Fifty-two NESCAC contests took place this weekend on basketball courts, ice rinks, pools and tracks across New England - but in a hotel conference room in Burlington, Mass., 24 student-athletes and 12 coaches met out of uniform to discuss the past, present and future of women in sports.
The third annual NESCAC Women's Coaching Symposium was held this weekend at the Boston Marriott. Athletes, coaches and administrators from 10 of the 11 NESCAC schools (Amherst did not participate) attended the event, which was designed to encourage and prepare young women to enter coaching as a profession.
"The statistics of women coaching women's teams is extremely low and declining," said Branwen Smith-King, Tufts' assistant Athletic Director (AD) and Senior Women's Administrator (SWA). "It's especially important as women's participation in sports increases through Title IX that they have role models in coaching. We're trying to get the word out that if this is something they love, they can make it a profession."
Title IX, the landmark federal law banning discrimination on the basis of sex in any program receiving federal funds, was passed in 1972 and has dramatically increased athletic participation among young women. The number of women's teams coached by women has fallen steadily, however, from a high of 90 percent in 1972 to just 44 percent in 2002, leaving women athletes with fewer and fewer professional role models.
So in 2004, the SWAs of the NESCAC member institutions received a grant from the NCAA to establish an annual symposium, bringing together top athletes and coaches from around the league.
Seniors Lea Napolitano (field hockey) and Sarah Callaghan (soccer) and sophomore Danielle Lopez (softball) were selected from a pool of applicants to represent Tufts, joining field hockey coach Tina McDavitt, women's soccer coach Martha Whiting, and women's lacrosse coach Carol Rappoli.
McDavitt, who was just 25 years old when she was hired as the head field hockey coach in 2004, participated in a Young Coaches' Panel, answering questions on the challenges of being a new coach, the logistics of professional networking, and the reality of making athletics a career choice.
"When you're this passionate about something, it's all you want to do," McDavitt said. "I never know what day of the week it is because I don't dread going into work on Monday and I'm not looking forward to Friday all week. Sometimes I can't believe they're paying me for this."
Whiting gave a presentation on "The Philosophy of Coaching," in which she discussed packaging personal ideals, vision, and knowledge of the game into a road map for team success. While she encouraged coaches to create their own model, Whiting stressed the importance of a team-oriented focus centered upon communication, setting and achieving goals, and decision-making responsibility.
"A lot of what I talked about was that players are the priority; they come first," she said. "There's a quote I've always kept in mind - that they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care - and that's been the basis of what I'm trying to do with them."
Other seminars focused on team building, interviewing for coaching positions, and the ins and outs of the recruiting process.
While the conference did not shy away from some of the sobering statistics concerning women in athletics, it trumpeted the strides women have made and, more importantly, the responsibility of the two dozen student-athletes in attendance to continue promoting the progress of women's sports.
"It's important that you keep these opportunities open for your daughters and granddaughters," Grant said. "The education and positive development opportunities in athletics are unparalleled."
While many of the speeches touched on issues of national policy, gender equality and historical legacies, much of the informal back-and-forth between the women underscored the passion and enthusiasm they shared.
"There's a great respect amongst the NESCAC programs," Smith-King said. "There's a trust and a professionalism between coaches, and they genuinely respect each other. We have great rivalries, but wonderful relationships."
The symposium also provided a unique opportunity for athletes to engage with each other outside the realm of their annual encounters on the athletic field. Most of the presentations had an interactive component, in which small groups of mixed-school athletes broke off to discuss and collaborate.
"It was really neat," Lopez said. "Our schools separate us, but despite our differences, we have something important in common, and that makes us all a big part of the progress of women's athletics."
"When you're out of uniform it breaks down the school ties and shows you that it's all the same experience," Callaghan said. "It was great to see athletes from other schools in a situation that's not competitive, and to be able to share my experience with people that I played against in the fall."
The SWAs in attendance were emblematic of the pride and passion that surrounded the weekend's events. While the position was originally an NCAA response to inequalities between male and female athletes, the SWAs of the NESCAC have renamed themselves and, in doing so, have reconceived their role in the athletic and personal development of women in sports - "Sistahs With Attitude."
"As coaches, we understand what our role is - to help develop outstanding leaders," said Smith-King, who coached the Tufts women's cross country and track and field teams for 18 years. "We all want to win and be number one, but a big part of coaching is understanding the job. It's hard to put into words, but it's why we do what we do."
