Practice scheduling and discrimination in sports

“It shouldn’t be any different because of our gender or who we are,” she said. “Maybe people think we don’t take soccer as seriously because we are girls. I take this seriously,”said Christina Angione, 16, a soccer player at Beacon School on the West Side.

The above quote was taken from an article I read today that was published a few days ago on the NY Times website. The article was about high school girls’ soccer being played in the spring opposed to in the fall like the boys teams in New York City.

According to the article, girls have been playing soccer in the spring for 28 years.

However, many of the female players and their parents haven’t agreed with the scheduling, their complaints and threats urged the Department of Education, who were facing discrimination charges and a possible lawsuit to change the schedule.

The article goes on to talk about the many difficulties playing in the spring oppose to fall gave these young ladies and the benefits it gave the boys to practice in the fall.

The reason the article took my attention was the issue of equality amongst men and women that goes overlooked every day. The article made me feel like girls being second to boys has become so second nature that it isn’t even recognized to many as being discrimination.

I can remember something similar happening to me while I was in high school. I was a part of a winning program, my high school girls basketball team, was better than our guys team almost every year I attended.

Practice scheduling is always tough; however practicing is always tough for dedicated student athletes. The best practice times are earlier, it leaves more time for homework and rest, right?

This one time I’m thinking of my high school athletic director, who scheduled my winning basketball team. At the time, we may have been undefeated. But we were forced to practice at the 7-9pm slot. For whatever reason, we always had the latest time, and the freshmen boys team the earliest practice.

I’m not even sure ever won a game.

Enough said.

Uncertain future for Title IX under Obama

Read an interesting article on NCAA today by Michelle Brutlag Hosick about Obama’s new administration and the impact it will have on the future of Title IX.

Conclusion of the article: nobody really knows for sure.

Interesting to me, though, how it was said that Obama doesn’t want to lose support from women’s groups and young females – thats probably the most credit that female athletes have gotten in the policy world in about 30 years.

It’s promising to hear that the Obama administration would not support any change that would loosen the Title IX. It’s equally interesting to hear that Orleans wants to “encourage collaboration between parties on different sides of Title IX interpretation.”

I don’t think it’s an interpretation issue. The law is crystal clear. I think it’s an implementation issue, and it’s a conversation that needs to happen between college athletic directors and lawmakers.

It’s about the financial value that is placed on certain men’s programs.