Netters:
Some figures from Saturday's Shore Coaches Invitational in NJ may
provide an insight into the upcoming Title IX debate,
Cross-country is one of the most open sports for individual
participation. It is a "no-cut" sport and meets like this one goive coaches
the opportunity to enter their full squads through varsity, junior varsity,
sophomore and freshman competition.
Taking the varsity races alone, I found these totals. In six races
apiece, 1,206 boys finished the course, as compared to 987 girls. The
disparity was even greater in the sub-varsity events: there were for example
three boys' junior varsity races and three freshman races, as opposed to two
in each class for girls. The soph race had a handful of girls, more than 150
boys.
This surely argues against any college policy which would limit each
sport to exactly the same number of men and women.. There can be no argument
that girls have more sports opportunities than boys in the fall, at least
here in NJ and I would imagine in most states, opportunities that would cut
down their numbers in CC.
In NJ, girls have, in the fall, soccer (almost universal), field
hockey and tennis, the last two much more limited in numbers. Boys of
course, also have soccer, not to mention that two-ton elephant, football.
Ed Grant
