It's been more than a decade since the NCAA Gender-Equity Task Force identified nine emerging sports for women, and since that time some of those sports have grown into championship sports. Others, however, have languished with few varsity teams and little hope for championships in the near future.

The task force -- in an effort to bolster women's participation -- identified archery, badminton, bowling, rowing, ice hockey, squash, synchronized swimming, team handball and water polo as emerging sports. Of those, ice hockey, bowling, rowing and water polo have gained championship status, with rowing and ice hockey holding postseason events in more than one division.

The other sports have thrived at various levels, but few are close to gaining the 40 teams necessary for an NCAA championship.

"Considering the financial stresses on all athletics departments of the period since the group was meeting, I think that four out of nine (having championships) is pretty good," said Pacific-10 Conference Commissioner Tom Hansen, who served as a task force member. "I consider it a success."

Hansen said when the group looked at which sports to elevate to "emerging" status, they passed over niche sports played only in certain areas and focused instead on those that could be popular throughout the country.

"We wanted to create more national-championship opportunities for women at the NCAA level for sports that had a national following, and we wanted to encourage institutions to devote resources to them with the anticipation that they would become a national-championship sport," Hansen said.

Where they stand

Of the five sports that have not shed their "emerging" title, squash has been the most successful in terms of the number of varsity teams throughout the country -- with eight Division I teams and 19 Division III squads.

According to the latest NCAA figures, archery and badminton each have three varsity teams -- with archery fielding three teams at the Division I level and badminton having three teams at the Division III level. Synchronized swimming has a total of seven varsity teams -- three in Divisions I and III and one in Division II.

Team handball has no varsity teams, based on NCAA statistics.

Also, since these nine sports were identified, two more sports have been added to the list of emerging sports -- equestrian and rugby. Equestrian, which is emerging only in Divisions I and II, currently fields 18 varsity teams -- 13 in Division I and five in Division II. Rugby has two varsity teams, one each in Division I and III, according to the latest figures.

Those involved with emerging sports that have yet to obtain championship status say they would like to see their sports gain more varsity teams, though in many cases there are collegiate club teams in the sport that have just not been elevated to varsity status.

Money can be one of the many stumbling blocks to varsity status.

Gail Ramsay, women's squash coach at Princeton University and president of the Women's College Squash Association, said a financial investment is required for schools looking to offer varsity squash programs, and it's a difficult time overall in collegiate athletics.

Amy McClintock, media relations director for United States Synchronized Swimming, agreed.

"The budgets are so tight at the collegiate level, they can only have so many varsity sports and I don't think synchronized swimming is as well-known as some of those other sports, such as soccer," she said. "A lot of schools are bringing that in as a varsity sport because of the interest.

"But there is more interest in synchronized swimming, and it has been growing over the years," she said. The group hosts its own collegiate championship, and this year 30 programs -- most of those at the club level -- took part, she said.

Lisa Severo, program director for USA Team Handball, said her organization also hosts a collegiate championship for women's club teams. At the most recent event, five women's teams competed.

"We are trying to push the club concept with the goal of hopefully getting it to the varsity status," she said. "But basically until we get enough club systems going on and club leagues, it's hard to get that varsity status."

Severo said one hurdle for team handball is that it's not a sport young women grow up playing, though in recent years there has been more of an effort made to grow the sport at the grass-roots level in school gym classes. That could someday translate into more collegiate teams.

The group also is forming a partnership with State University College at Cortland to get more women involved in the sport.

"We are trying to take steps to focus on women," Severo said. "Guys in college who may not really know the sport are at the same time more eager to go ahead and try it. With women, it's harder to get them involved unless there's someone going there consistently every week and showing them the sport."

From emerging to championship

USA Archery is taking similar steps to grow its sport, said Kathy Eissinger, head women's archery coach at Texas A&M University, College Station, and co-chair of the college committee for USA Archery.

Last year, with the help of a bow manufacturer, a pilot program was introduced in Kentucky high schools to encourage participation. A championship was established and 650 students competed, she said. This year, that number more than doubled, with 1,400 students taking part in the championship. They are looking at expanding the program to other states.

