wrestling, track and field, swimming and cross country are all being eliminated at schools across the country as a result of Title IX. In fact yesterday James Madison University cut 10 sports because of Title IX you can read the story here. The law mandates that one of the ways to meet Title IX is to have the number of athletes at your school mirror your student body. If 55 or 60 percent of your student population is female then 55-60 percent of your athletes should be female.
Do women at the college level really have as much interest in athletics as their male counterparts? Drive by the intramural fields at BGSU one evening and you tell me? I would say no. You could start a wrestling team at BGSU tomorrow and have 20-30 kids show up to compete probably.
In college, Title IX has been more about cutting opportunities for men and adding a few opportunities for women to level the playing field. To me that’s just not right.
BUT and this is a big BUT. Without Title IX high school girls sports wouldn’t be where it is today. There might not have been a Caity Matter driving the lane for Bluffton High School or Ohio State or Findlay High School’s Stephanie Swiger knocking down kill after kill for the BGSU volleyball team. And there might not be as much interest in sports by girls at even younger ages if it weren’t for Title IX.
It’s been a blessing and a curse both at the same time.
NOTEWORTHY:
BEN WATCH: I cannot confirm or deny it, but there’s been some Big Ben sightings around town this week. Evidently he and his body guards were in town at some point.
WEIRD ONE: Did you read the story about the Cory-Rawson and Vanlue game? What a wild one that was 58-26? Over 900 yards of offense, and nearly 180 yards in penalties. People have told us that Vanlue’s Nick Lee is one of the best quarterbacks in the BVC and he showed way last night passing for 298 yards. Outsiders say the Wildcats have 6 or 7 kids that can play for anyone in the conference but they wear out and depth is killing them.
BACK OFF TROJAN FANS: The FHS fans have been talking the Trojans up on various Internet message board in the last week. OK FHS beat a struggling Worthington Kilbourne and thumped Lima Senior. Some fans have been using the word…dare I say it…Playoffs? Puh-leese. They are 2-4, maybe they have a chance to win the GBC but the playoff thing isn’t going to happen. They still have a lot of work to do just to win next week. This doesn’t refer to everyone but quit running your mouths and let the kids play ball!
NB NUMBERS: North Baltimore started the season with 24 kids on their roster but have suffered through a rash of injuries in recent weeks. With Hopewell-Loudon, Mohawk and Seneca East still on the schedule, health has to be a concern. I’ve heard rumblings about the school worrying about having enough bodies to play on Friday nights.
STICKY SOCCER SITUATION: Findlay High School’s girls have all but wrapped up the GBC soccer title and all-conference voting takes place next week. They’ve pretty much ripped through the competition in the conference playing their varsity team in some GBC matches and their JV team in others. That’s created some hard feelings among the league coaches and some interesting scenarios regarding who makes the all-league teams. Who do you vote for all-league Findlay’s JV players or their varsity players that may not have even played against your team during the regular season?
CONFERENCE COMPARISON: Someday soon I’m going to blog about which conference is better in sports the BVC or the MAL. They are two adjoining conferences I know relatively well. Could make for an interesting debate.
NO SUNDAY BLOGGING: No blog tomorrow, church, family and work take precedent. Have a great weekend we’ll be back at it on Monday.
NEWSWORTHY:
Third Kenton teen in deer decoy case sentenced
Pennsylvania family chased by rabid coyote
Ohio U players aren’t suspended for runs ins with the law
CG beats Jefferson in volleyball
Saturday’s Courier Sports (Includes games stories on Findlay-Lima Senior and Arlington-McComb)
Bellevue tames Galion Tigers
Schmitt leads Allen East past Bluffton
Titans top Bath
Mansfield Area football boxscores
Defense powers Harding past Sandusky
PH nudges Delta
posted by --J-- @ 8:32 AM
1 Comments:
At 12:17 PM,
Anonymous said…
A BVC vs. MAL blog would do little good. That "debate" raged on the Huddle a few years back and did nothing but piss people off. Leave well enough alone and say "it's all good!"
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