Debate Stirs Around the Use Of Males in Women’s Practice

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

There is rarely agreement on anything in the volatile world of women’s collegiate basketball. However, in the last couple of weeks, a unanimous wave has spread throughout this community. It was provoked by a position paper from the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics recommending a ban on male practice players.

The recommendation is only that — it carries no policymaking authority and the only tier to act on it has been Division III which is considering enacting the ban for 2007–08, but in Division I where the earliest this matter would even be put to a vote is January 2008, the outcry opposed to it has been loud and pointed.

“I think it will set women’s basketball way back,” said University of Tennessee coach Pat Summitt to the site www.scout.com. “Males are quicker, stronger, and faster, and they challenge us in practice. I’m sure a lot of other coaches in Division I would agree that they have done nothing but help us improve the game.”

Almost all major coaches added their voices to a chorus of opposition.

With so many important figures in unified opposition, what was the committee thinking?

In a statement released with the report, the committee said, “we believe any inclusion of male practice players results in a diminished opportunity for female student-athletes.”

They added that they believed the practice of using male practice players violated the spirit of Title IX.

The recommendation was based on the assumption that the inclusion of male practice players took court time away from the reserves. In fact, most coaches use the male practice players as the scout team — the team that uses the upcoming opposition’s plays and tendencies, and both starters and reserves practice against them.

Several North Carolina players voiced concern that without the bigger, faster opponents in practice, they would become complacent simply playing against the reserve players. Indeed, the practice players, who receive no special consideration except in some cases a new pair of sneakers for their efforts, are not geeks from the chess clubs, but players with some basketball history. Some of them are even star players in other sports as was the case 10 years ago at Boston College where Matt Hasselbeck, now starting quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, was a practice player for Boston College women’s squad.

A large portion of the outcry is over the misplaced political correctness of the proposal, trying to create more opportunities for female student-athletes by diminishing the quality of the sport. Also, some of the vehemence owes to the fact that CWA clearly didn’t perform their due diligence in checking out many colleges and seeing firsthand how players are used.

For instance at Hofstra, an emerging local power on Long Island, the practice players are used in fast break drills. Coach Krista Kilburn Steveskey wants her players to get accustomed to making quick decisions in transition.

She told the authoritative women’s hoops site, womenshoops.blogspot.com that the players never are the cause of anyone standing around. “I’m like most coaches; I can’t stand for people to be standing around in practice. I want people to be moving all the time.”

There are secondary benefits to the male practice players; it recruits more fans for the game. Hasselbeck has been seen at University of Washington women’s games, and in some cases it even becomes a career. Casey Potts, a former LSU practice player was recently named an assistant coach on Catholic University’s women’s team.

Sadly it appears that the CWA relied on good intentions without doing their necessary background research, and it has created firestorm far beyond what it imagined.

mjohnson@nysun.com


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