Wheeling decides to divide girls athletic director's job by seasons.(Sports) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Wheeling High School will have three people share the position of girls sports coordinator for 1996-97.

Mike Burke, assistant principal for student activities, made the official announcement this week.

In a departure from the past when Pat Ritchie served as the girls coordinator, Wheeling will have different people assigned to the fall, winter and spring sports seasons.

Ritchie, who was the only girls sports coordinator in Wheeling history and the former varsity softball coach, officially retired from the school in June.

After retiring from her teaching and coaching duties at Wheeling, Ritchie, a member of the Illinois Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame, had continued to work as the school's girls sports coordinator.

Two Wheeling teachers and coaches and graduates of area high schools will fill coordinators' positions.

Craig Ameel, a special education teacher, will serve as the coordinator for Wheeling's girls sports in the fall.

Ameel was the head girls gymnastics coach for nine years and also has assisted in girls track and field for five seasons.

Ameel, a graduate of St. Viator High School who also coached at St. Viator and Glenbrook North, is the Special Olympics coach at Wheeling.

Mark Saylor, a physical education teacher, will coordinate the winter sports for girls.

Saylor, an Arlington High School graduate, directs Wheeling's boys and girls cross country programs and girls track and field.

Burke said no decision has been made on Wheeling's spring sports position for girls.

Jim Wendler will continue as the boys sports coordinator.

Wheeling also announced the appointment of a new athletic department secretary.

Into the Dark Ages Students live medieval life for a day.(Neighbor) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Byline: Kari Hartman Daily Herald Staff Writer

Still Middle School sixth-graders recently learned there's a world of difference between the world of today and the world of the Middle Ages.

Take, for instance, the sports girls now play. In medieval times, girls could merely watch from the sidelines as men competed. Organized sports for girls didn't exist then.

And the early sporting competitions themselves were a bit different - jousting and arm wrestling were quite popular, for example. Spectators watched men compete in these arenas rather than, say, football and soccer.

'We want students to know life was a little bit different in the Middle Ages,' sixth-grade teacher Jennifer Coombs said.

Sixth-graders at the Aurora school tasted this old world first- hand during a Medieval festival, an annual event at Still and other Indian Prairie Unit District 204 middle schools.

Still students dressed as knights or in flowing gowns. They practiced a bit of chivalry and adapted their table manners to the era during a banquet.

They spent most of the school day portraying the time period.

'They really enjoy it,' Coombs said.

Krajicek the infamous bottler finally finds his vessel - The Independent (London, England)

They used to say about Richard Krajicek that the only place youwould find his name in the latter stages of a tournament was on asick note. They used to. Krajicek has for long been the greatunderachiever, a man either injured or thinking about his nextinjury. The strength of his body was not matched by the grey stuffin his skull.

All that changed this fortnight in a single moment. Krajicek wasin a third-round tie-breaker with Brett Steven, of New Zealand,having lost the previous set (the only one he dropped alltournament) when the hobgoblins began multiplying in his mind.Previous themes such as his recent mistakes and the iniquity ofgrass were revisited, the sort of self-pitying that formerlyprefaced defeat.

But then Krajicek decided to try. He beat Steven followed byMichael Stich, Pete Sampras, Jason Stoltenberg and, yesterday, inthe final, MaliVai Washington.

Those who know Krajicek talk of a shy, sensitive man, nothinglike the personality you would imagine from his much-repeated quoteof 1982. Then, with PR skills borrowed from Oliver Reed, hedescribed 80 per cent of women players as 'lazy, fat pigs'. Despitethis unwise observation, Krajicek has never been deserted by thepublic of his native Netherlands. The son of Czech immigrants doesmuch to nurture the junior game in his homeland. Tennis is notpurely a middle- class sport in the Netherlands, it stands secondonly to football in popularity. Krajicek's progress through thetournament has been followed in the media there with as muchfervour as England afforded Tim Henman.

In the bad old days, Krajicek could be guaranteed to drop hishead and stomp around in a permanent bow for at least part of amatch, but yesterday his 6ft 5in frame was pylon straightthroughout.

The body language of the loser came from Washington.

For the first time since 1975 and the year of Arthur Ashe'svictory, 50 per cent of the playing personnel was black, but againit was not a ratio that could be applied to the crowd. In theUnited States, too, tennis is a game more associated with cucumbersandwiches (crusts removed) than bangers and mash, and the nets inAmerica's inner cities tend to be drooping from a basketball hoop.

There are far more black American women on tour than men(Washington and Bryan Shelton are the only ones of note) but thenthere are fewer alternative sports for girls across the Pond tochoose. Some will see Washington's deeds as pivotal in gettingyoung black boys interested in tennis, but the Ashe experiencesuggests that would be a fallacy.

At times this fortnight, on television at least, Krajicek'smatches have appeared to get in the way of a study of a blondewoman in the players' guests box. Daphne Deckers, Krajicek's27-year-old girlfriend, is well-known in the Netherlands and nowtoo over here, thanks to drooling BBC cameramen.

FLANAGAN CLAN CELEBRATES 50TH SEASONCLAN BEHAVIOR - The Columbian (Vancouver, WA)

GREG WAHL-STEPHENS/For The Columbian

Bruce Flanagan, center, gathers the current edition of his long-running Flanagan Clan Girls Track Team for a workout last week inWoodland.

GREG WAHL-STEPHENS/For The Columbian

Bruce Flanagan, longtime coach of the Flanagan Clan Girls TrackTeam.

GREG WAHL-STEPHENS/For The Columbian

Bruce Flanagan, left, and McKenna Flanagan, right, help MeganShubert over a line of hurdles before the start of Flanagan Clanpractice. Both girls are his granddaughters.

WOODLAND Bruce Flanagan has always been a track and field man.

Sure, he played the team sports at Raymond High School. But whenyour dad is the principal, well, some peers might think your placeon the team was secured by something other than ability.

In track and field, its about what you do. Its measured by theclock or a tape, he explained. So that really gave me a passion fortrack.

Five decades teaching girls in Southwest Washington how to race,jump and throw is the legacy of that passion.

In 1963 Bruce Flanagan was a young physical education teacher atthe elementary school in Woodland when he formed the Flanagan ClanGirls Track Club.

There was nothing for girls back in 1963, recalled Barb Boswell.From out of nowhere, this track club rises up.

Flanagan Clan was the first girls track club to join the OregonAAU, which included Southwest Washington.

Neither Bruce nor his wife Alyce was surprised when the clubquickly became popular.

There was nothing for girls, so they really jumped at theopportunity, Bruce said.

Alyce sewed the red Flanagan Clan logo onto the blouses thatthose girls wore to competitions in Seattle and Portland. Brucemelded a team from girls in his physical education classes andothers who showed up to train at the simple four-lane Woodland HighSchool track.

That track was rock hard in the summer and youd sink in when itwas wet. It was only wide enough for three hurdle lanes, Flanaganremembered. Even when we had one of the best track programs in thestate, we had that crummy track.

Boswell Barby Brewster, back then was one of the first bigsuccesses. She still has the medal she won on June 8, 1963, at GrantHigh School in Portland the first of hundreds of state JuniorOlympics medals that Flanagan Clan athletes have earned.

Boswell also has fond memories of the first high school statechampionships for girls, an invitational meet in 1969 where she wonthe discus throw and along with three Woodland teammates finishedsecond in team points.

Clan accomplishments

Flanagan, now 73, is certainly proud of the many victories girlshave won while competing for the Clan. Tara Wards 1998 nationalcross country championship for girls ages 11-12, and Laura Allens1969 national best in the triathlon for girls ages 10-11 are the twonational titles.

But success for Flanagan Clan athletes has never been measured inmedals.

If you get PR (personal record), youre a winner, no matter whatplace you finish in that day, said Flanagan, who has used thechallenges offered by track and field to teach skills that apply tolifes hurdles.

The Flanagan Clan Girls Track Club was formed a decade beforeTitle IX became law, ushering in new opportunities in sports forgirls and women. Bruce Flanagan said he always had the enthusiasticsupport of the school board and the Woodland community. Ironically,Flanagan said he remembers that after Title IX became law, he gotoccasional flak for restricting his program to only girls. Hisresponse was simple: I was thinking of girls athletics before thegovernment was. Being the P.E. teacher at the grade school a job heheld for 30 years helped Flanagan establish and sustain the club.

I knew who could do what (events), and Id talk it up. When youget the in girls, then everybody wants to be part of it, he said. Weused to just dominate the (Presidents) physical fitness test. We hada core group of girls, and the rest of the girls thought that wasthe norm and would just follow along and the whole level of fitnesswould be out of sight compared to the national norms.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated the year Flanaganformed his Clan. Because Kennedy championed physical fitness,Flanagan named the annual award given to the clubs most outstandingathlete in memory of Kennedy.

The list of winners of the Kennedy Award is a whos who of femaleathletes from Southwest Washington, a testament to the reachFlanagans Club has had from its modest Woodland perch.

The first Kennedy Award winner was Gina Miller of Kalama, astudent in Alyce Flanagans sixth-grade class that first year.Boswell won the award twice, the first of many Woodland students sohonored. But Kennedy Award winners have also hailed from WhiteSalmon and Cathlamet.

Staying same despite changes

Dwindling emphasis on physical education in school was theprimary reason Bruce Flanagan retired after 30 years as the P.E.teacher at Woodland Primary School. His disappointment is clear whenhe talks about the days when every student would be in his gym classfive days a week.

Those days are long gone, and Bruce Flanagan has been retired for20 years (his son Glenn has been the schools P.E. teacher for manyyears).

But Bruce Flanagan still coaches hurdlers for Woodland HighSchool.

And the Clan is going strong.

Over the weekend, Flanagan Clan athletes won five championshipsat the Junior Olympics meet for Western Washington. Many morequalified for the upcoming regional Junior Olympics.

