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Mathound

Boy can't compete on high school girls' team

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Okay. You want me upset that basketball scholarships are given to non-US citizens. You got it. I'm pissed. I get pissed when I meet recruited faculty that can barely speak English. Then, all their post graduate positions are filled by non-Americans. I've got plenty to say about that, Bub. Unless you're a combat veteran, your rebuttal will not hold water so, don't even go there.

Back to the topic. I don't have to cite statistics or give examples of how I feel and my preception of what Title 9 has done. You still haven't shown me that little girl that's training to paddle her canoe for ole' State U.

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Thirty years ago, only seven percent of high school varsity athletes were female and today they represent 41 percent. Female varsity college athletes rose from 15 to 42 percent during the same time.

The Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education says Title IX increased sport participation for high school girls from almost 295,000 to over 2.6 million in 30 years.

On Sunday afternoon, February 8, 2004, the Gopher men's basketball team hosted Illinois, a team that went on to win the Big Ten regular season title. The game drew 13,404 fans.

That evening, the women's basketball team took to the Williams Arena floor against Penn State, another team that would go on to win the Big Ten title. This event drew 14,363 fans.

If you're looking for a red-letter day for women's athletics at the U and for the state of girls and women's sports in general (at least in Minnesota), this was it. All other variables aside, the women outdrawing the men at The Barn was an air-horn blast announcing that, 33 years after it entered into our vocabulary, Title IX has been a remarkable success.

"[Title IX] fundamentally changed the landscape, because without it, we wouldn't be where we are," says Mary Jo Kane, director of the University's Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport and a leading expert on Title IX. "For the first time in history we have a critical mass of girls and women who play sports. You have young girls who grow up with a sense of entitlement towards sports.... It would never occur to them than an opportunity wouldn't be available to them."

Perhaps no one has more institutional perspective on Title IX at the U than Jean Freeman, who until last spring was the head coach of the Gopher women's swimming and diving team. She arrived at the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate in 1968, took up swimming again on the women's club team (she had swum competitively from the ages of 8 to 16), then, after Title IX, became the first-ever coach of the women's intercollegiate team in 1973.

Figuratively speaking, compared to the men's teams, Freeman's early teams at the U swam in frigid water and against a stiff current in both directions. While the men swam in relatively modern Cooke Hall, the women were stuck in Norris Hall in a pool without lane guides, starting blocks, or a timing system. It would take a couple of years before the women were able to use Cooke Hall one evening a week, and another couple of years before they had all their practices and meets there. And scholarships weren't available until later in the '70s.

Freeman says that the state-of-the-art Aquatic Center, home of the men's and women's teams since 1990, was really the first manifestation at the U of an athletic facility built with gender equity in mind.

"That still boggles my mind--that it took till 1990," Freeman says. "That's why we needed, and still need, a federal law to help us along. Because we still don't make change very readily."

Over the past couple of decades, it's hard to question the University's commitment to female athletes and the success that has bred. Minnesota maintained separate women's and men's athletic departments until finances forced the two to merge in 2002. Before the merger, the women had a strong and vocal leader in Chris Voelz, the women's athletic director who is credited with getting new women's sports facilities built, creating a large scholarship endowment, and being a tireless supporter of women athletes.

Three women's sports--soccer, hockey, and rowing--have been added in the last decade, and in 2003-04, 47 percent of the U's 866 athletes were women, according to senior associate athletic director Regina Sullivan. That ratio is above the national average of 42 percent and the Division I average of 44 percent.

These are the success but there is still allot to do:

According to figures from the latest NCAA Gender-Equity Report and the Women's Sports Foundation, still only 42 percent of all high school and 42 percent of college athletes are females, compared to 49 and 56 percent of the overall student populations, respectively. And college women still receive $137 million less per year in athletic scholarships.

progress in gender equity is tangible and, at times, truly remarkable. It can be witnessed at The Barn, and it's increasingly evident on the sports pages of the local Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. You'll also find it at the schools and playgrounds now teaming with young girls in uniform--girls who don't even know what Title IX means, only that they're part of the game.

