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.'

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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!'