When the Flanagan Clan was formed, 880 yards was the farthest theAAU allowed girls to run.

Bruce has guided his club through five decades of change, andthree governing bodies for track and field. He has seen racedistances chanced from yards to meters. Despite his protest, TheFlanagan Clan was forced to shift its affiliation from Oregon toWestern Washington for championship meets.

Because the Clan Van he used for transporting girls to crosscountry meets died in December, Bruce has decided to forego crosscountry this fall. But his finish line is nowhere in sight.

Echo Bowl will be replaced by a Walgreens pharmacy store in Glendale, Wis. - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)

Byline: Mark Johnson

Aug. 3--GLENDALE, Wis. -- Bob Greenfield was 10 years old, and too small to excel in basketball or football, when he rolled his first game at Echo Bowl.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

At 13, he was performing odd jobs at the Glendale bowling alley, working behind the lanes as a pin chaser, the troubleshooter who fixes the pins when something goes wrong. Today, at 44, he carries the exalted title of 'house pro,' an honorary position.

'I had my 40th birthday there. I had my son's 6th birthday party there. I've been Santa Claus when they had bowling with Santa, probably the first Jewish 'Bowling Santa,' ' Greenfield said.

He was one of many loyal patrons who expressed sadness this week at the impending sale of the family-run bowling alley, one of a vanishing breed. Walgreen Co. plans to build one of its pharmacies on the site, at 5400 N. Port Washington Road.

In its 48 years, Echo Bowl wasn't just a place where league teams bowled and friends gathered to watch Packers games, but somewhere couples went on first dates and, on occasion, even married. Parents held their children's birthday parties there using bumpers to spare kids the frustration of a gutter ball; often there were 15 to 20 birthday parties per weekend.

On Friday nights, the faithful gathered for Thunder Alley, which mixed bowling with a rock 'n' roll club, complete with disc jockey, fog machine and light show.

'Some of these people would come back week after week after week,' said Randy McLees, a part-time bartender at Echo Bowl for 23 years. 'I've gotten invited to kids' weddings who came to rock and bowl . . . I just feel bad. There's not many places for kids to go. What are kids going to do in Glendale, hang around the mall?'

Walgreen has made an offer to purchase the Echo Bowl property, and the deal is almost certain to go through based on the approval of Glendale officials, said Donald Hildebrand, president of Echo Bowl. Glendale's seven-member Plan Commission approved a conditional use permit for the store Wednesday night.

Hildebrand would not reveal how much money Walgreen offered but said of the offer: 'It was good and it was right. This wasn't something we were looking to do.'

Walgreen wants to raze the bowling alley and build a 14,000-square-foot pharmacy with drive-through service to replace its pharmacy in Bayshore Mall. Construction likely would begin in September, and the new pharmacy would be finished and ready for occupancy by the end of March or early April.

Redmond Commercial Development, contractor for the project, would not comment. Glendale City Administrator Richard Maslowski said the pharmacy will employ about 35 people.

Echo Bowl employs 43 workers during the peak winter season and around 25 during the slower summer months.

From the day it opened in 1956, the bowling alley was a family business, the kind of place that is going the way of the old team shirts with the bowlers' names stitched on them.

Frank Prasnikar built Echo Bowl for his daughters, Kathy Zappia and Krista Hildebrand, who is married to Donald. The two sisters remain co-owners of Echo Bowl.

Nancy Hildebrand, Donald's mother, worked at the reception desk of Echo Bowl for many years. Everyone called her Ma.

Donald and Krista Hildebrand's four children all worked for the bowling alley at one time or another, as did Zappia's two children.

'Echo is really full of personality and mojo,' Greenfield said. 'It just has a feel to it. It's kind of like 'Cheers' a little bit.'

The alley started with 16 lanes and added another eight in 1961, just in time for the bowling boom.

'In the 1960s and 1970s, they built bowling alleys like there was no end -- like they built service stations. They overbuilt,' said Don Janke, executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Bowling Association, which represents 10,200 sanctioned bowlers and 330 leagues.

During its heyday, the association had about 60 bowling alleys. Today it's down to 33, including Echo Bowl.

Janke said the number of bowlers locally has been dropping 2 percent or 3 percent a year, not only here but nationwide.

'All of a sudden, families had so many other things to do,' he said, citing the rise of youth sports and especially sports for girls. 'The parents no longer have the free nights.'

Janke said he'd hate to see Echo Bowl go, adding: 'They've been a persistent supporter of league bowling and tournament bowling.'

With the new bowling season just three weeks away, the leagues that used Echo Bowl may have to scramble to find new locations.

For some, the bowling alley held associations that went much deeper than sports. David Whitcomb's first date with his future wife, Carla Durand, ended at Echo Bowl. It was 11 years ago, and they both worked for the gas company. They had just finished dinner and Whitcomb did not want the night to end.

'I'm trying to think of something to do,' he said. 'I asked, 'Do you want to shoot pool, maybe go bowling?' '

Echo Bowl had a pool table in addition to bowling. Plus, Whitcomb had grown up with Donald Hildebrand, playing football together on their eighth-grade team. That night at Echo Bowl, Durand promptly defeated her future husband -- at pool. Later Whitcomb would get her involved in league bowling.

They married nine years ago and have bowled in a league together for at least five of those years.

'I'm very happy for Don, Krista and Kathy. They've worked very hard,' said Whitcomb, 50. 'But it's an era that's gone.'

'I think it's a shame,' Greenfield said, 'because bowling, especially in the colder weather, offers somewhere for families to go.'

To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.

(c) 2004, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

LATE COACH'S IMPACT FELT; CAROLYN RHINEHART OF CHITTENANGO IS REMEMBERED AS A STERN BUT CARING TEACHER.(Local) - The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)

Byline: Larry Richardson Staff writer

Carolyn Rhinehart was a pioneer in girls sports in Central New York.

She spent more than three decades shaping what once were a few basic 'play day' sports for girls into a huge program for today's female athletes in the Chittenango school district.

Rhinehart, 68, of Chittenango, died Sunday after a long illness. But friends and former co-workers say her impact will be felt for generations.

'Carolyn's physical education teaching was outstanding, and she always had the kids' interest at heart,' retired Chittenango athletic director Frank DiChristina said Monday. 'She lived from the days of play days and honor teams (intramural girls all-star teams that competed against other schools) to today's multisport girls varsity programs, and through many rule changes in all the sports.'

Rhinehart was a leading advocate for girls sports in Section 3, working to add sports at the section level, DiChristina said. He and Rhinehart attended State University College at Brockport from 1952 to 1956 and accepted physical education teaching jobs at Chittenango the same year. She retired in 1989.

'At that time we had four girls sports - field hockey, volleyball, basketball and softball - and Carolyn coached all of them, along with the cheerleading squad. She was the girls sports coach at Chittenango for many years,' he said. 'She lived in the transition time of the Title IX federal regulations, which provide equal opportunity for girls in athletics.'

Those opportunities had an impact on many girls throughout the 33 years Rhinehart coached. One of those former athletes, RoseAnn Button, now is assistant dean for campus life at Mohawk Valley Community College.

'I played volleyball, field hockey, basketball, softball and track at Chittenango from 1961 to '65, and Carolyn was the****coach of all of them,' she said. 'She took a special interest in me and helped me grow up in the right way. I wasn't a high jumper, and she encouraged me to do it. I accomplished more than I ever thought I could do.'

Button said Rhinehart loved coaching and was part of 'the last era of real coaches.'

'A lot of the fun was going to and from the games on the buses,' Button said. 'We'd all sing.'

Another former athlete who was coached by Rhinehart agrees.

'Girls sports were so unorganized in those days. They were honor teams,' said Ginny (Hale) Nykaza, a 1965 graduate. 'We went to Rome Free Academy for play days almost every Saturday, and other schools would be there. We'd still wear our red sleeveless gym outfits and pinnies to compete.'

Nykaza said the high school girls were friendly with the teachers and would 'hang out' in Rhinehart's office.

'Carolyn was never married, so I guess she had a lot of free time to counsel us or go over strategy,' she said.

Nykaza described Rhinehart as a stern teacher who cared about the students.

'Everyone in the class had to participate in the activities, and no one got out of taking a shower,' she said. 'I used to bite my fingernails, and she thought it was a terrible habit. So she put stuff on my fingernails that made them taste terrible. It didn't work.'

Longtime Chittenango boys basketball coach Phil Gordon, now retired, said Rhinehart was an outstanding teacher and coach.

'Carolyn was an ace in a deck of cards. You can't get any higher than that,' he said. 'She was one of the outstanding women's coaches in the area for many years, and her teams were very competitive. Carolyn wasn't a cream puff; she was a disciplinarian. But she was very understanding of all the kids.'

Rhinehart didn't limit her teaching to traditional physical education.

'We started ballroom and square dancing classes at the high school and taught it for more than 30 years,' Gordon said.

Sports was a large part of Rhinehart's life outside coaching. She bowled and played in local softball leagues and won second-place medals in tennis doubles in the 1992 and 1993 state Senior Games.

She also enjoyed cross stitching, reading, traveling and ceramics. She had a pet cat, Daisy.

Rhinehart, Chittenango Middle School physical education teacher Kathy Gaske and retired fifth-grade teacher Flo Adelman made and sold ceramics together.

'Carolyn had the kiln in her cellar, I did the slip work, and Kathy did the painting,' Adelman said. 'We set up at craft shows.'

Rhinehart, Adelman and retired Chittenango High School nurse Margaret Holdridge once rented a camper and drove to the 125th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

'We lost the brakes on a mountain near Gatlinburg, Tenn., and the steering went, but Carolyn got it over to the side,' Adelman said. 'We had a ball, even with all the breakdowns.'

Rhinehart is survived by a sister, Evelyn LaMay of Oswego, and a brother, Emerson Rhinehart of Chateaugay.