"It's growing from the ground up and it's going to take a few years to see that translate into college programs," Eissinger said. "But we expect it to happen."

Rowing was the first emerging sport to gain championship status. Division I conducted the first championship in 1997 and Divisions II and III followed in 2002.

"A lot of colleges and universities had rowing programs before it was offered as a championship sport," said Rosemary Shea, chair of the Division I Women's Rowing Committee and associate athletics director at College of the Holy Cross. "There are schools that have had men's programs for more than 100 years, and I think many of them added women's programs. It was great for these programs to have an opportunity to compete at the national level when the championship was introduced."

Shea credits at least some of the sport's success to the fact that it's a sport where novices can compete. Also, she said, a rowing roster can contain upwards of 50 to 60 people.

There currently are 143 varsity rowing programs, according to the NCAA's most recent figures -- 85 in Division I, 16 in Division II and 42 in Division III.

Water polo and ice hockey both added championships in 2001, with ice hockey adding a Division III championship the following year.

As with rowing, a significant number of schools already sponsored the sports at the club level, making it easier to change to varsity status and eventually gain championships.

"You saw a lot of opportunities growing all over the country just because of the hint it was going to happen," said Kaia Hedlund, chair of the Women's Water Polo Committee and director of special projects for the Big West Conference. Hedlund, who currently is on leave from the conference to work with events related to the upcoming Olympics, said the sport continues to grow at lower levels, which could lead to even more collegiate programs in the future.

There are 58 varsity water polo teams for women, with 30 at Division I, 10 at Division II and 18 at Division III.

Women's ice hockey also had a strong following long before it was labeled an emerging sport, said Carolyn Campbell-McGovern, chair of the Women's Ice Hockey Committee and senior associate director of the Ivy Group.

But, she added, when the NCAA recognized it as an emerging sport, "that did take the sport to the next level, probably inspiring a lot of the Western teams that didn't sponsor ice hockey to jump on board."

Campbell-McGovern noted that both Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth have won the national championship in recent years, but 10 years ago, neither school had a women's ice hockey team.

The are 72 varsity women's ice hockey teams, with 30 in Division I, two in Division II and 40 in Division III.

Bowling is the latest sport to add a championship, with the inaugural event taking place earlier this month (see story, page 7). There currently are 42 schools that sponsor bowling -- 26 in Division I, 14 in Division II and two in Division III -- and the hope is the sport will grow even more now that there's a championship.

"Once this takes place and people see that it's there and bowling is here to stay, it's going to take off even more," said Juli Peterson, chair of the Women's Bowling Committee and assistant athletics director for compliance and senior woman administrator at St. Peter's College. "I definitely think that it's going to grow even quicker now."

The future

There's no telling 10 years from now what sports will remain on the emerging-sports list and which will have gone on to have championships, but the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) plans to get a head start on the future this summer.

CWA Chair Lynda Calkins, director of athletics and assistant dean of students at Hollins University, said that at her group's July meeting, members will review those sports on the emerging-sports list to determine if changes need to be made.

"We'll look at where can we help, where our successes have been, and where is it appropriate to continue if there are no teams there," she said.

Calkins said she thinks the CWA should conduct regular reviews so there can continue to be success in bringing sports from emerging status to championships.

Officials from other sports such as cheerleading, baton twirling, judo, wrestling and skating have expressed interest in becoming an emerging sport in the past year, but none has gone through the process to gain this status.

To become an emerging sport there must be 20 or more varsity teams and/or competitive club teams that exist on college campuses, other data that demonstrates support for the sport and 10 letters of support submitted from member institutions that sponsor or intend to sponsor the sport as an emerging sport.

Though there seem to be no immediate additions that will be made to the list of emerging sports, Calkins said people only need to look at the past to see the future.

"I would say (the addition of four new championship sports) shows we can add, be successful and hit that critical mass of institutions and participants," she said. "So yes, that is success."