Title Ix: 25th Anniversary, June 23, 1972 It’s Been An Uphill Climb Girls Have Overcome Prejudice, Ignorance In High School Sports

Girls shouldn’t compete in the triple jump because it might damage their reproductive tract.

The girls basketball team doesn’t need new uniforms because it can always use the volleyball uniforms.

To grasp the significance of Title IX on high school girls athletics, ask if any male administrator/coach would dare make such comments today.

Those comments, and worse, suggest the obstacles confronting Greater Spokane League girls athletics in its early years.

While complete equity hasn’t occurred with Title IX, old attitudes have certainly changed.

“It wasn’t cool, period, to be a girl athlete at that time,” Shadle Park volleyball/basketball coach Linda Sheridan said of the early days after Title IX.

“Those girls took a lot of abuse. … Now, athletes are considered the most attractive people (at school).”

Sheridan, 50, was a major force, if not the major force, for championing local girls sports.

For one, she came in at the right time, beginning her teaching career right before Title IX was passed.

But more importantly, Sheridan had the guts to speak up when girls didn’t seem to get a square deal.

“The instant I walked into (Linda Sheridan’s) gym I was mesmerized,” said Ferris volleyball coach Stacey (Shagool) Ward, a Shadle grad. “Here was a female coach who treated us as athletes.”

Sheridan has waged her battles for girls sports, but she never had to fight to get hired as coach.

“Needless to say, at $200 there weren’t many men fighting me for the job,” said Sheridan, who has guided Highlanders teams to more than 750 victories and seven state titles.

Salaries for girls coaches didn’t match those for boys coaches for nearly five years, Sheridan said. Along the way, Sheridan scratched and clawed for proper equipment, uniforms and practice facilities.

She had an ally at Shadle: wrestling coach Lyle Pugh, who also coached gymnastics during the winter.

“He was way ahead of his time,” said Ward, a multi-sport athlete. “We never thought we were second class in his eyes.”

Former Mead volleyball coach Mike Fleming and Buzzie Welch, the Lewis and Clark volleyball coach who also guided Rogers and Ferris, were other men who considered their girls as athletes first.

“When I came to Mead 14 years ago, girls basketball wasn’t very good and volleyball was fabulous,” said Jeanne Helfer, who has coached the Panthers to three State AAA basketball titles during the 1990s. “I watched (Fleming) to see what he was doing.”

There’s no denying the coaching skills of people like Welch and Fleming, but the one area in which Title IX appears to be lagging is in the number of women coaching girls. According to a national survey quoted by the WIAA, most girls teams in the early 1970s were coached by women. By the mid-1980s, at least 60 percent were coached by men.

Sports participation numbers are more encouraging, however.

District 81 activities coordinator Dan Ryan said the district’s latest equity study, three years ago, found nearly the same number of girls and boys involved in sports when football was factored out. Football requires several more players on a roster than any girls sport.

The number of girls competing in Washington high school sports was 58,326 in 1995-96, nearly double from 1973-74. (Girls in two sports were counted twice; three sports, three times).

On a national level, girls participation in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball is at or close to a peak.

According to the WIAA, only in gymnastics had numbers significantly slipped, from a high of almost 85,000 in 1978-79 to 19,398 this year - the lowest number in 24 years.

“I don’t think a lot of (activities coordinators) like to deal with gymnastics because it’s expensive and can be scary,” said Stacey Heaton, who has coached University to the last five GSL titles. “Plus you can’t coach gymnastics unless you really know what you’re doing.”

Heaton said gymnastics is on solid footing in Spokane. The new Mead school, Mount Spokane, is ready to join the GSL and Lakeside of Nine Mile is also making overtures.

Heaton and Helfer said they’ve never thought too much about Title IX because neither has felt discriminated against.

Helfer, the first woman accorded a sports scholarship (basketball) to Washington State, came from Walla Walla, a town that supported boys and girls sports equally.

“I believe in equality and equity, but sometimes we have the responsibility to create a good product when we’re given a shot,” Helfer said.

Ward, who calls herself a product of Title IX, would still like to see some changes. She said coaching searches for high-profile girls sports should be given the same priority as those for big-time boys sports. Society, too, needs to treat girls differently, she said.

“We still aren’t ready for women who are as intense as the most intense males,” she said. “I think there’s some cultural catching-up to do, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 color photos Graphic: High school girls athletics participation totals

MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: NUMBERS UP IN IDAHO In Idaho, the participation by girls in athletics has nearly doubled since the 1984-85 school year:

Year Girls Boys 1984-85 8,670 18,023 1996-97 15,441 25,461 Source: Idaho High School Athletic Association

TITLE IX STUDY Women’s gains are coming, but slowly. That’s what was learned through the NCAA’s second Gender-Equity Study, published in April. Of 305 Division I schools, 265 responded. The survey, which updated the NCAA’s first test in 1992, disclosed:

Fifty-three percent of the underclassmen are women and the average number of women athletes increased from 112 to 130. The men’s participation dropped from 250 to 226. The number of male athletes has dropped 10 percent and the number of female athletes increased 16 percent since 1992. Thirty-seven percent of Division I athletes are women, an increase of 6 percent.

The average operating expense (lodging, meals, transportation, officials, uniforms and equipment) for men’s programs increased 139 percent to $1,165,000. Women’s operating expenses grew 89 percent to $338,600. Institutions spent $407 million on men’s sports to $137 million on women’s sports.

USA Today also performed a gender-equity study in March. Among the data, the newspaper reported during the 1995-956 academic year:

The average operating expense for Division I-A men’s basketball programs was $683,100. The institutions averaged $204,900 for women.

Washington State spent $14,305 per male athlete and $10,107 per female. The University of Washington spent $19,293 per male and $12,356 per female. Idaho spent $9,505 per male and $9,232 per female.

The study showed Eastern Washington and Gonzaga spent more on each female. Eastern, $10,652 men, $11,328 women. Gonzaga, $8,062 men, $9,033 women.