Are We There Yet?

In the article Are We There Yet? (2009) By R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter great points were made about Title IX.  The article depicted the college sports scene for women’s athletics at a typical University, what Title IX gave to women’s athletics, and where we are today and the progress that still needs to be made.

The article did a great job portraying the lack of support, funding, and realization of women’s athletics pre 1972.  How funding was self-supported, teams were coached by full time teachers or staff members, that seasons were short, and how athletic departments were split by having a separate Athletic Director who managed the women’s programs.

Title IX brought drastic change for the world of college athletics.  It helped put more of an emphasis on women’s sports and giving women an equal opportunity to compete as men.  It also merged men’s and women’s athletics in an organizational standpoint, putting the Men’s Athletic Director in charge of both men’s and women’s sports.  It helped with equal funding of women’s sports, covering things such as travel expense and coaches stipends.

Yet a lot of good has been made through Title IX in regards to women’s athletics there is still progress to be made as stated within the article.  I was drawn to a few of the key issues that remained:

·         Coaching compensation relates to the job being done, not to the sex of the athletes being coached, the sex of the coach, or the sport being coached.

·         Women coaches of men’s teams are accepted and supported for their coaching skills, without regard to their sex.

The first issue is an interesting point but sadly is one I do not see change in the foreseeable future.  There will always be a dividing line in the amount a coach makes coaching women’s sports than men’s.  I think the main focus should be on fairness amongst women’s coaches not biased upon sex rather based on skill, experience, and success.  For example take BGSU’s very own Women’s Basketball Coach Curt Miller.  His success is outstanding within our program but he won’t make as much as say the head football coach even though he has had far more success.  I think if anything a program should compare salaries based on level of importance to the institution.  As an example BGSU’s foremost men’s sport is football, and women’s sport is basketball.  So in retrospect salaries should be made comparable to the relevance and appeal within a program.

I find it hard to imagine a woman ever coaching a men’s team in Division I athletics.  Mainly due to the fact that there is such a high level of respect demanded in working with male college athletes.  If the coach is a woman there will always be that underlying lack of a basic respect, especially in the game of football.

I think it is great what Title IX has done for women’s progression in college athletics and I do believe that women’s athletics will continue to advance in a natural evolution.  With more and more coverage of women’s athletics on television following of various sports and teams will increase and will result in a continual advancement of women’s athletics.

~Tony Fritsch

What's the Problem?: Tim McLellan

I took a lot out of this reading and I found myself agreeing with most of the points made in the article.  The three most compelling points I read about was the segregation based off of sex in almost all of sports, different rules based on gender, and the effect of Title IX.  Segregation has it’s pros and cons for sports I believe.  Women leagues do bring in a fair share of revenue, and if the men’s and women’s leagues of different sports would combine, half of the leagues would fall apart because there would essentially be one super league with the men and women together.  However, I do find it demeaning to women for having separate leagues because it does express the ideology of women being inferior to men.  The really bizarre aspect of the segregation based off of gender is the fact that sports such as card games, board games, and billiards is also separated. 

Another concept that goes along with segregation is the dumb idea of having different rules based off of what gender the players are.  There are almost different rules in every single sport.  Women tennis players play the best two out of three sets, while the guys play the best three out of five sets.  The three point line in basketball is further back for guys than it is for women.  There is also no contact allowed in field hockey but contact is encouraged in men’s ice hockey.  Just to name differences in three sports, it is clear that these rules provide the false reality of girls being inferior to the boys.  These constricting rules pull back the women athletes from being better at their sports. 

The last main concept from this reading that I got was the effects of Title IX.  The article made some excellent points and really got me believing in what they were talking about.  Title IX did a lot for female athletes as it pioneered them to where they are today in popularity in respect.  However, Title IX also doesn’t work in favor as much as it did before.  It is actually having a counterproductive effect on the rise of women’s sports because it favors segregation and different leagues.

Max Householder: About Me

Hello everyone my name is Max Householder and I am a junior at BGSU studying sport management with a minor in journalism. I was born the youngest of 5 children with two of my siblings being half siblings. I would say that my love of sports came from my father who was an avid football fan and sports watcher. From a young age I was joined at the hip with my father on Saturdays and Sundays where we would watch all the games. I would even help him make decisions regarding his fantasy football team. As far as sport in general I one day hope to earn a career in the sports broadcasting field. Whether it is doing play by play announcing for sporting events or covering a team and or sport as a journalist or sports reporter that is my ultimate career goal.

I have already begun to make my transition into that field as I am a member of the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization’s general staff. In the organization I host my own radio show “Out of Bounds,” on Tuesday’s from 6 to 7pm. I also have broadcasted BG men’s and women’s basketball games and helped with the production of those and other BG games. Along with working for the BGRSO I am also a member of the BG News as a reporter of rugby which is one of BGSU’s most successful sports as they came within one game of winning the national championship a season ago. In closing I will say that my favorite sports teams are the Michigan Wolverines in college, the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tim McLellan: My Introduction

There are so many athletes that I would love to see play.  However, after much thinking and consideration, the two athletes I would most enjoy watching play are Lionel Messi and Alex Morgan.  Both of these players are big time soccer players and are both younger than 24 years old and they are some of the best players in the world.  Lionel Messi just received the honor of being named the best player in the world for three consecutive years which is a new record.  He is most likely always the shortest player on the field at all times but he is also one of the quickest and fastest players in the whole world and he scores goals all the time and makes the game look easy.  I really got interested in Alex Morgan this past summer as the USA women’s national soccer team made a run for the World Cup.  I really enjoy when USA soccer teams do well and are playing in the World Cup because for a little bit of time, almost everybody in the nation is a big time soccer fan. 

