Women's teams face many problems, IVCC is not alone
By Holli L. Rapp
Tuition waivers, recently approved by the North Central Community College Conference, may offer IVCC some help in fielding women’s athletic teams. But the waivers may not be a total solution.
IVCC officials are considering tuition waivers, according to Mike Riley, athletic director. Waivers became legal in the N4C last year when the conference Board approved a by-law change.
The move to adopt tuition waivers at IVCC comes after the Lady Apache tennis season was canceled when only two students signed on to play. This fall the Lady Apache volleyball and basketball teams have only nine-member rosters.
Other community colleges have also experienced problems fielding women’s teams. Joliet has a women’s tennis team this season after having to cancel for three years; two years ago, IVCC had only two N4C foes.
Success in a sport does not seem to guarantee continued participation. The Apache women’s tennis team qualified for nationals 17 out of the last 19 years, and the women’s basketball team finished third in the nation two years ago.
A large student population also does not guarantee a large turnout for teams, according to Roger Bechtold, athletic director at William Rainey Harper College, a college with 14,089 this fall, compared to 3,679 at IVCC.
"Historically, we have not had numbers with our district," said Bechtold. "We have low participation for the number of schools in our district. Some years it is stronger, but other years it is weak."
This year, Harper has only four women on its tennis team, 14 playing volleyball and 12 playing soccer.
If the problem fielding teams is not lack of success or small college size, what is the problem? Two years ago, most of the N4C athletic directors interviewed for a story in the Apache said financial pressures were the main problem and tuition waivers were one solution.
Now, athletic directors are also mentioning recruiting problems, along with educational goals.
Riley favors the waivers, but he said turnover in coaching and not having full-time staff members as coaches were big problems.
The cancellation of the women’s tennis season was due to lack of recruiting time, Riley said.
"Recruiting is a year long situation," he said, explaining that the coach for this fall season, Mylinda Threadgill, was hired in June.
Threadgill said, "I had a little, but not much, time for recruiting. I called around to a couple of (high school) coaches."
The athletic directors at community colleges that give athletic scholarships also target recruiting as a problem area.
"It comes to having a coach who will go out and recruit," said Dave Randall, Waubonsee athletic director. "Coaches don’t realize the amount of time recruiting takes. It is a lot of frustrations, emotions, but they need to stick with it.
"Some coaches only talk to the blue-chip players, and don’t talk to the other players that can play at the college level," Randall said. "But the other players help make the team."
Jody Lord, athletic director at Kishwaukee, agreed that recruiting is the key and that coaching turn-over has to be minimized. Although Kishwaukee awards scholarships, the women’s softball team has had problems fielding teams in the past, Lord said, because of coaching turn-overs.
"Recruiting is a big part," Lord said, "and if it (recruiting) is not taking place, you will not have a team."
Rock Valley College, an N4C school, has not had problems filling the rosters of women’s teams, but athletic director Ed Gavigan credited that to having a full-time staff person who coaches three women’s sports.
The full-time status of the coach for volleyball, basketball and softball makes that person available on campus to athletes, Gavigan said.
IVCCs women’s basketball coach Joe Conroy said the travel required because of the size of the college district is related to financial problems for the athletes.
"One of the problems is geographic, extra distance driving," Conroy said, explaining that getting to practices and games requires reliable transportation which may mean high car payments.
The sixth-year head coach also said that he believes high school athletes are not aware of the scholarships that are available to community college athletes to transfer to four-year schools.
Wayne King, athletic director at Joliet Junior College, said he believes there are a number of reasons why women’s teams are short-handed. He acknowledged financial pressures and work schedule problems, but he added that women athletes may be more concerned about their future careers and their education than about participating on a team.
Bechtold said "tuition waivers would allow people more time to participate."
But he added that school and maintaining a social life are other important concerns.
"Women athletes that go (to community colleges) tend to believe that if they are overlooked by four year schools, do they want to put all the work into something like this (athletics)," Bechtold said.
Oct. 8, 1998 the Apache