Grass-roots programs advance women, minority coaches

As part of a continuing effort to boost the presence of ethnic minorities and women in the coaching ranks, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) recently announced two programs designed to encourage members of the under-represented groups to enter and stay in the profession.

Both the WBCA's "So You Want to be a Coach?" program and the NFHS's "Minority Women Coaches" program are being made possible through funds provided by the NCAA Matching Grants for the Advancement of Minority Women Coaches.

Established in 2003, the two-day WBCA program targets female minority women's basketball student-athletes who aspire to become coaches. The program offers skill enhancement, professional development and job-placement opportunities through interaction with the program's faculty.

Scheduled to run April 2-3, 2005, in Indianapolis during the WBCA's national convention (in conjunction with the Women's Final Four), eligible participants must have completed their basketball eligibility at a four-year institution by April 2 or have graduated within the past year. They also must be nominated by their head women's basketball coach, who is required to be a WBCA member.

Minority females from all sports who are establishing their careers are eligible for the Minority Women Coaches program administered by the NFHS.

For the second straight year, the program provides an online, self-driven interactive course designed for individuals who have one year or less of coaching experience, or who are licensed educators or minority females over the age of 18 who are interested in coaching. Offered free of charge, the course takes about 12 to 20 hours to complete. The course counts toward coaching certification necessary at the high-school level in 39 states. Internet and computer CD-ROM access is needed to participate in the course.

For more information on the WBCA program, go to www.WBCA.org or call the WBCA at 770/279-8027. For more information or to enroll in the NFHS program, go to www.nfhs.org or call B. Elliot Hopkins at 317/822-5757.

Rosemont lacrosse player gets peers to habla espanol

This past fall, Rosemont College's Krista Froio, a women's lacrosse student-athlete, really got the campus talking -- in Spanish, that is.

The Ramblers' goalkeeper and team captain was instrumental in developing a Spanish language publication called "La Rosa: La Voz Hispana de Rosemont" (The Rose: The Hispanic Voice of Rosemont). Froio completed the project for a Spanish media class.

She initially suggested developing the combination newspaper and magazine as a way of avoiding the monotony of simply watching Spanish films and reading publications.

The idea quickly spiced things up. The class spent the semester designing, writing and producing the 23-page publication. Written entirely in Spanish, 175 copies of La Rosa were distributed throughout the campus December 1. The publication included 12 articles on a range of topics such as women's health, the history of Puerto Rico, a book review and American stereotypes toward Hispanics.

"Everyone was astonished," Froio said of the reaction to La Rosa. "Even those who didn't speak Spanish are amazed."

Plans are under way to produce a second issue during the spring semester as part of a one-credit enrichment course. Froio also intends to stay involved with her creation by taking the course.

Student-athletes take their academics on the Rhodes

Seven NCAA student-athletes were named as part of the 2005 class of Rhodes Scholars.

Overall, 32 honorees, selected based on high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor, were chosen from 904 applications. The scholarship recipients will enter the University of Oxford in England in October 2005 for a two- to three-year period of study.

Student-athlete recipients are Carolyn Wills, a member of the women's soccer team at Wheaton College (Massachusetts); Eugene Shenderov, a tennis student-athlete at Brooklyn College; Sarah J. Hill, a member of the track and field and cross country team at Harvard University; Melissa L. Dell, a track and field and cross country student-athlete at Harvard; Daniel W. Clemens, a tennis student-athlete at Yale University; Laurel Yong-Hwa Lee, a four-year member of the rowing team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Trevor C. Thompson, captain of the baseball team at the U.S. Naval Academy.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

15 years ago

Here's what was making NCAA news in January 1990:

• NCAA Executive Director Richard D. Schultz says at the close of business during the 1990 NCAA Convention that "there is now within the membership a very strong and urgent feeling that we need some reform. ... I think you could call this the Convention of the student-athlete. Just let me mention some of the legislative proposals passed that were directly aimed at bettering the environment for the student-athlete: summer-school aid, aid to partial qualifiers, providing graduation-rate information to prospects, reduction of practice time, scholarships for walk-ons, broken-time payments, transportation between terms. I do not know of another Convention during which so many positive things happened on behalf of the student-athlete."

• Delegates at the 1990 Convention also passed Proposal No. 30, which, among other things, reduced the maximum number of regular-season basketball games from 28 to 25, and directed that legislation to reduce student-athlete time demands in sports other than football and basketball be drafted for the 1991 Convention. Delegates also came within three votes of approving a proposal that would have eliminated freshman eligibility in Division I men's basketball.

• The NCAA Football Rules Committee votes to reduce the width of goal posts from 23 feet, 4 inches, to 18 feet, 6 inches, the width of goal posts in college football before the 1959 season.