Contributions

There are no local calling hours or services for Carolyn Rhinehart. G.F. Zimmer Funeral Home, Chittenango, has arrangements.

NOW trying to be relevant today; At its convention in St. Paul, the group hopes to convey that it supports all women.(NEWS) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

Byline: H.J. Cummins; Staff Writer

If one measure of an activist's relevancy is enemies, the continuing death threats to members of the National Organization for Women suggest it's still a player.

'We have been opening our mail with latex gloves for years,' NOW national president Kim Gandy said, referring to last fall's scare after letters to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and Sen. Tom Daschle released anthrax spores into their offices. '... Our staff gets regular briefings from the FBI.'

The matriarch of the women's movement, NOW is sometimes accused of being out of touch. The organization neglects mothers at home, some critics say. Others contend that the great need now is for harmony, not more equality, between the sexes. And many young women - including a handful approached at random at the University of Minnesota - haven't even heard of NOW.

No wonder NOW is calling its 2002 national convention in St. Paul this weekend 'Linking Arms in Dangerous Times.'

NOW members say they picked the slogan because the notion that they support one category of women over another has always been a bum rap. They also say they worry that young women don't understand how many rights have been won in the past few decades - such rights as access to abortions and equal educational opportunities that they think are threatened by conservative judges and a Republican White House. And then there are the evolving women's issues to attend to: For example, with so many mothers working now, the need for good child care has grown.

'We've been in a defensive mode lately,' said Jill Pearson-Wood, president of Minnesota NOW.

'There are huge women's issues, and I don't see them going away any time soon,' said Debra Ness, executive vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, formerly the Women's Legal Defense Fund, in Washington, D.C.

The cause began in '66

It's easy to forget how much has changed for women since NOW started in 1966, advocates say.

Newspapers still separated their help-wanted ads by 'men' and 'women' into the 1970s. Janitors then typically out-earned librarians in the same building because as men, 'they had a family to support.' Little League baseball didn't open equally to girls until 1974.

It wasn't until 1981 that Minnesota law addressed poverty among older women by requiring all retirees - the vast majority being men then - to get their spouse's approval if they wanted to skip survivor benefits in favor of bigger monthly pension checks during their lifetimes.

'Before that, everyone saw it as his decision to do whatever he chose with his pension,' said Diane Cushman, director of Minnesota's Legislative Commission on the Economic Status of Women.

'I know 30 years sounds like a long time, and I am tired,' said Kathleen Ahrens, the local NOW conference organizer. 'But a lot has happened.'

Still, for those whose aim is equality, there's a long way to go.

Census data show women earned 73 cents to every $1 a man earned in 2000, up from 60 cents in 1980 but barely moved from 72 cents in 1990. At the same time, the research agency Catalyst, of New York, reported that the number of Fortune 500 companies where women were at least one-fourth of the corporate officers doubled in just five years. Still, that came to only 10 percent of the firms.

In politics, the Interparliamentary Union ranks the United States 55th among 180 nations based on the number of women in their lower houses of government - that is the House of Representatives in the United States or the House of Commons in nations with parliamentary systems, for example. The U.S. House is 14 percent women, tied with Slovakia.

Two other issues show how NOW is running just to stay in place.

Almost 30 years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion, NOW is fighting to keep access to abortion clinics open by restraining demonstrators accused of attacking clients. That lawsuit, against Joe Scheidler and Operation Rescue, is before the Supreme Court.

And 30 years after Title IX mandated equal access to education - including sports - for girls, NOW is fighting new efforts by advocates of public girls or boys schools to loosen the law - remembering the historical problems with separate-but-equal education.

What's ahead

Nationally, NOW has more than a half-million members, Gandy said, and about 150,000 of those are active members and the rest supporters and contributors. Ten to 15 percent are men.

There's a dip in the '30-somethings' membership, she said, but the '20-somethings' picked up again.

Even so, Kristin Ahles of Minneapolis, 26 and a member of Minnesota NOW, said she thinks many young women take for granted the achievements of feminists through the 1960s and '70s.

It's a common problem with social movements over time, said Robin Gerber, a senior fellow at the University of Maryland Academy of Leadership in College Park. 'The labor movement is a perfect example,' she said. 'People think everybody always had pensions and health care.'

University of Minnesota sophomore Laurel McEvers, fresh from an 'Images of Women in Literature' course, said that to her, the word feminist means 'being for the empowerment of women.' But she said many her age would define it as 'a lesbian and someone who hates men.'

Gandy blames conservatives for tainting the word: 'It's like they worked on the word `liberal,' and now all liberals call themselves progressives.'

NOW's critics say it's more than that.

'The level of alienation between adult men and women is bringing about a gradual and slow death of our culture,' said Patrick Fagan, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. That undermines marriage, and that hurts children, he said.

But Ann Crittenden, author of 'The Price of Motherhood,' said she has found some NOW chapters open to her appeal to support mothers at home.

'Mothers' economic status is the big unfinished business of the women's movement,' she said. 'The economic bifurcation is not between men and women, but between mothers and others.'

NOW has always supported women at home, Gandy said. In any case, she said, their needs fit in the big tent of issues NOW sees as concerns to women - health, education, elder care, safety and equal opportunity.

'And there will be other things we haven't even thought of yet,' she said.

Staff librarian Roberta Hovde contributed to this report.

- H.J. Cummins is at hcummins@startribune.com.

2002 National NOW Conference

Schedule: Friday through Sunday. Speakers include Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal and Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn.

Site: Radisson Riverfront Hotel, 11 East Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul.

Admission: Standard fees: $110 for three days or $35 for a single day. Also, sliding scale fee for NOW members.

THE WORK OF THESE PIONEERS IS NOT FINISHED.(Sports) - Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

- Marie Curie, 1894

The California Interscholastic Federation honored the pioneers of girls' and women's sports over the last quarter century in Irvine on Friday, recognizing 22 courageous women for their profound impact on girls' athletics in California.

Yet, as much as has been done, we only see what remains to be done.

Two weeks ago, the city of Los Angeles settled a lawsuit with the West Valley Softball League by agreeing to pay $100,000 for the construction of four softball fields.

Basically, while boys play at pristine facilities, girls of the same age are playing on substandard fields and were told that's the way it goes.

The settlement provides the league with a five-year lease and a 10-year renewal option at Hughes Middle School, and includes parking spaces and the right to build a concession stand. The city also will provide $50,000 worth of labor to construct fences and renovate restrooms at the Hughes location.

Thankfully, West Valley finally has a home to call its own. But the manner in which the league won the right brings up this disappointing reminder:

The fact is, 27 years after the passage of the Education Amendments Act, specifically Title IX, which banned sex discrimination in public and private education, girls often struggle to get the same treatment as boys when it comes to municipally run little leagues, parks and recreation departments and other city-sponsored programs.

Which is why West Valley's victory is so significant.

``This settlement is a powerful tool to begin to remedy the injustice done to countless girls in Los Angeles who have been denied equal access to participate in city-sponsored programs,'' said Paula Pearlman of the California Women's Law Center, which was counsel to the league.

``We have also taken giant steps toward expanding the principles of gender equity to other public facilities and institutions.''

The parents and players of West Valley Softball have something in common with the women celebrated by the CIF on Friday. Both groups fought bitter, often brutal battles for the advancement of girls' sports.

The honorees on Friday achieved quiet victories through the years, most confined to behind-the-scene skirmishes that rarely registered a blip. But sometimes the greatest wins seem ordinary at the time.

Over the years, their subtle achievements have had major implications, clearing the path for the growth and popularity of girls' and women's sports in California.

More than anything, their heroics helped to ensure equal opportunity, recognition and respect for young women participating in high school sports. Prior to their crusades, organized sports for girls was nearly nonexistent, their activities limited to once-a-week competitions featuring archaic games like six-person basketball, with three players restricted to one-half of a court and two dribbles per person.

Today, more than 220,000 girls will participate in 18 sanctioned sports statewide.

Their names might not be recognizable, but the accomplishments of women like Pat Harvey, Patricia Mack and Jan McCreery, among many others, are every bit as emphatic as anything Mia Ham, Lisa Leslie and Marion Jones perform today.

Mack, who served as athletic director at Glendale High from 1973-74, was instrumental, along with fellow honorees McCreery and Campbell, in organizing a strike and lawsuit against the Glendale Unified School District to provide equitable funding for girls' teams in 1952. Her bravery in bringing suit against the district was the highlight of a distinguished career that spanned more than 40 years.

``I am proudest of being able to teach girls and boys skills which brought them joy and enabled them to participate in an activity with confidence and a feeling of pride,'' Mack said.

Harvey is considered the driving force in girls' athletics in the Los Angeles City School District, starting the section's athletic program in 1971. McCreery and Campbell helped Mack bring suit against the Glendale School District, and Campbell fought for the implementation of Title IX in her district.

``I am proud of the fight,'' said Campbell.

She also takes pride in that fact that young women in high school and college today have no idea how limited girls' athletics once were. More than anything else, that shows the magnitude of the pioneers' accomplishments.

Much like the honorees, West Valley Softball should be considered a trailblazer. Its recent victory prompted the city's Department of Recreation and Parks to implement a new program called ``Raise the Bar,'' which it hopes will draw more girls to its programs. The goal is to raise female participation in city sports by 10 percent this year and 25 percent next year.

In addition, a softball league in Riverside contacted Pearlman after West Valley's victory, seeking assistance in improving its own situation. It's one of many calls Pearlman recently received from girls' athletic organizations all over the country.

Sharp-shooter: for nearly three decades, Texas Tech's Marsha Sharp has helped revolutionize Women's Basketball.(PERSON TO PERSON)(Interview) - Coach and Athletic Director

COACH: Where did it all begin for you?

