NEC doing its part to jump-start athletics opportunities

A recent seminar provided abundant information for ethnic minorities and women interested in careers in intercollegiate athletics.

The seminar, "Starting Careers In Athletics," took place April 28 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. The Northeast Conference, Central Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University and Sacred Heart sponsored the event.

The seminar focused on six possible career options in athletics: administration, sports medicine, coaching, media, marketing and officiating.

Seminar organizers used an NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee video --"Whoever Thought A Passion Could Turn Into A Career?" -- to stimulate a panel discussion.

Twins hit the track -- times three

When the Millikin University women's track and field team competes, spectators and opponents often walk away thinking they need to see an eye doctor.

The team contains three sets of identical twins, all freshmen.

Nancy and Karen Kuchar participate in the high jump; Tiffany and Jennifer Gawrysh specialize in distance races; and Jennifer and April Scull run sprints.

The unique experiences of twins will not be lost on head coach Don Luy. He also is an identical twin. His brother Dale is a track coach in Pennsylvania.

Luy already has spotted the ups and downs of twin recruiting.

"It was great to recruit three student-athletes and get six, but in four years we will lose six," he said.

He is already looking ahead. He has recruited another set of identical twins for next year.

Get out the broom

Emory shares the mark with St. Thomas (Minnesota), which won both its men's and women's conference outdoor track championships from 1985 to 1996.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Opinions

"The Office for Civil Rights' responsibility is to protect the rights of all persons. It is not 'indifferent to the destruction of athletics opportunities for males.' It is interested in holding institutions accountable for providing equitable opportunities for all. If men's programs are hurt or 'destroyed,' they should look in their own front yards and presidential offices. It has been their misguided interpretation or, more probably, ignorance of Title IX that has created the problems for today's administrators and men's teams."

Olivet College Director of Athletics Jackie Shimp in a letter to The NCAA News, May 17, 1995.

"In this uneasy, contradictory environment, it's no wonder coaches grab whatever deal looks best today, because they've learned they can't count on tomorrow. It's an unkind system for coaches, but it's worse for the players. When a player signs a letter of intent, he (or she) commits to a school with the understanding he'll be playing and learning under a particular coach. If the coach leaves before the player enters school, the contract should be nullified. ... Maybe the NCAA will realize it isn't only the athletes who should have to sign and honor letters of intent, but the coaches and universities, too."

San Francisco Examiner columnist Joan Ryan in the May 3, 1989, NCAA News.

"I am not in favor of a playoff system in Division I-A football. I think we ought to let the pros do that and let them have the problem of wanting to have one champion. We don't need to compete with them. I think the real reason, and I hope the real reason, all of us are in intercollegiate athletics is for the great lessons you learn from the game of football. You don't learn any more lessons by playing three more games. I think the NCAA, in a couple of years of adding the 11 games, has enabled every team to play one more game, and I think every team has benefited from it. Now, just to have three or four teams just to go in to the playoffs, I don't think that is an advantage really for intercollegiate athletics."

Then-U.S. Air Force Academy football coach Ken Hatfield in the "Opinions" section of the May 11, 1983, NCAA News.