A little bit more about me is that I love all sports a lot except for the sport of baseball.  I really enjoy watching soccer, basketball, and football however and a lot of other sports as well.  Soccer is definitely my favorite though and I have been kicking a ball around since I was 2 years old.  I have been captain of my high school team, club team, and my beach soccer team.  My beach soccer team is one of the biggest things in my life right now and this past Christmas break, my team and I competed for a national championship in Florida.  The team consists of some of my best friends and my brother Ryan, who has been one of my biggest role models growing up.  This summer we will play in several different tournaments all over Michigan, Ohio, and New York to try and qualify again for the National tournament next year. 

I am really looking forward to this class a lot because I really believe that women athletes are just starting to finally get a lot more respect and popularity in their sport programs that they deserve.  I work the video boards for every BGSU women’s basketball game and every game has been really exciting and really shown me to appreciate the women’s games a lot more.

Alyssa Robinson, ME

Two athletes that I would love to see compete in person are Lance Armstrong and Dara Torres.  Lance Armstrong has been through so much in his life time.  Winning seven consecutive Tour de Frances is just unheard of!  I’d love to have witnessed him competing in one.  Not only is he a great athlete but he has brought so much awareness to cancer and raised millions and millions of dollars for cancer research.  A cancer survivor himself of testicular cancer diagnosed in 1996, and three short years later he won his first of seven Tour de Frances, amazing!  This shows so much determination and dedication on his part.  When being diagnosed with cancer he could’ve easily given up on his dream and simply felt bad for himself, but he pushed himself even harder and did what no other had done before.  The female athlete I’d love to watch compete is Dara Torres a twelve-time Olympic medalist in swimming.  She is not that popular of an athlete, in fact I’m sure over 75% of the class had no idea who I was talking about, but within the last couple year she has really gotten my attention as an individual.  As I have become more and more interested in swimming I’ve realized what a great exercise it is for ones entire body.  The swimming level up at the world level is unimaginable.  I would have really loved to see her compete in the 08’ Summer Olympics.  At age 41, she was the oldest to ever earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team (won three silver metals).  She is now training for the 2012 Olympic Team which I’m looking forward to hopefully watching her.  And quite possibly she could have the nicest body I’ve ever seen on a female, not to mention at that age (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAnjHdIAnDM).

Overall my favorite sport is basketball, to watch, to play, you name it.  I guess it could be kind of weird cause neither of my athletes above are basketball players.  In high school I ran Cross Country, Basketball, and Track.  Excelled in all three, state level in Cross and Track.  Went to the next level and competed in Basketball for two years and Track for one.  And last year I decided it was time to move on and start to figure out what to do with my life.  I’m still competing and currently training for an Ironman, which might be the main reasons why I chose Lance Armstrong (cycling) and Dara Torres (Swimming).  I also play basketball every second that I can.  I know in the future I want to coach high school girls’ basketball and I want to move to Colorado and work in an Olympic training center.

I think I will really enjoy class this spring it’s really been a big interest of mine; Gender and Sports.  I don’t really have too much expectation.  I’m just glad to finally be learning about something I enjoy and finishing up on the required gen education classes.

Tony Fritsch: More About Me

The two athletes I would pay to see are Tim Tebow and Abby Wambach. I would love to see Tim Tebow play in person mainly because of the great intensity in which he plays the game. It’s very evident how much passion Tebow puts into each game, and in preparation for each game. It’s moments like Tebow’s junior season at Florida following the loss to Mississippi when he gave his famous post game speech (http://youtu.be/4sGv2Zw-WQw). He put all the blame on himself, put the team on his back, and led them to another National Championship. Tebow’s leadership is a huge reason why I would pay to see him play. As an NFL quarterback he may not be the best but he certainly works hard to get there. I am currently reading his book Through My Eyes, a quote from that book perfectly sums up why it is I would pay to see him play, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” (Tebow, Whitaker, 2011, p. 38). Before the 2011 World Cup I hadn’t even heard of Abby Wambach, and to be honest the thought of women’s soccer hadn’t crossed my mind since the 1999 run with Mia Hamm. It was during the 2011 World Cup that I began to follow USA soccer and took notice of Wambach. I really enjoyed watching their run to the Championship game, where they fell short to Japan in an overtime thriller. During that run Abby Wambach came up big in the “clutch” moments of the games. It seemed when the stage and what they were playing for got bigger, so did Wambach’s game (http://youtu.be/_-FmVaPu8Z8). She too plays with a lot of passion and is a very charismatic athlete.

I enjoy watching and playing pretty much any sport, and am always up for something new. In High School I competed in Cross Country, Basketball, and Track. I was better at the two running sports lettering in both sports three years each. I was a captain of the Cross squad my senior year, and captain my last two years of Track. I carried on those leadership roles into coaching, I currently coach Cross Country, Basketball, and Track at St. Aloysius hear in Bowling Green. I really enjoy coaching and now realize it is something I would like to continue doing beyond my days in college. This year I am coaching 7^th and 8^th grade girls basketball. It was a transition from coaching both guys and girls to just girls. Something interesting I have found is just how different the dynamics of a team and practice is from boys basketball. In my free time I enjoy running, so far I have ran two full Marathons and plan to compete in others. I find endurance sports challenging and thrilling, and plan to compete in events such as a Tough Mudder and a Duathlon as well.

As far as the class goes I would like to further explore the differences in team dynamics from Men’s and Women’s teams.