SHARP: I was born on Whitby Island, WA, where my father was stationed in the U.S. Navy, but grew up in Tulia, TX. Tulia High offered only three sports for girls and I played all of them--guard in the days of three-on-three girls basketball, tennis, and track.

Tulia was a small town with a population of about 12,000. The larger schools in Texas didn't have sports teams for girls, so Tulia was considered ahead of its time back in the 1960's. I graduated high school in 1970, right before the era of Title IX.

COACH: Prior to accepting the head coaching position at Texas Tech, you spend six years as the head coach at Lockney (TX) H.S. You led the Lady Longhorns to a 126-63 record and three district titles (1976, '77, '79). What did you learn about yourself as a coach on the scholastic level?

SHARP: First of all, I really loved molding a group of players into a team. I also learned how valuable athletics could be in handling adversity, perseverance, the building of self-esteem, and being part of something special--whatever your role on the team.

All of us had a lot of pride in what we were doing to establish tradition and instill various qualities that would help us in later life.

Lockney was a terrific place in which to coach. Everyone treated me great. I was 22 years old, just out of college, and already a head coach! I couldn't have asked for a better way to start my coaching career.

COACH: We understand that you got your start in coaching while attending Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, TX. You directed the JV team during your junior and senior years and also served as a graduate assistant coach during the 1974-75 season.

SHARP: There is no question that was the most important thing that ever happened to me. Wayland Baptist was only one of the few colleges that had a women's basketball team. Many of the greatest female high school players would go to the smaller colleges like Delta State and Immaculata. I wasn't a great player, but I really learned about coaching in that environment.

For a time, I was devastated by the fact that I wasn't good enough to play for the varsity. But in retrospect, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I was able to start coaching the JV team when I was a junior.

Harley Redin, now in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, was the coach at that time and he gave me my opportunity. I discovered that you could learn a lot more by teaching than you could by playing. Certainly, I learned a lot of things under very watchful eyes.

Coach Redin retired after my junior year and Dean Weese, who is also in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, came to Wayland. He continued to help me learn how to teach the fundamentals. I was caught up in an unbelievable tradition in women's basketball. Wayland had winning streaks of 80, 90, and 100 games. That kind of winning environment taught me how to maintain a program at a certain level for a long period of time.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

COACH: What kind of collegiate player were you?

SHARP: Determined, but not very talented. I was short, not a good jumper, and not real fast. I call it the white girl's disease. But I absolutely loved the game. I wrote a book about it titled, Tall Enough to Coach. I was only 5-foot-4, but I was always a student of the game.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

COACH: Who else has been a major force in your coaching career, professionally and personally?

SHARP: Probably the person that helped me most at Texas Tech, who really launched my career and helped me fight Title IX battles, and make basketball a big deal in Lubbock, was a lady by the name of Jeannine McHaney. She was the women's athletic director who hired me. She passed away in 1994 after a 10-year battle with cancer.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But during my first 12 years at Texas Tech, she really helped me understand what battles to pick and which ones to leave alone. She fought a lot of wars with me off the floor to help build a program.

I learned a lot from her. Not necessarily in the world of coaching, but how to handle collegiate athletics and understand all the different processes that make things work on the college level.

I also learned a lot from watching and reading books by people like John Wooden and Dean Smith, and exchanging ideas with a lot of my contemporaries and coaching friends like Jody Conradt at Texas, Pat Summitt at Tennessee, Geno Auriemma at Connecticut, and Tara VanDerveer at Stanford.

COACH: How did you decide to go into coaching?

SHARP: When I first went to Wayland, I really thought I was going to be a lawyer. But I was around so many people who were passionate about basketball. Two things drew me to coaching. One, I really loved the sport and had a great time studying and watching it and becoming part of it. Second, I felt that there was a great opportunity in the early 70's, when I was going to college, to participate in the revolution of women's athletics.

I've been fortunate to not only do something I love every day, but to create opportunities for women to better themselves. I've also watched a lot of kids who have come to Tech and really needed an education to change their circumstances and become productive citizens. Athletics was the only venue they had to do that. It has been the most incredible experience I have had.

COACH: You place great emphasis on academics. Your program boasts a 97 percent graduation rate for student-athletes who have exhausted their four-year eligibility. You have also taken a personal interest in education with your generous donation to establish the on-campus Marsha Sharp Center for Student-Athletes, which opened in January 2004.

SHARP: There's no substitute for education. Every player that I've recruited to Texas Tech over the last 23 years has been told that if they come play for me and we win a national championship but they leave without earning a degree, I would probably feel that I used them a little bit.

Obviously I want to create those great experiences for them athletically, but our purpose here is to educate people and I want them to leave with a degree so they can do whatever they want to with their lives.

I really view basketball as a means to an end, not an end in itself. Student-athletes should be using basketball to put themselves in a position to go out and be a productive citizen.

That is something I am very passionate about and I think it's the best thing we do. The academic center is my way to give something back to the university. I was drawn to that idea because every athlete at Tech, not just women's basketball players, can benefit from it.

COACH: What kind of offensive and defensive systems do you employ at Tech?

SHARP: I hope I'm flexible. For instance, we won a national championship playing a match-up zone defense. The last seven or eight years, we've probably played very little match-up zone because the players we've had were better defensively in man-to-man. This year we've gone back to the zone a little bit and are playing a bit of both.

Offensively, I feel the same way. There are years where we're more of a fastbreak, up-and-down the floor type team. When we have players who are better in a halfcourt set, we may try to run a particular offense and get some really good looks for a particular kid.

COACH: What kind of player do you recruit at Tech?

SHARP: We certainly try to recruit the best athletes we can. I don't think there's any question that success at the Division I level is completely tied into recruiting. It's the biggest job I have. We always attempt to recruit players that we think are good enough to compete in the Big 12 Conference.

Academically, they have to maintain a certain level. If you recruit a kid who can't hang in there academically, that's what you could be left with. I want players who will be able to make that commitment to me: play throughout their career.

I would gladly give up a little bit of athleticism to ensure a commitment, a passion for team, and a quality student.

COACH: What was it like coaching Sheryl Swoopes, the cornerstone of your 1993 National Championship team, who has been called the female Michael Jordan?

SHARP: She was the best. I know I am partial, but I think she could be considered the best player of her generation. She's taken every team she has played on to a championship.

She had a lot of humility when she played for us. She understood it was a team sport. She allowed her teammates to take her to a different level and she took them there, too. Coaching her was the greatest coaching experience of my life.

COACH: What do you think are your greatest coaching attributes?

SHARP: Being flexible--one of the most vital principles in coaching. At the same time, you can never compromise your principles. I try to see the big picture and not to get so focused on any aspect of it that it will induce me to take things out of context.

I hope I am a good X's and O's person. I think I understand the game. But I will tell you: After you recruit your players, the biggest thing becomes motivation. I try to motivate well and I try to put people around me who motivate well. I have a great staff. When you do things as a group you can usually have a pretty big impact.

COACH: What is the key to being a not only a good teacher for your players, but also a good listener?

SHARP: You have to make yourself listen and sometimes that's hard when you're in a leadership role. Your first thought is to give advice or direction or try to leave them a perspective of a dictatorship. I don't think that's always the best. I think in a lot of ways that your best leaders are your best listeners.

COACH: You have guided the Lady Raiders to a national championship, eight conference championships, 17 NCAA appearances, including 15 straight, have won nearly 600 games, and been honored twice as the national Coach of the Year. What has been the secret of your success?

SHARP: You have to be committed to your principles and to longevity. There's a big difference between building a program and building a successful team one year at a time. You have to make some decisions along the way that may not be good for a particular team, but will be best in the long run. So you have to be flexible enough to change with the times.

Rising Retail, Marketing Efforts Parallel Growth of Women's Soccer. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 20 -- The three-week-long Women's World Cup soccer tournament is underway across the country this weekend, including two games in Foxborough today, providing women who play team sports with a huge and rare opportunity to capture the public's attention.

Corporate sponsors and licensed manufacturers, through marketing and retail campaigns, will play key roles in determining whether women will now reap some of the popular acclaim and commercial success long enjoyed by men's professional sports. So far, businesses like what they see in the emerging image of women in the plucky, demanding sport of soccer, and they are promoting the cause.

'I think there's no question that an event that's strictly women athletes, that's sold over a half-million tickets, and which 1 billion viewers will watch on television worldwide, has the potential to set a new standard for women's sports,' said Dean Stoyer, who helped design Nike's multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that features Mia Hamm, the star of the US team.

While individual women competing in golf, tennis, and figure skating have struggled for years to claim some of the spotlight from men, only the Women's National Basketball Association and the playing of the Women's World Cup in the United States have provided significant financial opportunities in the team sports.

'For years, women athletes had been almost untouchables when it came to things like endorsing products,' said Bob Williams, president of the Burns Celebrity Sports Service, a Chicago-based company that links advertisers and athletes. 'In the mid-'90s there was an explosion, but it was figure skaters like Nancy Kerrigan or tennis stars like Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Only now are we getting any action for team sport players, like Cheryl Swoopes in basketball and, now, in a very large way, Mia Hamm in soccer.'

Soccer has endured growing pains, striving to become a major sport in this country. But observers say it might be different for the women. For one thing, unlike the men's national team, the women win. They took the first Women's World Cup in 1991, the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and they are favored to win the World Cup this year, on their home turf. (Seats are available for today's games at the Foxborough Stadium box office; TV coverage is at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN and 4 p.m. on ESPN2.)

'America likes winners and big events -- and we like being identified with them as a company,' said Bruce Hudson, director of international sports marketing for Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. 'We were the first out of the box with a commercial during the men's World Cup last year that had lots of action footage, and helped create an image for a group of women players who clearly have become more and more popular with a lot of people.'

