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Women enjoy great moments in year 2000
Miami Herald 12/27/2000
As the days of 2000 dwindle down to a precious few, it is time to reflect on another banner year for women in sports and to examine the progress of female athletes who are about halfway to the finish line in the race for acceptance, compensation and exposure equal to that of male athletes.
It was an Olympic year, and since the Olympics have become a showcase for women, the stars of Sydney were Marion Jones, Cathy Freeman, Inge de Bruijn and Andreea Raducan.
Women's pole vaulting and women's water polo made Olympic debuts after years of being deemed too difficult or too unladylike for the ``weaker sex.'' The female vaulters proceeded to upstage the men and the water polo players proved they can rip swimsuits as robustly as the men. Once women's wrestling gets into the Olympics, women will have their own Rulon Gardner.
Venus Williams lifted the Wimbledon and U.S. Open trophies above her head and the popularity of women's tennis another few ratings points above the men's game. She won the Olympic singles gold medal and she and sister Serena won the Olympic doubles title. Williams, not Tiger Woods, should have been Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year.
The Houston Comets and the Connecticut Huskies dominated women's basketball.
Sandy Baldwin became the first female leader of the U.S. Olympic committee after 106 years of male presidents.
A female field goal kicker won a discrimination lawsuit against Duke University.
Curiously, no achievements from this year made a list of top 10 moments in women's sports history in a nationwide poll recently commissioned by The Sports Authority chain:
1. Passage of Title IX legislation in 1972 mandating equal opportunity for female athletes at federally-funded institutions.
2. Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio to win three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
3. Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
4. The U.S. women's soccer team defeated China to win the 1999 World Cup.
5. Jackie Joyner-Kersee became the first woman to win the heptathlon in consecutive Olympics at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
6. The U.S. women's gymnastics team won the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
7. Sonja Henie became the first and only woman to win individual figure skating gold medals in three Olympics (1928, 1932, 1936).
8. Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1957.
9. The birth of the WNBA in 1997.
10. Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the ``Battle of the Sexes'' tennis match in 1973.
While the No. 1 choice is a sound one for its sheer sweep, and No. 4 should be moved up to No. 2, and No. 10 to No. 3, a strong argument could be made for other milestones left off the list:
1. Wellesley College established the first rowing club for women in 1875.
2. Suzanne Lenglen of France, wearing a ``shocking'' short-sleeved dress without a corset, won her first Wimbledon title in 1919.
3. Mildred ``Babe'' Didriksen places first in six track and field events, sets three world records and wins the team title at the Olympic trials before winning two golds and a silver at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, after which she embarked on her golf career.
4. Nine rogue tennis players, including Billie Jean King and Rosemary Casals, establish the Women's Professional Tour, sponsored by Virginia Slims.
5. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova win the Wimbledon doubles title and go on to have one of the greatest rivalries in all sports.
6. Nancy Lopez's career earnings top $1 million in 1983, the same year she gives birth to a daughter.
7. In 1984, Joan Benoit wins the first women's Olympic marathon, 56 years after any races longer than 200 meters for women were first banned by Olympic officials.
8. The NCAA women's Final Four sells out for the first time in 1993, the same year Stanford, Virginia and Rutgers decide to pay coaches of men's and women's basketball teams equal salaries.
9. The Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan Olympics in 1994 generate TV ratings that remain among the highest ever.
10. Venus Williams signs a $40 million endorsement deal with Reebok, the most lucrative ever for a female athlete.
And so, 25 years after Little League baseball player Nancy Winnard was kicked out of a game for not wearing a protective cup, 20 years after Nancy Lieberman became the first woman to have an autographed ball marketed by Spaulding, 12 years after Florence Griffith Joyner streaked to her world records and eight years after Manon Rheume became the first woman to compete in a regular-season pro hockey game, there is a sign of progress.
A list of 10 moments is much too short.
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VB’s Duffy silences her doubters
Tcpalm.com December 12, 2000
The evidence that Ericka Duffy has come a long way in her brief wrestling career is presented as soon as she walks into practice each day.
"At first the guys kept saying I was crazy," said Duffy, a junior in her second season wrestling for Vero Beach at the 128-pound level. "I did it to prove them wrong. But now I’m one of them."
Duffy could not fault the comments she received when she picked up the sport last November. Though four girls came out for the start of practices, she was the only one to survive the first few weeks. And to improve her skills, she was going head-to-head with boys who were trying to help the Indians to their second-straight Treasure Lake Conference title.
