Female Athletic Directors Retrace Steps of Title IX’s 50 Years

In addition to the opportunities for girls to participate in high school sports, another positive outcome of the passage of Title IX 50 years ago was the increasing number of women who began to assume coaching and athletic administration positions in our nation’s schools.

Some of those women were thrust into positions unexpectedly and unprepared and had to learn on the fly in many cases. Others were beneficiaries of being able to participate in sports, which then led to careers in the coaching and athletic administration fields.

As a part of High School Today’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, 10 female high school athletic directors with approximately 300 combined years of experience as coaches and administrators participated in an online forum to share their journeys.

One of the early administrators involved in implementing girls programs was Carol Satterwhite, a teacher, coach and athletic director at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Maryland, from 1971 to 2002, who since 2004 has been executive director of the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association.

“I received my first teaching assignment at the school I stayed at for 31 years in 1971, and then we went on summer leave,” Satterwhite said. “When I came back to start the 1972 year, I was told I was the athletic director!

“When I started teaching and coaching, I realized there weren’t as many sports for the girls. And so we started softball. I didn’t realize that, oh, the baseball coach is getting a paycheck and I’m not. The basketball coach is getting more money, and I’m not. But it really didn’t bother me because I wanted to do it for the kids.

“When I became athletic director after Title IX passed, I was trying to look out and make sure that everybody was going to get the same amount of money – that both basketball teams got the same amount of money. And then we started getting more girls sports. It took awhile, but it benefited the girls so much.”

Sheri Stice started her teaching and coaching career in Texas in 1974 and eventually served in the Cypress- Fairbanks Independent School District in Texas for 38 years, including 17 as associate athletic director, before retiring in 2012. She was a high school and college athlete in the late 1960s before Title IX and felt she was one of the fortunate ones.

“We were under the direction of some very proactive principals who felt it was necessary to give girls an opportunity to participate,” Stice said. “I think we were far and above and moving faster with regard to participation than most schools around the country. We had our own uniforms, and we mirrored the same schedule that the boys did, so I was fortunate in that respect.

“I really didn’t start feeling the effects of Title IX until I got to college. There seemed to be the disparity showing once I got to college because my high school career was actually pretty normal. I began to ask questions like, ‘What’s going on here?’ ‘Why are we not participating at the same level or having the same opportunities?’”

Jean Kinn Ashen, who is in her 26th year as boys and girls athletic director at North Salinas High School in Salinas, California, was a freshman in high school in 1972 when Title IX was passed.

“Our first year we played on the outside basketball courts, in our bloomer, one-piece, physical education uniform,” Ashen said. “And then my second year, we were allowed to go into the girls gym. And then by my junior and senior years, we were playing in that boys gym. Now, here at our same high school, we have a main gym and a small gym. So, Title IX is very dear and precious to my heart with two daughters and two granddaughters who have seen the benefit, but just not myself, also starting from where we were out on that outdoor basketball court to being inside a gym by the time I left.”

After a quick rise in girls participants in sports from 294,015 in 1971-72 to two million by 1978, there was a leveling off in the participation numbers in the 1980s and then a continual rise in girls playing high school sports during the 1990s to almost 2.6 million by the end of the decade.

Holly Farnese, who retired in 2016 after a 40-year career as a teacher, coach and athletic director in Pennsylvania and is now executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association, was a middle school athletic director in the Upper Darby School District during those years.

“In the 80s and 90s, one of the things that perpetuated the growth of women’s sports was girl dads,” Farnese said. “We had a whole culture now of fathers and even grandfathers who were very much involved in athletics, themselves as athletes, and now their daughters are starting to play and the culture of dads being much more involved in the world of their daughters, not just their sons. I think they are a lot of the people who carried the banner for equality for their daughters.

“They started to realize, wait a second, why is my son wearing a brand new baseball uniform; however, my daughter is wearing the sixth-generation softball uniform. It was the eye-opening moment of fathers out there saying, ‘Wait a second, this is not okay.’ And I think that their support was something that was very important to help and continue to grow the athletic programs.”

Another change that began to occur in the 1980s and 1990s was the ingrained way of thinking on the part of female athletes. For example, in basketball, girls had become accustomed to playing the early game, with the boys playing in “prime time.”

Donna King, a teacher, coach, assistant director and director of student activities in the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia from 1975 to 2005, had to confront the societal change.

“In the late 90s, I had a girls basketball team that was very good, and we had the rule that the team with the highest seed got to play the late game,” King said. “And our boys team was second place in the district. My coach came to me at one time and said, ‘Donna, the boys don’t want to play the early game, and the girls really don’t care. They want to just switch and let the boys play the late game. And I just was kind of shocked.

“I said, ‘Coach, let’s think about that. It breaks my heart that the girls have worked so hard to be in first place, and then don’t want to take advantage of that. Go back and talk to them again. If you want to change, we’ll change and talk to them about the implications and why they want to change.’ So, he came back and he said, ‘Donna, we’re going to keep our time.’ But that’s kind of a reflection on how even attitudes of the young people were not quite there and feeling their own right to be good.”

With more females assuming athletic director positions in high schools, other sports beyond football and basketball began to rise in prominence. Annette Scogin, who was district athletic director in the Springdale, Arkansas, schools for more than 15 years and assistant athletic director for the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District for five years, was a part of the changing culture.