The image is becoming so popular that Mattel is selling Women's World Cup Barbie dolls at prominent store displays around the country. Gillette Co. has clamored to position its stadium signs in prominent spots for the international television exposure. And the Allstate Insurance Co. decided to be an official sponsor of the tournament, the first time in the 67-year history of the company that it has sponsored athletics.

'We're excited about it because it clearly helps us with a target audience of younger women with families,' said Raleigh Ford, a marketing spokesman for Allstate.

Observers say the intersection of two significant demographic trends makes the current Women's World Cup attractive to corporations: Women and girls are participating in team sports in greater numbers than ever, with big increases in this decade, and women continue to be the preeminent decision makers on retail purchases.

'What you have is what you might call the children of the Title IX generation causing a huge leap in participation levels by women and girls in sports that were long the preserve of male athletes. The question becomes, will that translate in the next generation, the grandchildren of Title IX, to popularity among spectators and television viewers?' said Robert Madrigal, of the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. Passed into law in 1972, Title IX mandated equitable opportunities to play sports for girls attending schools that receive federal funds.

'This Women's World Cup could be a hugely important development -- especially if the US women do well -- and if the companies that were smart enough to get involved are smart with their marketing,' Madrigal said.

One measure of the importance of a sports event is whether Adidas and Nike fight over sponsorship -- and they are fighting over the Women's World Cup. Adidas, the largest manufacturer of soccer shoes and equipment in the world, has joined 10 other companies in paying $6 million to be an official sponsor. Adidas is using the trademarks of the tournament in its advertising, along with pictures of members of the US women's team, like Kristine Lilly.

However, Nike has refused to be eclipsed, embracing the event by financing a national tour of the US team that began last year. Nike also has launched the sort of marketing campaign featuring Hamm that it once used to make Michael Jordan a national icon, even using Jordan in some of the spots with Hamm.

In one TV commercial, Hamm and Jordan challenge each other in a variety of sports from sprinting to fencing while a woman's voice sings, 'Anything you can do, I can do better. ...'

'We have always sold casual footwear well to women and girls, but this is a battle for the performance footwear market, which is really growing among female consumers,' Nike's Stoyer said. 'From 1991 to 1998, there's been an 86 percent growth rate in the number of girls participating in soccer at the high school level and a 120 percent increase in college. We want those new customers.

'We've worked with Mia since 1994, and I can tell you that if Mia Hamm wants to wear it, you can be pretty sure that a lot of 14-year-old girls are going to want to wear it, too,' Stoyer said. 'Once, they wanted to be like Mike. Now, they want to be like Mia.'

Hamm now appears as a spokeswoman for at least 15 companies.

Other women players on the US soccer team who have garnered endorsement contracts with various companies include Briana Scurry, Brandi Chastain, Tiffeny Milbrett and Tisha Venturini.

As Nike's Jordan commercials proved, such marketing not only benefits the company, but it helps create the image and mythology of the sport. Basketball was still in recovery from the drug scandals of the 1970s and early 1980s when the Jordan commercials began to air, and they helped revitalize the NBA.

Fans of women's sports are hoping for something of the same for women's soccer.

'What's new is the sense that this has never happened for women in team sports,' said Lucy Danzinger, editor of Women's Sports & Fitness. 'This girl gang of passionate soccer players is being allowed to compete in a way that only men have competed before. And, well, it's about time. We're thrilled!'

GIRLS HOCKEY HAS WORK AHEAD.(Sports) - The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)

Two days before WIAA schools spent part of their annual meeting taking up the issue of finding additional winter sports for girls, Madison Edgewood did something about it by adding girls hockey.

The decision announced last week fits the private school's profile as one that likes to set itself apart and the move will probably blaze a trail others will follow. However, it's clear that there is plenty of work to be done before the Edgewood girls can drop the puck this fall.

Besides finding a coach, the Crusaders must find a facility in which to play and practice and teams to fill their schedule. But Edgewood president Tom Shipley doesn't sound too worried.

``We'll probably try to play in one of the local rinks,'' Shipley said, naming Hartmeyer Ice Arena in Madison and the Eagles Nest in Verona. ``I don't know how extensive the schedule will be. Since it will be a club sport the first year or so, we'll look to get games wherever we can get them.

``We'll have to be creative.''

Leola-Frederick runner receives invite to Howard Wood Relays special race. - American News (Aberdeen, SD)

Byline: Deb Smith

May 3--The 83rd edition of the Howard Wood Relays starts Friday afternoon in Sioux Falls with the college men's hammer throw and ends on Saturday night with the high school boys' 1,600-meter relay.

More than 3,000 middle school, high school, college and university athletes will participate in the two-day meet, which started back on May 4, 1923.

The field events start Friday at 1:30 p.m. The high school events contested on Friday are the girls' high jump, pole vault and shot put along with the boys' long jump.

The running schedule on the first day starts at 1 p.m. with preliminaries in the sprints and some relays.

A special event, the boys' 200-meter dash, is slated for 8:25 p.m. It is an event by invitation only and includes six South Dakota sprinters and two from Minnesota. The entries are Andrew Johnson of Rapid City Central, Corbin Kratovil of Bennett County, Jarrett Klinger of Pierre, Chas DeMers of Winner, Jerrell Hancock of Anoka, Minn., George Dudley of Hopkins, Minn., Brock Bills of Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Tyrel Kool of Yankton.

Klinger was named the outstanding athlete at an indoor track and field meet earlier this season at the Barnett Center. He is currently ranked first in Class AA in the 100-meter dash (10.79 seconds) and the 200 dash (:22.47).

Activity begins early on Saturday at Howard Wood Field. The action begins at 8 a.m. and the final event is slated for 9:10 p.m.

The special event for girls will be an 800-run at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday. Leola-Frederick's Mikayla Barondeau is one of the eight invited athletes from four states.

Other runners are Jessica Engel of Sturgis; Olivia Johnson of Okoboji, Iowa; Krista Eckert of Sioux Falls Roosevelt; Laura Roesler of Fargo, N.D.; Allison Eckert of Sioux Falls Roosevelt; Nikki Swenson of Lac Qui Parle Valley (Dawson-Boyd, Minn.); and Amy Reuter of Brookings.

'I'm really excited,' said Barondeau, a junior. 'I watched one (special event) two years ago and thought it would be really neat, but I didn't think I would actually be in it.'

This week, Barondeau holds the fastest time in Class A in the 1,600-meter run at 5:33.34 and the second fastest 800 run at 2:25.71.

'I prefer the 800. It's not too long but not too short. The 400 is too fast and the mile is getting long. The 800 is right in between and I like it,' said Barondeau, who has been doing more biking and pool workouts this spring because of problems with tendonitis.

Several of the Class AA runners rank among the state's leaders in the 800 including Allison Eckert with a 2:16.0 and Krista Eckert at 2:18.86. Reuter has posted a time of 2:20.9 in the 800 run.

'I hope to get a personal best time,' said Barondeau, who ran a 2:22 last year at state. 'It will definitely be a challenge.'

To follow the meet online, log on to the Web site www.dakotarelays.com.

ATHLETE NUMBERS INCREASE NATIONALLY: The number of high school boys and girls participating in athletics has increased nationally and reached record numbers.

In its annual participation survey the National Federation of State High School Associations reported that the number of athletes in sports rose for the 17th consecutive year in 2005-06. Nationally, more than 7 million people are involved in high school sports.

The number of female athletes (2,953,355) set an all-time record and the number of males (4,367,442) is the second highest ever.

The sports that grew in numbers the most in that year were competitive cheer for girls and 11-man football for boys. South Dakota added competitive cheer and dance as interscholastic sports for the 2007-08 season and several schools including Aberdeen Central will field teams beginning in the fall.

According to the number of schools offering them, the top three most popular sports for girls and boys are basically the same: basketball, outdoor track and field, and baseball/softball. The fourth most offered sports were football for boys and volleyball for girls.

In the total number of players, 11-man football led the way for boys with more than 1 million. The top sport for girls was basketball with 450,000.

In addition to cheer and dance, another sport that has been on the rise is soccer. It ranks sixth on a list of the most offered sport for girls and seventh for boys. In the number of athletes, soccer is the fifth highest for both girls and boys.

--Sports writer Deb Smith and NFHS News

BROOKINGS SELECTS BOYS' BASKETBALL COACH: Travis Engebretson has been named the head boys' basketball coach at Brookings High School.

A graduate of Huron University, Engebretson takes over from Gary Thomas who was named to a vice-principal job at Brookings. Engebretson, who served as the Bobcat sophomore or junior varsity coach the last nine seasons, played baseball and football at Huron University.

Engebretson credits his college coach Fred Paulson and the Brookings coaches for teaching him coaching lessons. He plans to build the Bobcat program beginning at the middle school level.

Tim Lease, who was the head boys' basketball coach at Onamia, Minn., was added to the basketball staff. Engebretson will maintain his football and track coaching duties.

--Sports writer Deb Smith

To see more of the American News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.aberdeennews.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, American News, Aberdeen, S.D.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Sporting chance.(TEAM BUILDING)(Frank Deford speaks in Ohio)(Brief article) - Inside Business

Sports Illustrated columnist and sports writing legend Frank Deford loves sports, but isn't blind to the economics, greed and corruption of the industry that seems to become more pervasive every year. Little League World Series, anyone?

A journalist for more than 40 years, author of 14 books and a weekly commentator on National Public Radio, Deford delivered his trademark thinking man's sports fan viewpoint to The Town Hall of Cleveland in October with a theme he's explored throughout his career: 'Sports: The Hype and the Hypocrisy.'

'Why should athletes get [college] scholarships and a piano player shouldn't?' Deford asked the receptive audience of hundreds of business executives, educators, as well as high school and college students in the Ohio Theatre. '... It serves to foster a more anti-intellectual atmosphere.'

Although Deford gibed college athletics for its shameless corporate and booster profiteering, he did praise schools for sharing the wealth by adding more women's teams.

