NorthwestAugust 17, 1993

Andrea Vogt

As the familiar back-to-school sales begin, student athletes around region are buying duffle bags, cleated shoes and protective kneepads to gear up for the season's sports activities.

During the preseason flurry each year, I'm reminded of the unequal treatment given by many area high school administrators to boys' high school sports over girls' activities.

While competitive, successful coaches have graced the region's schools in both boys' and girls' programs, there are some double standards visible to me back when I went through the public school system that, unfortunately, haven't changed much.

High school boys' coaches have glowing qualifications. They have coached before, they played college ball. They are hired to produce a winning team.

Many of the boys' coaches are well-trained in coaching technique and philosophy. And they should be. The more qualified adult role models brought into a school setting, the better.

But why isn't the same consideration given to hiring and firing coaches for girls' sports?

For girls' athletics, administrators often try to save cost and trouble by searching the existing staff for a stray art instructor or teacher's aide who might have once picked up a basketball in her youth.

I'll never forget the time when a female coach was defined as being qualified because ''her husband used to play basketball.''

Would a school district dare hire a football coach who couldn't throw a pass or explain a lateral?

Not a chance. Yet year after year, girls' coaches are hired on the high school level who are less than qualified for the positions they take on.

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I recall one basketball coach who ''shot a basket'' by throwing the basketball wildly up toward the hoop with both hands jutting out from her chest in an awkward and obviously untrained manner. This person was an educator? This person was supposed to help develop my skills?

One of the common misconceptions about high school girls' athletics is that rather than needing technical assistance and aggressive tactics, girls need someone who can help their morale because girls are generally emotionally unstable, vulnerable and need someone they can talk to, right? Not exactly.

Girls need valuable role models, confident, disciplined, trained coaches like those hired for boys' sports who can launch them forward in their athletic pursuits.

Coaches for girls' sports often are not hired until days before practice is scheduled to begin. Boys' coaches often are hired much further in advance.

When a girls' team subsequently does poorly in a season, some will say it's because the girls were not skilled or didn't want to win, not because they had poor direction, coaching and training year after year.

I don't believe the favoritism given to boys' sports is intention al, but rather is the result of sports being an undisputed area of male domination for years.

Women's athletics on a college level still are struggling with sports equity. Similarly, girls' high school sports are still playing catch-up with administrations and communities that still value boys' sports as ''more important.''

This is of course not the case in every school. There are coaches who are quite qualified, coaches who have been in position for years and have created a stable, disciplined program. Bobbi Hazeltine of Troy (Idaho) High School is a good example who comes to mind.

As boys and girls take to the courts this fall season, I hope they are able to glean the valuable skills and opportunities for growth available within the sports arena.

Unfortunately, the girls probably still will get the short end of the stick.

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