More on women coaching in the WNBA
I mentioned a CSM blogger who addressed this topic the other day. Today ESPN's Mechelle Voepel weighs in on women vs. men coaches in the WNBA.
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I mentioned a CSM blogger who addressed this topic the other day. Today ESPN's Mechelle Voepel weighs in on women vs. men coaches in the WNBA.
Thanks to Sports Law Blog where I first saw this link. The Chronicle of Higher Ed has an article on what college athletes can expect if they become pregnant - basically that the schools don't know how to deal with them and most do not have any kind of "pregnancy policies." In the past few years I've had two students who wrote their final reporting pieces on pregnancy in college and how at most four-year full-time programs, there are few students who are pregnant - but for these few, there are limited resources, housing options, etc. So I found this piece on pregnant athletes quite interesting. Now that I'm a mom, I am so interested in professional athletes who are mothers - and would love to write about this some day.
I took a few days hiatus to enjoy the long weekend and gorgeous weather we are having. I did make it to the Sun/Shock game where I finally met b-ball guru Mel Greenberg of the Philly Inquirer and chatted about college junior Kate Burkholder who has been doing a great job writing posts on Mel's Womhoops Guru blog. Here is Mel's account of the Sun's loss and the amazing moves of the Shock's Katie Smith.
ESPN had two opinion pieces on head coach Pat Summit's new $1 million plus per year contract to coach Tennessee women's basketball - one by Voepel and one by Wojciechowski
Gwen Knapp of the San Fransisco Chronicle has a column on how the number of vocal doubters of women athletes - particularly women athletes competing in men's tournaments, races -- is going down.
PBS television host Bonnie Erbe on US News & World Report weighs in on the recent hazing inicidents involving women college sports teams/athletes. Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated does the same.
The Boston Globe profiles a mother of an All-American female college lacrosse player. She is trying to drum up new young fan interest in the sport. The women's Division 1 championship game is being held here in Boston at BU this weekend.
Ross Atkins, who writes a blog for the Christian Science Monitor, asks where are the women coaches in the WNBA?
since I've been to a Red Sox game ... at least two/three years. Since the World Series, getting tickets is nearly impossible (the legal way). But tonight breaks the drought - my baby sister scored some bleacher seats and it's going to be a beautiful warm night in Fenway - the official start of summer for me!
One of my students from last semester focused her blog assignment on the Sox - most students stopped posting once the semester ended (although I was happy to see a few kept them going!) - Erica stopped - in her last post she noted that "given that I have no audience", but when she took a look at her neglected blog recently she saw all these comments from people who missed her, realized she had had an audience all along and she's decided to keep the blog going. Cheers!
The Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State conducted a survey of women who work in sports media - most respondents said they were satisfied with their jobs despite working in "sometimes-hostile workplaces." I was most interested in this part:
"The survey also asked respondents about coverage of women's sports. Although most believe coverage of women's sports is inadequate and that female athletes are stereotyped, many say they're not willing to lobby for better coverage. They also do not believe adding more women to newspaper sports departments or broadcasts will help women's sports get more exposure."
I wonder why they aren't willing to lobby? It could be not wanting to rock the boat - and maybe it's not the reporters job to rock the boat - this may lay more at the editor level.
One journalist who I think has lobbied for more coverage of one of her beats is Jayda Evans who covers the WNBA Seattle Storm for the Seattle Times (I think it also helps that she works for one of the only female sports editors of a top newspaper in the U.S.) Evans is one of the few WNBA beat reporters to travel to away games with her home team. Kim Callahan has a Q&A with Evans on Women's Basketball Online. Evans has a new book out on the team Game On! : How Women's Basketball Took Seattle by Storm.
Here is the New York Times piece on the latest college students putting embarassing or worse stuff online - this time college athletes loading up pics of hazing, drinking, etc. One example was Northwestern's women's soccer team - someone loaded up hazing photos. The team was suspended as a result of the photo content. Here is a summary from Sports Law Blog.
Each semester, I spend a good class lecture or two with my students about the perils of posting personal info, pics, etc. - although I try not to scare them too much - because there is also something I love about the self-publishing tools of the Internet. Not to make light of the more serious incidents, but I think most young people experiment, do embarassing things, etc. - unfortunately for this generation, if you post it online you are leaving a permanent trail of your stupidity. My stupidity remains, I hope, between me and old friends/family and my somewhat fuzzy memories.