'That team experience carries over throughout life,' Deford says. 'Boys learn to take care of each other on a team early on,' adding more team-oriented school sports for girls and women will help them 'catch up in the workplace' later in life.

Although there are benefits, Deford worries about the trend of female student athletes who descend into the same bad grades, behavior and sports obsession of their male counterparts.

Frances Boden, 79, popular teacher in Campbell and Los Gatos. - San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA)

Byline: Sue Chenoweth

Jan. 26--For three decades, Frances Boden shared her endless energy with students at San Tomas Elementary School in Campbell and later Rolling Hills Middle School in Los Gatos. Among her first students was Candice Lawson Leigh, a fifth-grader at San Tomas when Ms. Boden began teaching there in 1956. 'Fran created such a positive atmosphere in her classroom,' Leigh said. 'She expected a lot from her students and, by golly, she got it.' The popular teacher also scored points for her cars. 'Fran always had the coolest car in the faculty parking lot,' Leigh said, naming a Morris Minor, street rod, Thunderbird, custom-painted pickup and Honda motorcycle. At home in Los Gatos, Ms. Boden drove a tractor. Ms. Boden asked that no services be held after she died. On Jan. 10, she suffered a heart attack and died at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose. Several of her closest friends plan to honor the Epicurean with a private dinner. An open gathering closer to what would have been Ms. Boden's 80th birthday may take place in the spring.

She was born May 27, 1927, in San Jose and grew up on her family's prune, apricot and walnut ranch in the Edenvale area. By the time she entered San Jose State, Ms. Boden had become an avid hunter and savvy horse trader. Ms. Boden graduated in 1951 and taught school in Freedom for a short time before heading to Hawaii on a teachers exchange. It was there she met longtime companion Gerd Salmonson, a teacher from Sweden, and competed with a championship outrigger rowing team. 'There was never a dull moment in Fran's life,' said Melissa Greer, whose mother was a colleague and close friend of Ms. Boden's. 'Fran traveled the world.' She loved the arts so much that she often treated her students to theater and opera performances. 'Phantom of the Opera' was Ms. Boden's favorite, Salmonson said. Ms. Boden routinely bought books to help motivate students to read. Once, she treated the class to a rodeo at the Cow Palace, Leigh said. Because there was nothing much besides the monkey bars in the way of sports for girls, Ms. Boden organized a girls softball and basketball league. For uniforms, they wore men's sleeveless ribbed undershirts over their school clothes, Leigh said. For transportation, the girls piled in the back of Ms. Boden's pickup. Ms. Boden didn't slow down in 1982 when she retired. She continued tending her vegetable garden, which also produced pumpkins and Christmas trees every season, showing her champion German shorthair, Jake, and hosting parties with live entertainment.

But when the 49ers were playing, -- forget it, Greer said. 'Fran did not want to be disturbed.' Ms. Boden related to every student, Leigh said, including a troubled boy who decided he'd had enough of school one day and bolted out the door. 'Fran chased right after him, leaping over mud puddles on the playground to catch him,' Leigh said. Ms. Boden returned with the boy and a bloody lip, then excused the class early. The next morning, he was back -- and not begrudgingly, Leigh said. By the end of the year, the boy was chosen 'Most Improved Student.' FRANCES LEE BODEN Born: May 27, 1927, in San Jose

Died: Jan. 10, 2007, in San Jose Survived by: Her companion, Gerd Salmonson of Los Gatos, and a sister, Jane Holloway of San Jose.

Memorial: Ms. Boden preferred that contributions be sent to an animal rights or children's literacy organization. For more obituaries go to www. mercurynews.com/ obituaries/.

Copyright (c) 2007, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business

News.

MAHWAH SCHOOLS IMPROVING DESPITE CUTS - The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
12-11-1991
MAHWAH SCHOOLS IMPROVING DESPITE CUTS
Date: 12-11-1991, Wednesday
Section: NORTHWEST BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD
Edition: 3 Star

Editor, The Record:

As an outspoken citizen who has been concerned with Mahwah's
educational system for 10 years, I was honored by the voters to be
elected to the Board of Education in 1990. I knew the task ahead would
not be easy: Any change in education is a slow process, and there were
years of complacency that had to be overcome.

The economic climate throughout the country is unstable and we in
Mahwah have not been spared. Now, more than ever, public bodies must be
responsive, open, and honest to the community in which they serve, and
must respond to misleading information and half-truths written by
defeated former board members for the purpose of negating the present
board's efforts at responsible leadership.

Yes, like many towns, Mahwah had a defeated budget. However,
despite removal of nearly $1 million from that budget, Mahwah's
schoolchildren have a new reading program, new computers to enhance more
programs, and a new superintendent who is responsive to improving
education.

Yes, class size has increased (we no longer have sections of 12 and
15 students per class). Yes, we have instituted a small fee for freshman
sports that has enabled us to add additional freshman sports for girls,
thereby creating a balance in offerings for boys and girls.

Yes, we have instituted a small maintenance fee for students who
use school-owned musical instruments instead of renting their
instruments from an outside company. This fee offsets some of the costs
for repairs.

Note also that both these fees are waived in some cases of
financial hardship.

Yes, all of these items address what the board is doing now, but
what are the plans for the future? One only has to read the papers to
note that science and math education throughout the country has failed
our children. We in Mahwah have followed the studies of the National
Science Foundation and will be instituting an integrated science
curriculum in the high school for all ninth-graders.

This program is an exciting and challenging new approach to the
teaching of science and will put Mahwah at the leading edge of teaching
for the 21st century. Furthermore, we are adding a calculus course to
the high school curriculum in addition to our existing
advanced-placement calculus course. Thus the AP course will more
adequately address the needs of the advanced math student, while the
average math student will have an additional math course available for
further study.

Yes, we have discussed the possibility of a new phone system to
replace an inadequate and highly inefficient system that presently
exists. However, the board decided that the phone issue will be
addressed during the next budget preparation, provided that savings are
achieved to offset the cost of implementation. Yes, as residents of
Mahwah can see, the Board of Education has taken its job most seriously
and is striving to provide the best educational experiences for the
children during a period of national economic uncertainty. I urge
residents truly interested in knowing how the Board of Education is
operating to attend meetings and learn the facts firsthand.

BARBARA BURGHARDT
Mahwah

Keywords: MAHWAH. SCHOOL. EDUCATION. BUDGET

Copyright 1991 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.

Willetta Brown, 82, advocated girls' sports; She was a teacher and coach in what is now Roseville Area High School.(NEWS)(Obituary) - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

Byline: Ben Cohen; Staff Writer

In a different era, Willetta (Pinkie) Brown of Kasota, Minn., might have been a headline name on the sports pages. But when she played tennis, basketball and volleyball, there wasn't much in the way of organized sports for girls and young women.

Brown worked to change that, helping to bring interscholastic sports to Minnesota girls. She died last Thursday at her home. She was 82.

Brown taught physical education and coached girls' basketball, track and volleyball at Alexander Ramsey High School (now Roseville Area High School) from 1952 to 1985.

She was inducted into the Minnesota State High School League's Hall of Fame in 1993. 'She was a terrific coach and teacher as well as an organizer,' said Paul Busch, a retired teacher and coach. She also could play a variety of sports. 'Had women's athletics been around when she was in high school, she would have been an unbelievable athlete,' Busch said.

He added that she had a bit of a temper, especially toward those who were rude to her student athletes simply because they were girls.

For many years, Brown held workshops to teach girls' coaches, and she volunteered on committees and boards that supported girl athletes, said Ruth Engebritson, a retired Alexander Ramsey teacher and coach.

Brown, a 1945 graduate of the former Mankato Teachers College, served on the Minnesota State High School League's Women's Advisory Committee in 1969, and was a founding member of the Minnesota Coaches Association for Girls Sports.

ADKINS NEARS END OF COACHING CAREER - Post-Tribune (IN)

PHOTOBernita Adkins will conclude her 25 years as a girls' basketball coach at the end of Portage's season. During the 1962-63 season, she coached seven sports at Portage. (Post-Tribune photo by Dave Bartman)

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.

Don't begrudge Bernita Adkins a flashback or two Tuesday night when her Portage girls' basketball team plays Valparaiso at Portage High School. It will be the last sectional hurrah for Adkins, the only basketball coach Portage's girls have ever known. Poor health hastened her retirement from coaching, but there's no doubt where her heart is.

'When I made the decision over Christmas vacation, I cried for 24 hours,' she said. 'I did a lot of soul searching. I knew it wasn't fair to my health or to the kids. I missed four games this season, that's more than in all my previous years'

The sobs became contagious. Her players cried after she told them earlier this month that she was quitting.

Adkins, 53, was hospitalized early in the season for an ulcerated colon. Her doctor said the condition was brought about by the stresses associated with years of coaching.

As Adkins watches her squad play Valparaiso Tuesday, her thoughts might drift back 25 years when she picked up her first whistle. Also greeting her was an assortment of indifferent and chauvinistic attitudes.

In the 1962-63 season, Adkins coached golf, field hockey, basketball, track and field, swimming, badminton, and volleyball. For all this, she received a yearly stipend of $250.

'We'd go somewhere and play basketball, then put up the nets and play volleyball,' recalls Adkins. 'We called it a sportsday. Our principal was against interscholastic sports for girls.

'People don't realize what we went through when we first started. Parents drove, I drove. We sold candy and candles to pay for uniforms and officials.'

Adkins knew griping wouldn't help.

'If I complained, they'd say 'you didn't have to do it' so I just kept my mouth shut. The girls needed something and they were quite thankful they had the opportunity.'

The options for girls changed dramatically in the mid 70's as the growing women's movement helped spur the passage of Title IX, a federal law which mandates equal educational opportunities in the classroom and on the athletic field.

Reaping the biggest benefit was girls' basketball which suddenly gained first-string status and a glitzy state tournament.