"In one generation, we have gone from young girls hoping that there is a team, to young girls hoping that they'll make the team."

and lastly from and article printed January 2007 Times Picyne to address the programs being cut:

The problem is many universities and high schools took shortcuts to comply. Instead of working hard to find resources and funding to add female opportunities, administrators subtracted male opportunities. That's not a healthy new math. Look at college wrestling nationwide. It's almost a defunct sport now, victim not of Title IX, but of administrators who sliced those non-revenue generating programs to make the budget work with new female sports.

That is an insane way to comply with Title IX. Think of the issue in these terms: An athletic program is like a family. There is a mom and dad (administrators) and four children (three men's sports, one women's sport). Suddenly, mom is surprised to discover she is pregnant (more women's sports on the way) despite the fact there is no promise of additional income (athletic funding).

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People like you scare the crap out me. You google around and cut&paste till you think you have supported an arguement.

You haven't.

Number 1. This is Old news

Number 2. These are equivelents. Men's vs Women's program

Number 3. Ask J Rob if this was a red-letter day. He's closer to the UofM's AD than you

Number 4. This is a wrestling forum. Not a " I want my Maypo er, Title IX" forum.

              ( The tangent this thread has taken get's you a pass. But. I believe the orginal intent

                  was more of a what's good for the goose senario)

Number 5. Google all you want. You ain't gonna find a middle school girl training to be a rower in

              college.         

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People like you scare the crap out me. You google around and cut&paste till you think you have supported an arguement.

You haven't.

Number 1. This is Old news

Number 2. These are equivelents. Men's vs Women's program

Number 3. Ask J Rob if this was a red-letter day. He's closer to the UofM's AD than you

Number 4. This is a wrestling forum. Not a " I want my Maypo er, Title IX" forum.

               ( The tangent this thread has taken get's you a pass. But. I believe the orginal intent

                  was more of a what's good for the goose senario)

Number 5. Google all you want. You ain't gonna find a middle school girl training to be a rower in

               college.           

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we can argue all day and not agree.  And as for it being a wrestling forum I would think this is applicable and a pass is not needed.  Maybe parents and boosters should hold schools more accountable when they decide to cut programs such as wresting programs - there is ALLOT of evidence that these programs were being cut well before the enforcement of Title IX. And again I will not accept that to give our boys opportunities we have to deny our girls and it is this attitude that has lead to the continued lack of support for our girls. 

I do not have to show you a picture of a rower who trained in middle school b/c as you have pointed out repeatedly most middleschool girls are not even presented this as acceptable option. But as a person from the state of KY maybe you should be familiar with the name Tori Murden she rowed across the Atlantic Ocean by herself - so there are plenty of women rowers out there and they should have the chance to begin rowing whenever they want at any grade level.  But as I said there is no use arguing with you - it is too easy to blame Title IX for giving girls a chance instead of laying the blame at the feet of the institutions and society that created the problem.  I do take heart in the one other person who posted here who seemed to understand the goals of Title IX and it becoming more and more acceptable and more young males are embracing and respecting the female athlete.

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It's the old addage "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater." 

Unfortunately wrestling has become that baby, and has been thrown out with the bathwater.

I understand the intent of Title IX however, when it was not enforced the way it was suppose to none said anything about it. 

The argument of "Well we were not able to participate for such a long time, now it's your turn to suffer" is not a solid argument either. 

The original point I was trying to make was that we should have opportunities for anyone and everyone who wants to participate in sports, boy, girl, elderly, or handicapped.  None should be denied.

You are correct it is not title IX that has killed wrestling, its those that have improperly enforced Title IX, and those that did nothing when it was not being enforced correctly.

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I do not want anyone to think I am just being stubborn - I love wrestling and want everyone to have a chance to compete - and coming from some of the smaller schools with less money I understand the difficulties.  As you can tell I feel strongly that it is very important that girls have equal opportunities as boys.  So I think we can all agree that kids have gotten hurt all around.  But turning back the clock on Title IX will not fix the problems.  And I do think that some boys have been negatively effected by Title IX and  it seems unfair that they are having to pay the price for past generations - but for years the girls have had to pay the price boys to have all of the sports and athletic scholarships.  I will not continue to argue and again I am sorry I seem stubborn - I just think it is important that the kids today look at this as allowing equal rights for girls NOT at the expensive of rights for themselves - I do not want to foster a victim mentality-if a program is being cut - boys should stand up and ask questions just as girls should - I think everyone should endorse a community that embraces all sports male and female!

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