Hey, get the facts correct
I read Dr. Greenspan’s comment (Speak Your Mind, April 17) about male coaches’ discrimination in women’s sports. For an educated man, he didn’t get his facts before his thesis. ‘s remove the blinders and look at the broader equation.
If we are dismissing gender from the equation, as his letter suggests, women have a long way to go to be equal with men. Recent statistics show there are 324 Division I coaching opportunities in women’s basketball, with 229 of those positions held by women and 95 by men. In men’s basketball, there are 327 Division I positions – and 327 of those are men and have always been men.
One might think the most successful basketball coach of our time, Pat Summit might have been invited to be a men’s coach at a Div. I school. To my knowledge, she has never been offered such a role.
Research shows men’s basketball coaches make between two to three times more in salary than women. ision I bonuses, and over three times in Final Four bonuses. There is legislation pending in Tennessee that would require the inequities to be fixed. There they believe the girls in their schools are as important as the boys, and the salaries do not reflect it.Title IX violations are not upheld to the stringent guidelines set by the NCAA. And, the NCAA either doesn’t have the funds or has been reluctant to adequately police these funding guidelines for young women.
As a young woman I played numerous sports and had both male and female coaches who could teach me technique and skill. In that assessment, Dr. Greenspan and I are in agreement. Gender is not relevant.
However, a female basketball player spends more time with her coach and teammates than in the classroom, with family members or friends. Women are better equipped to assist and nurture girls in becoming women more than men … period. When you look at the statistics for spousal abuse, drug addiction and arrests, our professional male players have abysmal records. Male coaches in college provided the boundaries and moral compass for professional male players. Compare their records with the ABL or WNBA female records who were predominantly coached by females. Assess their educational success, their value systems and ability to succeed outside athletics. We all know there is no comparison.
Parents, educators and athletic directors have a broader responsibility to these male and female athletes than scoring baskets. In some cases gender makes a difference, and in this one good sense and research are on the female coach’s side.
Marti J. Smith, Westminster
Soccer remark out of line
Jim Armstrong stepped over a line in his April 17 notes column. The remark about your personal feelings toward soccer (called football “outside of the good ol’ USA”) smacks of pretentious glib! When you say that “the game itself stinks,” are you referring to the European style or the American version?
Your reference is to some nasty violence during a match in Italy. I think it was Pele who coined the phrase for soccer as the “Beautiful Game.” Perhaps you fail to see the beauty in this sport.
Jonathan Merritt, Aurora