“The shift I saw in the late 80s and 90s was the fact that we started having pep rallies and having women’s teams involved, you know, the volleyball team, not just the Friday pep rally for the football team,” Scogin said. “And that changed the mindset of the students and the teachers that then went out to the community. My favorite memory was at my first pep rally as an athlete and then as a female athletic director when we honored the volleyball team and the cross country teams and someone on Friday other than the football team and to watch that mindset in that environment in school culture, change and embrace that.”

In the past 20 years, opportunities continue to expand for girls to participate in sports, as well as women to move into coaching, administration and officiating positions, but there is still much work to be done.

Monica Maxwell was an outstanding basketball player at East Chicago High School and Louisiana Tech University and then played four years in the WNBA. Currently, the high school athletic director at Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, Maxwell is thankful for many women who paved the way before her.

“I certainly see myself as the fruit of the labor of so many people that came before me,” Maxwell said. “I came into high school basketball, and I had never heard of Title IX, I’ll be honest. So, I think at this point, it’s about education, and educating our athletes about where we’ve come from to get where we are right now. And I still think there’s a long way to go, and I don’t think we have arrived in any sense. I’m just always fascinated, always want to say thank you, for fighting the good fight for us because I had the opportunity to play this game at the highest level.

“I played basketball in the WNBA. I signed my rookie contract, and it was a $25,000 contract, which I was thrilled to sign basically for a summer job. But you know, I was looking at the pay scale today, some 25 years later, and they’re signing contracts for $228,000, which is, obviously, kind of the fruits of my labor. So, I’ve kind of seen it from both sides. I’m always excited to see and thrilled to see the work that’s been done. And I’m certainly a beneficiary of that.”

Some of the athletic directors interviewed want to make sure that, as they approach retirement age, students and younger professionals understand the history behind Title IX and the importance of continuing to sound the message.

“I think one of the things as I am coming to the end of a long career, is to make sure that this generation and generations to come really do find an appreciation for the work of people that came before us,” Ashen said. “We’ve tried to do a luncheon every year for the past 26 years. We want to show them how can they give back to education-based athletics and what we can do in the form of coaching, athletic administration, athletic training, sports management – so many things have opened up their eyes to what’s in front of them. But I think it’s really important for them to know the challenges that have come before them. We’re still the under-represented group, and it’s important for us to continue to highlight the benefits of education-based athletics for our girls.”

“I think that people don’t understand the true message of the Title IX law,” Farnese said. “Although its biggest impact is related to equality in women’s sports, I think that many people who aren’t necessarily in the education world – and some that are – don’t understand the total global piece of what Title IX encompasses.”

“I still don’t think that there’s a level of understanding in our world and in Texas that this message is for everybody in your community,” Stice said. “So, if you’re not talking about it and what it is at parent meetings and at the beginning of the season at meetings, you’re really not doing your job as an athletic administrator. Because philosophically, to me, you need to be able to say to your community, ‘this is our philosophy and this is what it is, so let’s talk about that. If you have a concern, I’m here for you as the athletic administrator. So, let’s sit down and talk about it.’”

Paige Hershey, who has been district executive director of athletics for the Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, Texas, since 2010, after serving as a teacher, coach and athletic director for 26 years prior to her current duties, talked about changing a culture.

“When I watch the hype that we have for some of our football games in Texas – just everything that goes on around the game and what it means to the community – not that the volleyball team is unimportant, but I don’t think people even recognize the difference in terms of the message,” Hershey said. “I always worry about what’s being internalized. What’s being internalized by our kids in poverty if they don’t have the same facilities and they go from school to school? What’s being internalized when softball players peer over and see what the baseball players have, and they don’t have? What are they taking in? That we’re not important, and it just permeates. We continue to work, work, work, work, work, to tell girls about how important they are, but then you’re still working at a societal level, and we’ve got work to do.”

Trish Witkin, a high school athletic director in Connecticut since 1998, including the past 15 years at Glastonbury High School, echoed Ashen’s earlier comments about the importance of giving back.

“I like what Jean discussed earlier about what she’s doing with some of the female athletes in her programs – encouraging them to give back to athletics and getting them to understand that these opportunities are available to them because of the women who came before,” Witkin said. “By encouraging and inspiring them to pursue careers around education-based athletics and officiating, we’re starting to bring young women into the fold and that message can be felt deeper and further as they go through their process. And I feel that’s where I’ve come from through Title IX – not experiencing a lot of the challenges, or maybe not aware that they were happening around me as a young athlete, but – inspired by our past experiences to bring something forward that’s better for those behind us.”

“I think some of it is generational,” Hershey added. “I think it’s great that (some younger women and girls) don’t even know what Title IX was. In some ways, I think that’s great. These young women have all the ability and have had all the advantages that some of us didn’t, so I think that they continue to be advocates for Title IX. One of the few things that was great about coming up when I did was that I did get to play everything, and I think that helped prepare me to be an athletic director. I think it’s harder today to play all the sports just because of where things are in terms of the competition level, but I think there have been great gains and more work to do.”

“We have to be really intentional about passing that torch and reaching back and recruiting people – educating our kids and other women in our communities on Title IX,” Maxwell said. “I try to really celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day and talk to our female athletes about Title IX and the education of it, but also recruit them because at some point, hopefully, I’ll retire and they’ll be able to take that over.”