For Immediate Release:Jan. 30, 2002
For further information contact:Wendy Greenberg or Sally Widman, 610-409-3300
Snell Symposium Encourages Women to Become Coaches
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - Jen Shillingford wants to chip away at what she considers dismal statistics on women in the coaching profession. Although participation by women on athletic teams has skyrocketed since Title IX, the number of females coaching those teams has not kept pace. Shillingford has developed a symposium, held at Ursinus College last weekend (Jan. 25-27), to help to reverse that trend.
Shillingford, director of athletics emeritus at Bryn Mawr College and holder of the Snell Chair at Ursinus College, is concerned that women athletes at colleges today have few role models. The Snell Symposium offers mentoring and encouragement to female college students considering the coaching profession. The Snell Chair, and symposium, is named for Shillingford's former coach and mentor at Ursinus College, Eleanor Frost Snell.
In its third year, the symposium has been successful in sending half its participants into the coaching field. Participants are students from Centennial Conference colleges (Ursinus, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Muhlenberg, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg colleges in Pennsylvania and Western Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Washington colleges in Maryland), and many former participants are Division III coaches.
But the national numbers need improvement, Shillingford says. According to the Acosta-Carpenter study of all four-year college and university NCAA members with women's athletics programs ("Women in Intercollegiate Sport" - funded by Brooklyn College of the City University of NewYork and The Project on Women and Social Change of Smith College), less than half of all women's teams are coached by women (45.6 percent), and only 17.8 percent of women's programs are directed by females. Eighty percent of new coaching jobs in women's athletics since 1998 have been filled by males, according to the study by R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter.
Shillingford, who is a former president of the U.S. Field Hockey Association, told the participants that the purpose of the weekend-long symposium is "to energize you to do your part to move women's athletics forward."
The symposium provided an opportunity for students to gain mentors. Amber Adamson, who as a Swarthmore student was a former Snell participant, and is now the assistant lacrosse and field hockey coach at Bryn Mawr College, said that "one thing that struck me is that having great mentors really helps you."
Christine Grant, former women's athletic director of University of Iowa, and a longtime proponent of gender equity in sports, and Charlotte West, former president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and a member of the NCAA Council, both addressed the students.
"Less than one in four college coaches are women," West said. "That's a dismal statistic and the Snell symposium is helping to change that." After an overview of women in sports since the 1940s, she told students that "the 2000 decade is in your hands. I will challenge you to be vigilant about preserving Title IX."
Bridget Belgiovine, assistant chief of staff for Division III at the NCAA and former athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, urged students to get involved. "As a woman in athletics, it is critical to get a seat at the table," she said.
Students also attended sessions such as "The Many Hats of Coaching," during which Gettysburg coach Carol Cantele and Muhlenberg coach Kristin Stuckel spoke of the coach's role as more than a leader of the game.
The symposia have spawned an ongoing mentoring system and academic projects such as activities on National Women in Sports Day, presentations at local high schools and panel discussions among coaches, all run by symposium participants.
Shillingford said that when she started the symposium, she hoped to create a ripple effect that would bring a new wave of female coaches into the athletics profession. To help reach that goal, she would like to see other conferences use the Snell as a model. "We've proven that it's successful," she said. "We can get people into coaching. I want to see if we can peck away at decrease of women coaches so girls have role models."
For Ursinus senior Erin Fitzgerald, the Snell Symposium offered just that. "I'm definitely encouraged to donate my time and effort to continuing the fight and making sure that my daughters and granddaughters have even more opportunities that I have," said Fitzgerald. "I've always wanted to coach, but now I further understand the importance of having female mentors and role models for young female athletes and I can't wait to get started!"
# # #
RSS