And though the initial practices were tough, Duffy said they were an experience she almost regretted losing when Vero Beach created a girls team this season and recruited 10 girls to join.
"These girls won’t have the chance to have guys pushing you like I did," she said. "The guys would say stuff to make me mad. But I think it helped. I wouldn’t have gone as far without them."
Where Duffy went was second place in the state last season. That finish earned her an invitation to the national championships in Michigan. By the time those honors arrived in February, the only comments teammates were making were for praise.
"Ericka could be competitive with a lot of the boys," Vero Beach assistant coach Sam Cassara said. "She’s got that much heart. And she has the natural ability to wrestle."
Vero Beach head coach Wayne Ivey worked with Duffy last season on the techniques that earned her the second-place finish. This season he handed the girls team to Cassara and Kimberly Davidson, who graduated from Vero Beach in June after wrestling for four seasons and capturing a second-place title of her own in the 130-pound class two seasons ago.
Cassara and Davidson watched Dec. 1 as Duffy finished third, with a record of 3-1, in the Gateway Tournament in Orlando, defeating girls with more experience and the backing of an established program.
"You could tell she’d be good," Davidson said. "She had some real tough matches. And even the one she lost she should have won."
The success should not come as a shock. Duffy committed herself to the sport during the summer, wrestling almost daily against Vero Beach’s boys. Once practices started this November, she committed herself to becoming a model for the new girls, giving some of the pointers that helped Kathy Haynes (110 pounds), Bridgette Boger (189) and Ashley Parmeter (98) also earn top-four finishes at Gateway.
Encouraged by her own success at Gateway, Duffy has raised her expectations. She said she wants the girls team to continue the recent dominance of the boys, who have won 50-straight dual meets. That quest continues Saturday, when the girls compete in a tournament in Oveido.
Individually, she wants to win the state this season and put on a more impressive performance at the national finals, where she failed to medal last season.
Regardless of whether she achieves that goal, Duffy knows she’s already earned the respect of the boys she trained with last season. Now she only concerns herself with what she says is the lone weakness in her matches.
"I need to work on my confidence," Duffy said. "I can’t go in thinking I’m going to lose. I need to go all out."
Ivey said he would gain a better understanding of where his young boys team, now pushing for its third-straight conference title, stands after a tournament Saturday in Okeechobee.
Following a third-place finish out of 12 teams, Ivey knows the boys are much further along than he expected as they prepare for the Santaluces Tournament Friday and Saturday in Lantana.
"We were a lot crisper in technique (than in a 39-28 win against St. Lucie West Centennial on Dec. 6)," Ivey said. "We took nothing for granted. Before we were complacent. Today we were determined to do well. As young as we are, to do this well I’m totally happy."
Heavyweight Isacc Wimes, the lone state qualifier for Sebastian River (1-4) last season, started practicing last week and should be fully recovered from a leg injury in time for today’s match at 6 p.m. at home against Centennial.
Wimes’ return is more good news for Shark coach Jim Adams, who saw his team capture its first dual meet win of the season Friday at Fort Pierce Westwood and then saw five of his wrestlers (Dan Inghram, first at 152; Kumani Bolden, second at 189; Jerome Whitter, third at 103; Bryan Cortez, fourth at 215 and Ryan Sandgren, fourth at 125) medal at Okeechobee.
"We’re starting to jell," Adams said. "The win Friday was a huge relief and we carried that momentum into Saturday. The guys are all working hard and when you do that you see results."
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*Wrestlers to watch: Boscobel -- Corey Fritz, sr., 140 (34-7); Hans Weigel,
jr., 171 (24-10). Cuba
City/Benton/Southwestern -- Jake Donar, so., 130. Darlington -- Nella
Bernardoni, fr., 103 (5th ranked girl in nation); Jeve
Bernardoni, sr., 135 (27-8 in 1998-99); Pat McGowan, sr., 160 (36-3).
