June 2018 marks the 46th anniversary of the Title IX legislation. Title IX states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” While the scope of the legislation covers both curricular and extracurricular activities, it is best known and remembered for its impact on athletics. Prior to Title IX women’s sports were regarded with less recognition than intramural activities. Games were played immediately after school, very few people observed the games or cared about the outcome of the contests and a limited, local schedule was in place. Practice opportunities and skill development techniques were minimal. There was limited funding for uniforms and equipment. On a scale of 1-10, competition was at about a 3 – women were not expected to “care” about the competition. Not only does Title IX assure that sports opportunities are available for women it also requires that schools “provide the historically under-represented gender in athletics – females – equivalence in the other athletic benefits and opportunities” that are related to sports participation. Colleges are required to have a Title IX Coordinator whose role is to protect women enrolled in athletics from gender discrimination. The federal government’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for monitoring compliance with the law. OCR evaluates compliance based on the 11 categories listed below, summarized by the acronym PLAYING FAIR. 1. Protective athletic equipment, uniforms and athletic supplies. 2. Locker rooms and practice / competition facilities. 3. Allocation of travel / transportation / per diem benefits. 4. Years of experience, compensation and quality of coaches. 5. Institutional housing and dining facilities and services. 6. Nature of publicity, marketing and media services. 7. Game and practice times and scheduling. 8. Facilities for and access to athletic trainers and medical services. 9. Academic tutoring services for student athletes. 10. Institutional support services for athletic programs. 11. Recruiting resources provided to athletic programs. Although you can see that the standards consider college athletics the relevant protections apply to high school athletics as well. And they have had an impact. Prior to Title IX you’d find only old, used, outdated equipment available to girl’s programs. Practice times were scheduled whenever the men weren’t using the gym, often at odd hours. There were limited funds allocated for travel, limiting schedule options. The salaries allowed for coaches prevented highly qualified coaches from applying for the positions. There was no media coverage. The impact of this legislation goes far beyond the additional sports opportunity offered by law. In 1974 there were 300,000 women competing in school sponsored athletic activities in the United States. In 2012 there were 3.1 million. The number of women participating in sports has increased for 25 consecutive years. It is easy to see the cultural influence of Title IX. By participating in sports women have another opportunity to take advantage of the metaphorical experiences athletics provides that help to develop character and life skill competencies. Participating has an impact on what happens with young women after sports. Athletic participation provides visible evidence of determined, confident, strong minded women, often with leadership abilities. It means our daughters are farther along towards having the same opportunities as our sons – although the publicized events of the past year have shown that there is still lots of work to do. Today’s players have no way of understanding how far women’s athletics has come. There is probably no better example than the game of basketball. Certainly women compete at a high level in all the available sports options, but the need to develop multiple technical skills sets basketball apart. Women can now hit the long range shot, dribble with extreme dexterity and pass with pinpoint accuracy. The stereotypes, biases and myths about what women can or can’t do on the court (and in life) have been dispelled. The game is now played at a speed and level of precision that seemed impossible just 20 years ago. Today, there are no limits to the possibilities for a young woman dreaming of any future vocation. As Margaret “Digit” Murphy, a former Cornell hockey star and the longtime Brown University hockey coach said, “To me, Title IX can be boiled down to just two words. Those two words are: Why not?” WRAPPING UP THE SPRING Our last spring sessions are this Wednesday and Thursday. For the past few weeks we’ve been stressing the need to understand the basic fundamental skills and learning to self-correct. When the summer months come the younger players will be challenged to do two things: • Find the discipline to keep working on your game without the structure of weekly gym time and instruction. • Make sure the work you do is done correctly – while lots of repetitions are the key to improvement, the reps need to be done correctly if you want to improve. Without a coach around to observe and give you feedback you have to rely on your knowledge to self-correct when needed. Younger players typically regress a bit over the summer. There’s lots of reasons for that – vacations, hot weather and having fun doing other things. That’s what you should be doing. However, if you want to be a better player when the rec. and school seasons roll around, you have to make the time to work on it during the summer. The high school girls will be playing a lot this summer. The Forks League and Holy Family tournament followed up by the Fall League will provide almost 30 opportunities to improve individually and as a team. While it’s a significant commitment you will only max out on the opportunity if you continue to develop your individual and team skills. That means mastering new skills, using them in the games, learning from the experience, correcting, using them again and so on. This is the time when the most notable gains are made. As always, the choice is yours. You determine the things that are the most important to you. You’ll find that, whatever you put your time to, there is a connection between “the work you put in and the results that come out”. Most people choose to be average. It’s safer and more comfortable. It’s also OK – unless you want to be better than average. Bob Peterman