Men's laxer programs singing the Title IX blues

Twenty-six years ago, the federal government set out to right a wrong.

Twenty-six years later, the sport of lacrosse is finding out that sometimes two wrongs don't make a right.

Such is the case with Title IX, a bill passed in 1972 that aimed to end gender discrimination among federally supported programs. Although it originally set out to equalize opportunities for women, it has had adverse effects on men's lacrosse programs throughout the country.

For example, last year along with its baseball program, New Hampshire dropped its men's lacrosse team, said New Hampshire Athletic Director Judy Ray.

After an evaluation of its athletic program, the athletic department had to drop some varsity sports due to budget concerns, she said. However, Title IX implications had to be taken into account when the cuts were considered.

"We had an institutional review of our total university," she said. "Title IX had an impact after we had to figure out what we needed to do. It was difficult because we have one team and not the other. We have women's lacrosse and men's lacrosse is now a club team. It's unfortunate because that's not what Title IX meant to do. It was supposed to add opportunities for women, not eliminate opportunities for men."

In addition, Michigan State also had to drop men's lacrosse and fencing teams last January to pick up women's crew. This upset lacrosse coach Richard Kimball.

"I'm disappointed, disheartened and dismayed," Kimball told The State News last year. "I don't think (the athletic department) ever thought about the athletes."

Besides canceling men's lacrosse programs on the East Coast, Title IX has hindered the growth of lacrosse at the collegiate level on the West Coast.

For example, Virginia coach Dom Starsia said Title IX has forced colleges to financially support men's varsity sports that bring in revenue such as basketball and football, whereas lacrosse does not bring in money to many schools.

"At the college level, all new dollars for men are going to football and basketball," he said. "It's frustrating because you have this sport that is growing leaps and bounds at the high school level, but at the college level it is slowed because colleges don't want to spend money on non-revenue men's programs."

Thus, Princeton coach Bill Tierney said Title IX has given women's lacrosse the opportunity to grow throughout the country while many men's programs are getting slashed.

"Men's lacrosse is not growing anywhere because of gender equity issues. Schools are in the process of losing men's sports at all levels," Hofstra coach John Danowski said. "It's more of an issue of what's right. What's right right now is that women get taken care of."

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill coach Dave Klarmann said the lack of collegiate teams on the West Coast also hinders the sport's popularity in general.

"If more colleges were to play men's lacrosse, then you would see an even greater growth," he said. "It's almost comatose at the college level."

Men's lacrosse has been unable to become a varsity sport at the University of Colorado because of Title IX implications, said Dave Plati, director of media relations for Colorado. He added it would be difficult to arrange games because other colleges do not have it in the area and lacrosse isn't popular in the area. However, Starsia said he has seen tremendous growth in the suburbs of Denver.

"We could not be able to add a men's sport without being out of whack with a women's sport," Plati said. "You have to keep the equation in balance and sometimes there's not enough money to do that."

Plati said another reason why lacrosse was not picked up as a varsity sport is because it is a non-revenue sport.

"Football pays for everything," he said. "Although, no one wants to say that."

Loyola coach Dave Cottle said he thinks coaches at various levels should work together to promote the sport to young people and collegiate athletics.

"We just have to do a better job on why we should sell lacrosse than we have in the past," he said.

Ray said if equal opportunities were granted to women athletes, then Title IX may not have to be written to allow for equal facilities and an equal amount of varsity sports for men and women athletes.

"We shouldn't have had to write the law to begin with."