Dodgeville -- Jason Hughes, sr., 140. Fennimore --
Casey Jentz, sr., 112 (38-1, 103-12); Dustin Kreul, jr., 140 (31-8); Ned
Lease, sr., 152 (25-15). Iowa-Grant -- Ryan Allen,
sr., 189 (38-3); John Brogley, sr., Hwt. (30-6). Lancaster -- Mark Bahl,
jr., 112 (31-9); Brad Moore, so., 135 (30-8); Mike
Stader, sr., 145 (32-8); Zach Hampton, jr., 152 (35-6); Mallan Schwantes,
sr., 189 (36-6). Mineral Point -- Kolbi
McReynolds, so., 103 (36-6); Zach Chambers, jr., 125 (37-7); D.J. Dolphin,
sr., 145 (37-4). Platteville -- No information
available. Prairie du Chien -- Pat Fugham, sr., 152 (16-11); . Richland
Center --Zach Menne, so., 125; Steve Weeden, jr.,
145; Cole Mueller, so., 160; Tim Haffner, jr., 171; Mark McCauley, sr., Hwt.
River Valley -- Kyle Mueller, so., 119 (33-8);
Adam Nachreiner, sr., 125 (37-4); Jon Bindl, sr., 152 (26-13). Riverdale --
Jamey Bomkamp, sr., 125 (25-10, 73-22);
Corey Hamilton, sr., 130 (25-15); Jeff Campbell, sr., 145 (34-8, 85-30).
* Outlook: The SWAL will be tough, deep, and talented again this year, with
10 of the 13 member schools returning at least
one state qualifier. Lancaster and Richland Center are the heavyweights in
Division 1, but River Valley has the bodies to
challenge as a darkhorse. After moving up in weight from 112 pounds to 125,
Hornets sophomore Zach Menne looks to
repeat as a state champion. Mineral Point and Riverdale are the teams to
watch in Division 2.
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Boys on girls teams? It's a fair question
October 28, 2000
By KATHLEEN RALLS
Sun Staff
As the state tournaments kick into gear next week, the debate over whether
boys should be allowed to play field hockey will probably be rekindled.
Back in 1989, Masconomet wing Dan Warner played two years of varsity field
hockey. Because of Warner's participation the Chieftains were not allowed in
the state tournament. That was over a decade ago, before inter-gender play
became accepted by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Some coaches, like Amherst Regional High's Amy Bottke, believe that having a
boy on a girls field hockey team steals away a slot for a girl to
participate in
sports and that it is detrimental to the 1972 ruling on Title IX.
Bottke has never had a male try out for her squad, but every year her team
competes against Southwick High, which has been using male players
throughout the last half of the decade and is a contender for the Western
Mass.
title each year.
The argument backs the fact that schools have worked hard to equalize
facilities, uniforms and numbers of teams and this is one very large leap
backwards.
For many coaches, what it comes down to is strength and physical
capabilities.
A boy on a girls team presents an unfair advantage because of his speed and
possible intimidation. This explains why there have always been separate
basketball teams and soccer teams and so on.
But the truth is that high school and college females have been creeping
onto
football rosters (mostly as kickers) and on wrestling teams, among other
sports.
So much so that there has been an explosion of girls and women's varsity
wrestling at both the high school and collegiate level.
So how is that fair? Girls get to play on boys' teams and take the place of
some
young man's spot, but it doesn't flow the other way?
It isn't fair. In European and Middle Eastern countries field hockey is
played
equally by both genders. Field hockey has been an Olympic sport for men
since
1908 while it has only been as recently as 1980 that it became a medal sport
for women. Most likely it's news to you that the U.S. does have a national
men's field hockey team despite the fact there's virtually no feeder
program.
The National Under-21 men's team is dominated by males from California,
where there are club teams.
How are the boys supposed to learn the game if there are no other
opportunities besides their local girls team? It seems unlawful to deny them
the
opportunity and would certainly be made into an issue if the situation was
reversed. Take the recent case of former Duke football player Heather Sue
Mercer, who just received $2 million in punitive damages because of the way
the coaching staff treated her and then dismissed her. The same situation
could
be conceived with a female-dominated sport like field hockey.
In all fairness, any boy who loves the game enough to don a skirt and say
nay
to the naysayers should be commended. The only way field hockey will ever be
played by both genders at the high school level is if enough boys come out
to
start their own team.
Since the game most likely will never reach the popularity level of
baseball,
football or soccer, friends of the sport should welcome any interest. The
fact
remains that field hockey is still a game of skill where body checking,
stick
tackles and high-sticking is not allowed, which dismantles most physical
advantages. Unlike softball, which does offer a comparable game in baseball,
field hockey is unique.
It's only fair.
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