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Since men have steadily moved into coaching positions for women’s sports, members of the new generation of female athletes have always had the opportunity to play sports, but many have never had a female coach. The players on Williams' softball team almost invariably say that they have been coached by men for most of their lives. They say so without appearing to dwell on it, as if it is a fact of life, just like the variety of sports from which they can choose.

"A coach is a coach," says Shields, who has never been coached by a woman. "Physically [female coaches] know a little more, but if a coach has been coaching girls for a while, if a male knows how to handle girls' personalities, it shouldn't matter."

Marjorie Snyder suspects there are subtle thought processes in motion that maybe not all female athletes can detect in themselves. "I think that what the research shows is that if you survey kids, the most important criteria for them is that they want a good coach," she says. "But when people are gonna look out there on the field, they're gonna think that you have to be a guy. Also, if women have always had a guy, some women will start thinking, 'I guess all good coaches are males.'"

Snyder says the effect this could have on women is twofold. "First, they're going to want a guy coach," says Snyder. "Second, they're going to think, 'I can't be a coach.'"

"Some of our brightest leaders go through college and just don't come back to athletics because there are other opportunities out there for them," said Williams.

Acosta and Carpenter, however, can detect a more positive side to fewer women choosing coaching as a career. "An additional factor is that many young women who've had sports opportunities have also had the opportunity to see what doors are open for them, and they're walking through those doors," says Carpenter. "So young women who have assertiveness, self-confidence, leadership skills, all those things, are now becoming doctors, lawyers, people in business, and they just aren't going into teaching."

Williams says she has seen the same trend among many of the girls she has coached over the years. "Some of our brightest leaders go through college and just don't come back to athletics," she says, "because there are other opportunities out there for them."

Williams's assistant coach is Jess Pizzuli, a former athlete who played for Williams for 11 seasons. Pizzuli, who is 25 but whose practice clothes and bright blond ponytail makes her look younger, now teaches at a nearby elementary school. Pizzuli says that while she sees many female athletes from her class shying away from teaching because of its stereotypically female connotations, she is also seeing many of those women return to teaching after a few years.

"I wanted to be a clinical psychology major at first," says Pizzuli, who started coaching at Shore Regional in 1997. "I changed my mind because I started coaching here, and I liked working with the girls so much."
Robyn Apicelli, who is studying physical therapy, suggests that Williams provides a strong example of the ways in which a good coach can affect her team.

"She understands us, I think," says Apicelli as she prepares to go out onto the field to join the practice. "People say she pushes hard, but that just makes you a better player. And a lot of her players end up coming back to coach."

As the girls run a mock softball game on the diamond, they slide towards bases in the dirt, spit dust out of their mouths, and stomp around with their cleats. At the same time, they tuck loose pieces of hair back into buns or braids, and occasionally call out, "Sorry!" if they make a bad throw. Many of them have been playing sports together throughout high school. Some are going on to receive scholarships to nearby colleges this September. They are part of a generation of athletes who always had the right to play sports.

Two boys from the baseball team appear, carrying some equipment into the dugout area for the girls to use. Williams thanks them.

"You're welcome, Miss Williams," one says politely. They jog back to their field.

"We're seeing some good male coaches now," says Williams, who suggests that gradually, women athletes are probably facing less and less discrimination. "But we still have so many male coaches who never played alongside girls, and who still believe it's their right, their domain, and that females are encroaching on that. What I hope is that in 10 years, you're gonna see more men like those guys who played in schools where girls played equally, and they won't fight it."

At Fordham, two guys and two girls line up side by side on the four lanes of the track and take off down the track together. Dewey, who has two daughters himself, watches as his runners leap over the hurdles placed in each lane.

"It's not different from girls to guys," says Dewey as the boys and girls prepare to run the hurdles again. "It's different today from yesterday."

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