Adkins took her undefeated Indians as far the semistate during the tournament's inaugural season in 1976-77. Her team was ousted by the eventual state runner-up, East Chicago Roosevelt. Adkins has a 220-95 record, but her teams haven't won a sectional since.

Five players from her first tournament team are now coaching basketball at varying levels. They are: Linda Radivan, Donna DeVries, Peggy Voss, Cheryl Kovalow and Karen Arwood.

Since then, Adkins has witnessed astonishing changes in skills and abilities.

'I think the squad I have right now would beat them,' Adkins says about her current team which has a 12-6 record. 'So much has changed. There are bigger and stronger people. Weight work has played a role, and the girls are better shooters.'

In all her years of coaching, Adkins has never received a technical foul.

'If I could blow my stack, I probably wouldn't be having these problems. I'm not a yeller or a screamer.'

Adkins' squad would like nothing better than to present her with a sectional title as a going away present. First, the Indians will have to survive their sectional opener against Valparaiso, which beat them 52-48 on Jan. 17.

UNLIKE BEFORE, GIRLS SAY SPORTS ARE THERE FOR THE PLAYING - Post-Tribune (IN)

PHOTOAshley Spurgeon, a Valparaiso High School softball player, guides Julia St. John, 9, through the fundamentals of batting Thursday afternoon at Flint Lake Elementary School in Valparaiso. (LARRY A. BRETTS/POST-TRIBUNE)

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.

Over the span of less than a decade, the opportunities afforded Lindsay Prou's younger sister through athletics are greater than she had.The Valparaiso High School tennis player joined fellow female athletes Thursday at Flint Lake Elementary School to encourage young people to take advantage of athletics.

'Now, there's soccer, basketball - things I didn't have,' Prou said.

Women athletes now push beyond the stereotypical cheerleading, track and gymnastics. Before, there was little in the way of school sports.

Lorie Cook, Valparaiso High School's gymnastics coach, graduated from high school in 1971 from a school that did not offer sports for girls. Her mother, a physical education teacher, encouraged Lorie's participation in intramural sports teams.

'Our high school had zero high school sports,' Cook said. 'It was very, very low-level organization at that time.'

'These girls are very lucky,' she said.

Thursday's push to encourage young girls to participate in athletics was part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

At Flint Lake, girls talked with coaches and athletes and then broke into groups to sample sports in the gymnasium. The groups rotated among cheerleading, softball, tennis and volleyball.

The day acknowledges past and current sports achievements, the influence of sports participation and efforts to gain equal access for women in sports.

The battle for equity begins first with a changing of mindset, said Flint Lake physical education teacher Willa Nuppnau.

'The hard part is breaking through the stereotype, and it's with the parents,' Nuppnau said. 'I see parents of sons almost forcing them into sports but I see parents of girls making it more a choice.'

Participation in sports clubs for young children is about 10 percent girls and 90 percent boys, Nuppnau said.

'In a lot of those programs that are coed, the girls are not participating,' she said. 'I want to give a little boost in the arm for them to start thinking about sports, or even to go home and ask to be in sports.'

Laney Martin went home more interested in sports than when she began her school day. The 7-year-old does not participate in athletics.

'It was fun. I never did sports like that before,' Laney said.

Leah Downey did the splits while waiting in line to swing a baseball bat. Already active in sports, the 7-year-old relished a time away from her male counterparts.

Albritton coach makes history. - The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, NC)

Byline: Michael N. Graff

Sep. 16--Carla Nau-Redman is thought to be the first female football coach in Cumberland County.

Expecting a standard pregame greeting, the group of officials walked toward the visitors sideline and asked for Albritton Junior High School's head football coach.

They nearly looked past her.

Yes, her.

Wearing eyeglasses, a collared shirt, cutoff pants and a school ID badge, Carla Nau-Redman was in standard schoolteacher attire when she stepped forward and introduced herself.

'Well,' choked one of the officials, 'this is different.'

They were right to be startled.

Nau-Redman is believed to be the first woman head coach of a public school football team in Cumberland County.

While some women have cracked into other sports, like when Fayetteville native Sheila Boles became the boys' basketball coach at Wilmington Hoggard High School in 1989, the football coaching circle has been a boys' club forever.

'Everybody's eyes get all big when they see her,' says her husband, Jeff. 'They think maybe she's the assistant coach, and maybe the head coach couldn't make it.'

Nau-Redman is an exception, to say the least.

She even plays the game. She's an offensive lineman with the Cape Fear Thunder, the region's women's football team.

That gives her plenty of credibility with the pre-teen players on her team.

'The boys seem to be really receptive to me,' Nau-Redman said. 'It helps that I've played football. They haven't questioned anything I've done.'

Growing up in Caldwell, Ohio, a town with about 9,000 people, Nau-Redman stuck with the traditional sports for girls in high school -- volleyball, basketball, softball and cheerleading.

But football was always her first love.

'Friday night, that's what my family does -- high school football,' Nau-Redman said.

After graduating from Ohio University in 2004, Nau-Redman, now 32, decided to move to North Carolina because there's a greater demand for teachers here.

A math teacher, she started at Reid Ross Classical, then moved to Albritton at the start of last school year.

She never lost her passion for Friday nights. She and Jeff, a government contractor, are regulars at high school games throughout the county.

Because they're transplants and don't have kids of their own, they don't root for one favorite team. They just pick the best game and go.

Also, they have season tickets to the Fayetteville FireAntz and the Fayetteville Guard.

'It's not just football,' Jeff said. 'It's all sports.'

Watching, playing and coaching keeps Nau-Redman going.

'I teach, too, by the way,' she said, laughing.

Albritton principal Mike Thornburg wasn't looking to make history when he posted the football job last year. He just needed a coach.

A junior high school on Fort Bragg, Albritton is hardly the easiest place to coach a football team in the county. Deployments and transfers make for a fluid roster.

Nau-Redman watched last year as the football team won just one game.

Still, when the job opened in the spring, Nau-Redman approached Thornburg.

She was one of two applicants.

'I did not think about blazing a trail,' Thornburg said. 'I know she does a wonderful job in the classroom with the kids. It certainly crossed my mind that I would have a female coaching our football team. But I didn't think it would be a problem.'

Women coaches aren't foreign to parents on Fort Bragg.

About 40 percent of the youth coaches last spring were women, mostly because of the recent run of deployments.

Leaders of the youth associations, who are constantly scurrying to find coaches, say it's most important to keep a sport running and provide a stable outlet for the kids, regardless of the gender of the coaches.

Perhaps that's one reason the parents at Albritton have been so open to Nau-Redman's position.

'She could be a woman or she could be a man,' said David Todd Jr., whose son, David III, plays on the defensive line at Albritton. 'As long as she teaches them discipline, good sportsmanship and fundamentals, that's all that matters.'

Nau-Redman says she's a teacher first. But don't mistake that for softness.

She had about 85 kids sign up to play football. Within two weeks, she made two rounds of cuts to shave the roster down to 34.

It wasn't easy.

'I came home, looked at the sheet, I ate dinner, I looked at the sheet again, I took a nap,' she said. 'Finally I was like, 'OK, I've got to make these cuts now.''

Parents were angry.

At the coach.

Not at the woman.

'I expected to see more parents, because I am a female,' she said. 'But I don't think I got more than any other coach.'

Nau-Redman might not have an extensive playing background. But, she said, her one year with the Thunder taught her to look at the game completely differently.

She's critical of the small things, she said, especially when it comes to the offensive line.

Also, she has a few men on her staff, including her husband.

'If she played, she must know what she's doing,' said David Todd, the parent. 'I haven't heard anyone say she should go back to coaching something else or anything like that.'

Nau-Redman was nauseous all day on Thursday before Albritton's first game of the season at Gray's Creek.

But after giving the officials the startling news that she was the head coach, Nau-Redman settled in.

She yelled. She pleaded with referee. She blocked out criticism from the parents in the bleachers.

After one play in the third quarter, she pulled two of her best defenders off the field because they'd been penalized for a late hit.

'What are you doing?' she shouted, just as she might have if they were misbehaving during pre-algebra class. Only this instance led to 15 yards for the opponent. 'We had them backed up! Now they've got a first down! You don't do that!'

The penalty was of little consequence. Albritton lost 28-0.

Afterward, Nau-Redman stood in front of an unhappy team and asked the players if they'd learned something from the experience.

They all said they did.

'That's what matters, that we learn,' she said.

Then she walked away and flipped the switch from easy-going teacher to tough-as-tacks football coach.

'We've got a little more molding to do,' she said, almost scowling at the outcome. 'I don't foresee that score again. Those guys were a little more prepared than we were. And that's not going to happen again.'

Staff writer Michael N. Graff can be reached at graffm@fayobserver.com or 486-3591.

To see more of The Fayetteville Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.fayettevillenc.com/.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Time to recognise sport's true worth - The Irish Times

LockerRoom: George Best died as he had lived, with the brightlights and the media mob sucking away his dignity and his privacy.

He was George and we took him and made him Georgie and turned himinto a deity and then into a cautionary parable.

I interviewed him once, in a pub in Ballymun, after an eveningwhich he had spent retailing the tragedies of his life as bawdyyarns for boozers. He sat down afterwards, a man far too intelligentnot to appreciate the pathos of his situation, and he looked at mewith his beautiful ruined eyes as if to apologise for hisimperfections. You could only look back and apologise for all thatwe took from him.

If there was mercy in his parting it was twofold. An end to whathe suffered at the hands of demons and parasites. Plus the chance tosit children down and show them what true genius looked like on afootball field. Those highlights reels of goals will never beproduced again. That streak of dangerous genius would be coached outof any kid in double quick time.

