Equal Opportunity Coaching
by Allison Steele
Produced for the Web by Sarah Bronson

Photo copyright Allsport Photography, Inc.

When classes end for the day at North Jersey's Shore Regional High School, most of the girls and boys in the hallways head for the locker rooms. Gym bags slung over their shoulders, they move in mixed groups, maybe talking about practice, their coaches, or the upcoming game.

An athletic director told Williams, "I'll give you what the law says, but I'll never believe you deserve it."

Less than half an hour later, students in sweats and spandex warm up for practice on the perimeters of the playing fields, some boys and some girls. Since most kids at Shore Regional play sports, the ratio of boys to girls on the fields is about equal, a fact the young athletes don't seem to notice one way or the other.

Something else they may not notice, however, is that the sidelines tell a different story of post-Title IX progress. As coach Nancy Williams can attest, women's sports have come a long way since 1972. Williams is as legendary in the New Jersey school system for her coaching success (her teams hold some of the best records in the country) as she is for the controversy she stirs up. Williams, who says she often must demand equal treatment for her girls' teams, believes that Title IX still has not done what it was meant to do, and she seems willing to fight until it does.

"One thing you can't change by law is attitude," says Williams. "As one of my former athletic directors said to me years ago, 'I'll give you what the law says, but I'll never believe you deserve it.'"

"Men didn't want to coach women's sports because the money wasn't equal," said Williams. "After Title IX, they started applying for those jobs."

When Williams was a student at Shore Regional in pre-Title IX days, the only sport available to girls was cheerleading. Now, 34 years after her graduation, Williams coaches field hockey, basketball, and softball at her alma mater, which now offers several girls' teams each season. While the blossoming of girls' sports programs is a clear, positive effect of Title IX, Williams can see another, more subtle result.

"When I first started coaching, everyone I coached against was female," says Williams, whose field hockey and softball teams are often ranked the best in the nation. "Now there are hardly any in basketball or softball. Certainly I never used to see male coaches in field hockey, and now we're seeing those, too."

Along with dugouts for girls' softball teams and shared use of the main gym, another visible effect of Title IX, Williams says, is the number of men now willing to coach a team of girls. "Men didn't want to coach women's sports because the money wasn't equal," says Williams. "After Title IX, they started applying for those jobs. And the thing is, [in 1972] many women didn't have the background and experience with organized sports that men did."                    

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