News Page

The Independent (Banjul)

December 16, 2002
Posted to the web December 17, 2002

Banjul

The SOS for Youth and Sports, Samba Faal, has said that bereft of discipline and determination, Gambian sportsmen and women would be stuck.

He made this remark at the opening ceremony of a ten-day international wrestling-coaching course at the Friendship Hotel.

'You might as well shelf sports if you lack these things' he told the gathering. SOS Faal admitted that Gambian sportsmen and women lack not talent 'but the experience and training to take to the international stage as could be seen from the last Commonwealth Games in Manchester.'

The wrestling course, he went on, is historic in the sense that this is the first of its kind in The Gambia, including free style and Greco Roman wrestling.

Speaking earlier, the course director, Tiberu Horvath, a Romanian, expressed hope that his twenty-seven years experience will surely be of use to the participants.

He revealed that he originates from a wrestling family. 'My uncle won a medal in the Olympic games in 1977. My cousin also won a medal in the 2000 Olympic games' he said.

Horvath said he was happy that women are now turning to wrestling.

'There will surely be women wrestlers at the next Olympic games' he put across.

Abdul Shyllon, the Secretary General of the Gambia Wrestling Association and Fred Evans, the second vice president of the Gambia National Olympic Committee [GNOC] also addressed the gathering.

More than 20 participants drawn from the GNA [12], GPF [6] and the Gambia Wrestling Association [5] including four females are bettering themselves from the course.

Sponsored by Olympic Solidarity via the GNOC, the course will wrap up on 20th December.

----------------------------------------------

Title IX has created its own set of problems

December 16, 2002

By Bill Bovender
Columnist

A local Times-News columnist recently extolled the virtues of Title IX insofar as its effect on women's athletics is concerned. There was a plea to oppose any changes in the manner in which the law is administered. Here's the other side of the story.

According to USA TODAY's Erik Brady, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics looking into Title IX is considering a "recalculation'' of the "proportionality'' test which is currently used to determine if women are receiving an equal "shake'' in athletics. "Proportionality,'' in the Title IX context, means a school's athletes should be proportional to the men and women enrolled. For example, if a school is 55 percent female, then, theoretically, 55 percent of its athletes must be female - regardless of participation.

Title IX has had two primary effects on collegiate athletics: There are more opportunities for women; and, conversely, men's teams have been eliminated in order to attempt compliance with the Act because there's not enough money to go around.

Michael Lynch, in an April, 2001 article in REASON, provides an example: At Providence College in Rhode Island, women accounted for 59 percent the student body, but only 43 percent of the athletes. Providence eliminated the baseball team and men's golf and tennis to come closer to compliance. The resources used to field those men's teams were then redirected to women's athletics, although no new women's teams were created.

The Southern Utah Spectrum reports that, in the last six years, more than 350 men's teams at universities have been eliminated "to achieve statistical balance.'' Miami University in Ohio dropped men's wrestling, soccer and tennis teams, while redirecting funds to the women's precision skating team, which it sent to Europe for competitions.

What's also interesting about the Title IX issue is that there are few, if any, women's sports which generate revenues which can be used to fund the teams, let alone be used or shared with other sports. Indeed, at many schools, football and men's basketball are the only sports which produce revenues in excess of their expenses. Those revenues pay for the so-called Olympic sports, both men's and women's. The revenue side of the equation is never taken into account. However, if there are 100 athletes on the football team (scholarship and walk-ons), the school must attempt to provide proportional opportunities for women, whether the participants are there or not.

The worst situation arises at schools who attempt to field a football team when football does not produce enough revenue to cover its operations, let alone assist other teams. The proportionality requirements remain the same.

Sooner than later, football and even men's basketball at Division I or IAA schools may feel the ax if some degree of common sense is not applied. The co-chair of the Commission has proposed that schools be allowed to count "opportunities.'' For example, men's and women's soccer would each have 30 "opportunities.'' If 40 men came out and only 20 women came out, the college could count that as 30 men and 30 women.

That may well be a form of voodoo economics, but, given the harshness of the current Title IX regulations, some voodoo may be called for.

No one is advocating the Act be repealed.

The point here is that Title IX, while certainly a boon to women's sports, has created many problems. To suggest that the current system of implementation continue to be blindly adhered to is narrow-minded, one-sided, and downright stupid.

And while some feminists find proposals for reform "appalling,'' it is likely they have not had sons who lost scholarships in the name of "gender equity.''

----------------------------------------------------------------

Pick Up the Phone, Save a College Team

By Greg Sandoval
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 17, 2002; Page D01

The attempt to save non-profit sports from the budget axe wielded by many major universities entered a new realm over the weekend: the domain formerly inhabited primarily by Jerry Lewis and has-been television stars singing "Feelings."

The University of Minnesota athletic department, its men's golf and gymnastics teams and its women's golf teams facing elimination, held a three-hour telethon on a Twin Cities' NBC affiliate Sunday afternoon.

In a fundraising effort that organizers said was unprecedented, the school raised more than $670,000 with entertainment that consisted of little more than the school's marching band and pleas from luminaries. An additional online auction of sports items that ended yesterday brought in almost $18,000.

"We're trying to be creative and come up with something that sparks some interest," Katie Weiss, the newly appointed Minnesota women's golf coach, said of the telethon.

This is a dire time for many so-called minor sports that do not generate much revenue. For instance, about 171 wrestling programs have been eliminated in the past 20 years, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Foundation. Yesterday, St. John's in New York cut football and men's track (indoor, outdoor and cross-country) this year. Men's and women's swimming will be eliminated after the 2003-2004 academic year.

Two weeks ago, supporters of the soon-to-be-defunct men's and women's swim teams at Dartmouth tried to call attention to their predicament by offering to sell both squads for $212,000 on an Internet auction site, eBay. The sale garnered lots of headlines but few serious bids. Eventually, eBay removed the auction.

The Minnesota telethon was no publicity stunt. Golfing great Arnold Palmer; Gov. Jesse Ventura, the one-time pro wrestling personality and actor; and former Minnesota Twins player Paul Molitor were among those who appeared urging donations.

A committee called Save Gopher Sports seeks to raise $2.8 million by Feb. 1, the school-imposed deadline. Having raised $1.5 million prior to the telethon, the committee needs to raise at least another $500,000.

Lou Nanne, an all-American hockey player at Minnesota and an ex-NHL coach and player who is a member of the committee, came up with the idea for the telethon. Nanne, whose charity work includes the Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy telethon, said that when the fundraising effort for the teams began to slow, he told the committee "that three hours of television would do wonders for us."

The TV station donated the air time, said committee co-chair Harvey Mackay.

Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi blames the cuts nationally on the slumping U.S. economy, tuition increases that have made it more expensive for athletic departments to fund scholarships, Title IX compliance and what Maturi describes as an "arms race" between schools. To attract top football and men's basketball players, athletic departments have built new arenas and practice facilities.

In addition, salaries for major college football and basketball coaches have increased. Michigan State last week unsuccessfully offered to pay Washington Redskins assistant coach Marvin Lewis $1.8 million a year to become football coach. At Minnesota, Glen Mason, in his sixth year as football coach, earns about $1.3 million in annual base salary, according to reports.

Regardless of the cost, Maturi said he doesn't want to see a single sport lost.

"I don't want to be the athletic director remembered for whacking three sports," he said.