I remember Best telling me that as a kid, he once watched Eusebiowarming up by doing some tricks - the most impressive of which wasto kick a penalty in such a way that the ball took off and when ithit the ground it spun back to Eusebio's feet. George went off andpractised for hours and hours until he could do that. You could seelove in what George Best did on the field. You see pragmatism andcoaching in what almost everyone else has ever done since.

That image of an enthralled kid alone with a ball practising andplaying has always stayed with me. George Best crossed a thresholdnot just by becoming the first superstar of sport but by beginninghis career in an era of innocence and ending it in a time ofcynicism.

He often described the joy of his childhood in the CregaghEstate, running to school dribbling a tennis ball as he went,dashing home at lunch to be first back afterwards for the game inthe yard and long evenings just kicking that same tennis ballagainst a row of garage doors.

Go to the internet and get on your Google and examine how kidslives have changed. All replica jerseys and no sweat. Every surveyshows kids getting fatter and more obese and less likely to takeexercise. They live joyless goldfish bowl existences, cossetted fromall dangers except those we foist on them for later, heart disease,diabetes, hypertension, the whole range.

Go look at the figures. A recent study highlighted as part of theGovernment's national nutritional plans suggested that 11 per centof boys were overweight and nine per cent of them were obese, while12 per cent of girls were overweight and a further 12 per cent wereobese. More than half take insufficient physical exercise.

Get to the north side of Dublin and it gets worse. Girls takesignificantly less physical exercise and have lower levels ofaerobic fitness than boys. That's what a survey of 15- to 17-year-olds for the Irish Heart Foundation established.

And we have a nutritional plan to fend off the health disasterwhich is coming down the chute? Here's a thing. The amount of moneygiven to grassroots sports for girls in Ireland is a pittance whenit should be an extreme case of positive discrimination. The dropoff rate of girls from sporting activity in late teens is a disasterwhich only money and imagination will remedy.

Sport needs, as it is in Australia, to be a part not just of thenational curriculum but part of a broad campaign to changelifestyle. Hopefully there will be more on that issue in the weeksto come but just imagine (in this era of burgeoning sports sciencedepartments on campuses) sports as a Leaving Cert subject requiringsome fitness, some participation as well as some theory. Why not?Why is it different from art or music? Why don't we recognise thetremendous pay-off which sports will give us in terms of the mentalwell-being and sheer good health of future generations.

George Best wouldn't be allowed to walk to school today. Hewouldn't play football on his estate until the only light was fromstreetlamps. We've cossetted kids so much that we've taken joy away.The lucky ones get brought to sports clubs, there to experience thethrill of sport a couple of times a week while know-nothings mutterabout burnout and stress. The rest are left to fatten up like geese,their thumbs being the only body part they exercise as theyfrantically manoeuvre the play station joystick.

The Government will, as usual, respond with campaigns. What weneed, though, is an overhaul. A sea change. A structure whichdelivers.

There's a small start we could make. In a few months' time thegusher that is the SSIA schemes will open. Almost literally, thiscountry will be flooded with money. There are 1,170,208 SSIA schemesin operation. The average payout will be [euro]14,000. I got out thecalculator on the mobile phone to work out the total amount of moneywhich will suddenly swish about. The phone hadn't enough space forall the numbers. Let's just say it's an 11-figure sum.

My friend, who understands money, brought me around a couple ofbooks on the subject of SSIA money and what do do with it. And anidea. You can get breaks for investing your dough in just aboutanything from old folks' homes to sports-injury clinics. Honestly,there are great, big, long lists of things that the Government wouldlike you to throw your cash into. They're all up for review comebudget time, which leads us to the idea.

From April onwards when those lucky and prudent 1,170,208citizens of this state start getting lump sums of on average[euro]14,000 each we are in all likelihood going to do with thatmoney what we did with the whole Celtic Tiger bonanza. We're goingto throw it in the direction of the usual bandits. We'll allowourselves be fleeced as we go on the rampage through the vast galaxyof consumer goods we fancy. There'll be cars, kitchens and foreignholliers for everyone in the audience.

The Government will say tsk, tsk, please get the money back to usin orderly fashion. And we will. And when we're done madly splurgingthe lump sum we'll find we each have some money left over in ourmonthly pay cheque. The cash we've been paying into the scheme inthe first place.

So why not invest in sport? Why not an SSIA scheme for sportsclubs? If each of us all nominated somewhere (an audited club) wherewe wanted some of our money to go to, could we not pay this cash inthe form of a once-off payment (out of our lumps) or a standingorder drawn from the income we are free to enjoy again?

Currently you get tax relief on donations to appropriatelyregistered and audited sports clubs but why not up the ante? Expandthe extent of the relief. And once the club keeps passing its auditsfor, let's say, two years, then top up the amount which came in onthe scheme by 25 per cent.

A GAA or soccer club with, say, 100 members, pledging [euro]100of their newly freed-up money (or 200 members paying [euro]50 - Icould go on!) a month for a year or two with a 25 per cent lump ontop of that for the club at the end of it would be in a position tomake a huge difference to ordinary lives. Hurling walls, all-weather pitches, expanded mini leagues. Things clubs dream of.

There is much we can and will learn from a country like Australiaabout developing sport and staying healthy. There is much to belearned, too, from the childhood and adult life of George Best.Local grassroot sports, people taking care of their lives and theirclubs, are where the future is at. It's time for a big idea, a grandgesture.

They're definitely ready to make waves ; The Cheverus girls' swim team is growing in numbers and stature in just its third year. - Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME)

GLENN JORDAN Staff Writer
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
12-10-2003
They're definitely ready to make waves ; The Cheverus girls' swim team is growing in numbers and stature in just its third year.
Byline: GLENN JORDAN Staff Writer
Edition: FINAL
Section: Sports
Column: High School Swimming Preview
Memo: 'The first year was really fun because everything was new. But this year everyone knows to look out for Cheverus girls. ...' Mary Elizabeth Gervais

They are known as the Lady Stags, an obvious oxymoron, which may explain why they have embellished their nickname with a symbol of strength and added a tough-sounding grunt.

'Lady Stags of Steel, UNHHHH!'
Coming soon to a swimming pool near you.

Cheverus High School, for eight decades an all-boys private school in Portland, has entered its fourth year of coeducation. None of the current 496 students, including 150 girls, experienced the one-gender atmosphere.

The school offers 13 sports for girls, but no team of girls from Cheverus has sported a winning record, much less won a state title.

Yet.

'That's in the back of our minds, definitely,' said junior Meaghan Morris. 'We have high goals, high standards.'

Morris is one of the Original Six, members of the first Cheverus girls' swim team, now in its third season of competition.

Classmates Katie Cloutier, Mary Elizabeth Gervais, Jill Horan and Sierra Thibeault and senior Meghan McCrillis now form the core of a 14-member squad that, bolstered by three transfers and four freshmen, finally can fill every event, including three relays.

At the state championships, a winning relay counts 32 points, but even a fifth-place finish is good for 20. With only a handful of qualifiers and two relays, Cheverus finished fourth in Class A in 2002 and fifth of 23 schools last February.

'Obviously, this is the strongest Cheverus girls' team ever,' said Coach Kevin Haley, who shares duties with Stephanie Gautreau. 'They should do fairly well. But (two-time defending champion) Cape Elizabeth is still the favorite. The Bangor girls are dynamite as well. And now that (Class B champion) Scarborough has moved up to Class A, they'll make things interesting. Also, the Deering girls are very strong.'

Haley spoke beside the pool at the Portland YMCA, where toddlers splashed with floating barbells following a Cheverus workout. Senior Allie Theriault strolled by, wearing a Cape Elizabeth lacrosse T- shirt.

Theriault and Emilie Youmans transferred to Cheverus this fall, as did sophomore Suzanne Agro from Gray-New Gloucester. Last February, Youmans was second in the backstroke, third in the 100- yard freestyle and swam on two winning relays at the Class A meet, and Agro scored in two events at the Class B meet.

Among returning swimmers, Horan was runner-up in the 50 and 100 free, Morris was fourth in the butterfly and fifth in the individual medley, and McCrillis was third in the breast stroke and seventh in the IM.

'It's a really versatile group of girls,' said Gautreau. 'They're extremely hard-working and dedicated and there's a positive attitude from A to Z.

'They understand they won't be sneaking up on any teams this year, and that's fine with them.'

'The first year was really fun because everything was new,' said Gervais, nursing an injured ankle. 'But this year everyone knows to look out for Cheverus girls. People know that we're good and they've got to watch out for us.'

McCrillis, a co-captain and one of two seniors, is excited about the season, which for Cheverus begins today against South Portland. She said one of the reasons the team is so close is the support the girls receive from the Cheverus boys, who have a long tradition of swimming success.

'Since we swim with the boys, it's a really intermingled team,' McCrillis said. 'We mix the lanes up so it's very inclusive.'

McCrillis and Morris played up the camaraderie angle while recruiting new swimmers to the team.

'We explain to them what it's like to be a Lady Stag,' said Morris, whose father teaches math at Cheverus. 'We have our cheers. They see the stands packed with purple and gold. . . . And (Haley and Gautreau) are great. They're so intense, but so caring for the team.'

Before each meet, the girls gather to prepare psychologically. They identify themselves loudly and proudly as the Lady Stags of Steel, complete with grunt.

'This year we're so pumped,' Morris said. 'The girls are ready to roll.'

Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

gjordan@pressherald.com

Illustrations/Photos:
Caption: Staff photo by Jill Brady: Jill Horan is one of five
juniors who have been with the Cheverus girls' swim team since it
began three years ago. She was runner-up in the 50 and 100 freestyle
events at last season's state Class A meet. Staff photo by Jill
Brady: Clockwise from left, Katie Cloutier, Meaghan Morris, Jill
Horan, Meghan McCrillis and Sierra Thibeault, along with injured
Mary Elizabeth Gervais, have been with the Cheverus girls' swim team
since its inception.

Copyright 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.