Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305090053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The issue has been raised in a section of the report from the Governor's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which met last year to make recommendations on everything from gender equity to finances. The commission asked high school principals under the gender-equity guidelines to "schedule girls' basketball and volleyball competition in traditional sports seasons."
Virginia Group AAA schools now play volleyball in the fall and girls' basketball in the winter. Groups AA and A reverse this, playing volleyball in the winter and girls' basketball in the fall.
Five states - West Virginia, Michigan, Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota - play all divisions of girls' basketball in the fall. Only Virginia splits the seasons.
The VHSL formed a subcommittee after the governor's commission report was released, and this spring the VHSL scheduled the October vote.
Claudia Dodson, the VHSL programs supervisor who deals with girls' sports, says school districts have been asked to make sure they meet Title IX guidelines that call for equity in sports among women and men in public institutions in all aspects, including spending and staffing. Then they should make a decision whether they comply even if fall basketball isn't moved to the winter.
School boards, with information from the study of Title IX guidelines in their districts, will make the decision to support or oppose the recommendation and inform principals how they should vote. Voting will be done by school districts, even though each school, through its principal, will receive a vote in October. For instance, three Roanoke County Group A and AA schools - Glenvar, Northside and William Byrd - will vote. While one principal might favor a change and another might not, the VHSL stresses the three schools should vote according to what Roanoke County Superintendent of Schools Bayes Wilson decrees after he determines whether his district complies with Title IX guidelines.
All sorts of rumors and questions are arising. Some principals have told coaches fall basketball will be moved to winter - that it's only a matter of time.
No one knows, if the move is made, how it will be implemented. One possibility is copying Tennessee, which plays boys-girls doubleheaders on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Schools also might play girls' games on opposite nights from boys' games. Or, teams might play at opposite home sites with varsity-junior varsity doubleheaders.
In Tennessee, the doubleheaders once started at 7 p.m. with girls' games first and boys' games second. Now they start at 6 p.m. on school nights and 6:30 on weekends.
It's possible the Group AA schools might vote for the proposal and Group A schools not. If so, the seasons still will be split, with Group A playing in the fall and AA moving to the winter.
When will it be implemented? Dodson says the sub-committee decreed that it not start until the 1995-96 school year. However, one school district in Northern Virginia, which will vote for the change, wants it for 1994-95.
Is it a certainty that no matter how the vote comes out, fall basketball will move to the winter? And if the principals, under guidelines from their superintendents, don't pass the recommendation from the commission in October, will the state legislature force it upon the high schools?
VHSL programs supervisor Larry Johnson says he doesn't know what the next step would be.
"I don't know whether the governor would feel he needs to introduce something [legislation] to get it done. That's been no threat," Johnson said. "It could become part of legislation. But we feel like the fairest thing is what the schools want. If they're happy where they are, why is that unfair to them?"
William Byrd principal Bob Patterson, who plans to vote for the move, was a commission member.
"It's a recommendation, but a pretty strong recommendation," Patterson said. "The school boards are going to have to make a decision whether to change. They're going to have to talk to their schools. The athletic director, principal and superintendent should go to their school board."
University of Virginia women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan, also a member of the commission, said the feeling of the committee that made the proposal "was that women's programs are always being moved out of the traditional seasons . . . that we need to keep the women's sports in the traditional seasons with the men."
Timesland coaches surveyed for this story agreed nearly unanimously that there are no differences in gender equity because of basketball being played in the fall, that publicity for girls' basketball would be hurt by moving Groups A and AA to the winter, that officiating would be worse for the girls if they had to share the officials with the boys and that most schools won't have the gym space to handle [all the] practices and games.
"We're not advocating hurting anyone's program or having it take a step backward," Ryan said. "We're just trying to force the issue so the girls are treated equal. Playing in the traditional season is one of those things that sends a message.
"Governor Wilder wanted this [the study] to go fast and have some teeth. He didn't want it to be something that was just thrown together. We did a thorough job with it."
Dr. Elizabeth D. Morie, an associate professor at James Madison University, was superintendent of Lexington schools when she served as chairwoman of the committee that recommended the move of fall basketball to the winter.
"It came out of our committee that women's athletics should not be scheduled in any way that disadvantaged the sport or the individual athlete," she said.
Morie agrees that the report is not a decree to change.
"We make the recommendations to the governor. He then disseminates it throughout the state, and the people who are involved in administering athletics and the high schools should be aware of the report and what is recommended," Morie said. "The commission doesn't have the power to mandate.
"In parts of that report, it recommends different state agencies be contacted with the recommendation. It's not unheard of that legislation could grow out of it. But the purpose is to get things on the record with the backing of the governor's office."
Dodson has no prediction of how the vote will go. However, Poquoson, in the eastern part of Virginia with one Group AA school, and Loudoun County, with four Group AA schools, already have announced they will vote for it. One Group A division in Strasburg, from which principal Pamela Hardy was on the subcommittee, says her school would face hardships and will vote no.
According to the survey of schools in Timesland Group AA will be a close vote, and Group A seems to be against the measure.
by CNB