Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 9, 1993 TAG: 9301090136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight/Ridder Tribune
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
UVA BOOSTS RYAN'S SALARY
The University of Virginia, in a step toward achieving gender equity, has made Debbie Ryan one of the highest-paid women's basketball coaches in the nation by increasing her salary to match that of men's coach Jeff Jones.Ryan had her annual base pay increased 25 percent to $106,000 as of Dec. 1, athletic director Jim Copeland said. It is the second raise in four months for Ryan, whose income in September was increased from $70,000 to $85,000.
Ryan, who has coached the Cavaliers to three consecutive NCAA Final Four appearances, is believed to be among the top two or three highest-paid women's coaches in the nation. Sources told the Newport News Daily Press that Rutgers' Theresa Grentz and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer make approximately $110,000 a year.
Kathryn Reith, communications and advocacy director of the Women's Sports Foundation in New York, said Virginia is the only National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I school she knows of where the men's and women's basketball coaches are paid equally.
A source at Stanford, however, said VanDerveer's salary is at least comparable to men's coach Mike Montgomery. Stanford, a private school, is not required to make its employees' salaries available.
Ryan said that although she was paid considerably less than Jones, she never asked for her salary to be increased to his level.
"It was more of a quote-unquote problem for those people around me who felt I should be making the same salary," said Ryan, 342-126 in 15-plus seasons. "It was never a quote-unquote problem for me. I do feel equity is good for women in general around the country.
"This is a huge step for the University of Virginia, and I'm proud of the fact that they took it without it ever being suggested. I never pursued this in any way, shape or form."
Ryan said her two full-time assistants, Frank DiLeo and Shawn Campbell, received "sizable" raises in September and that she expects their salary to be close to equal to that of the men's assistants by next year.
According to a 1992 General Accounting Office report, which surveyed 259 Division I schools for the 1990-91 academic year, the average base salary among women's basketball coaches was $39,838. The highest salary reported was $92,300 and only two coaches, fewer than one percent of those surveyed, received more than $75,000 a year. Among men's coaches, the average base pay was $69,390, 43 percent higher than their women counterparts.
"This is pretty rare," Reith said of Ryan's increase. "She's worth every penny of it. I can see some other coaches taking this information to their athletic directors."
Attempts to reach Jones, who was traveling with his team to Raleigh, N.C., for tonight's game against North Carolina State, were unsuccessful.