National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

November 25, 1996

Eating disorders rise among men

The problem of eating disorders may be more of an equal-opportunity tragedy than previously thought, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

Although females with eating disorders outnumber males by about seven million to one million, the number of afflicted males reporting problems appears to be on the increase, especially among male athletes.

"Today we are seeing an unusual number of males in our program," said Dr. Neville Golden, director of the Eating Disorder Center at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York. "I believe it has become more socially acceptable to seek treatment."

The story said that a study last spring among Cornell University football players found that 40 percent had dysfunctional eating patterns, with 10 percent having outright disorders (such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating).

"Sports-related eating disorders are clearly on the rise in males," said Cynthia Pizzuli, a social worker who teaches how to deal with food and exercise healthfully in high schools and colleges.

"Male athletes sometimes become anorexic after a sports injury. If they know they can't work off the calories, they won't eat. And we've seen bulimia in football players or wrestlers, who have to make weight to stay on the team."

The story noted that the NCAA has changed its rules to allow wrestlers to weigh in once at the start of a three-day tournament instead of once a day for all three days.

Other factors also are cited for increases in eating disorders among men.

Dr. Robert Fox, a psychologist who specializes in eating disorders, said men have become a target for fashion marketing.

"Society's stress on thinness and appearance has now spread to men in an effort to get them to participate more fully in the fashion economy and buy more clothes," Fox told the Times.

Organizations that offer help for men with eating disorders include the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association (telephone 212/501-8351) and the the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (847/831-3438).

Success story

Although almost everybody readily would acknowledge that good work is done in the National Youth Sports Program, sometimes the results are more apparent than others.

Take Lisa Johnson, for instance.

A former NYSP participant at the University of District of Columbia, Johnson is now a dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

Johnson started dancing as a youngster while participating in the NYSP at District of Columbia. From that start, she went on to graduate from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She has danced professionally with the Capitol Ballet in Washington, D.C., and appeared with the Washington Opera, among other accomplishments.

The Alvin Ailey group is world-renowned, having performed in 48 states and 67 countries. Johnson recently performed with the group in Kansas City, Missouri, and took time to tour the NCAA national office and Hall of Champions while she was in town.

Sister Act

Coach Lisa Nordeen of the University of Minnesota, Morris, women's basketball team has an interesting situation on her hands this year.

She has three sets of sisters on the same team, all of whom pair off at the same positions.

Kim and Joy Loughry both play center. Julie and Laurie Plahn are at shooting guard, and Kari and Lori Kollmann both play off-guard.

"Trying to divide up the teams so that the sisters aren't always guarding each other at the same basket is one of the hardest parts of planning practice," Nordeen said.

When you ask the sisters, though, they generally say that having a sibling on the team is wonderful. The Plahns both believe that they tend to work harder when playing against one another in practice, and the Kollmanns and Loughrys agree.

In practice, observers readily can match up the sisters, not only by appearance but by similarity of play.

The curtain for this sister act goes up for real November 26 when Minnesota-Morris opens against South Dakota State University.

-- Compiled by David Pickle

Milestones

Head field hockey coach Kathy Kravitz earned her 100th win at the helm of the Beaver College team in October. Kravitz is in her 12th season as Beaver head coach and has compiled a 100-55-6 record.

Springfield College field hockey coach Dottie Zenaty recorded her 250th win in September during her 27th season at her alma mater. Zenaty is the second winningest coach in New England, behind one of her former players, Pam Hixon of Massachusetts.

Springfield's men's soccer team presented coach Peter Haley with his 100th victory at his alma mater in September.

In the 98-year history of Susquehanna University of Pennsylvania football, no coach has now won more games than current coach Steve Briggs after his team's victory over Wilmington College (Ohio) October 5. Now in his seventh year as Susquehanna head coach, Briggs improved to 46-21 (.687).

Tony Tocco, head coach of the men's soccer team at Rockhurst College, passed the 400 win mark September 28, bringing his record to 400-88-27.

Roanoke College's men's soccer coach Scott Allison won his 100th career game October 6 at Lynchburg College. Allison has compiled a 100-74-12 (.570) record in 101/2 seasons at Roanoke.

Northern Illinois University women's soccer coach Frank Horvat recorded his 250th career coaching victory October 5 in an overtime victory over Florida International University. The fourth-year head coach now is 32-32-2 at the collegiate level, and posted marks of 109-22-10 (girls') and 109-50-14 (boys') while coaching both soccer teams at Rockford (Illinois) Boyland High School from 1986 to 1992.

On October 2, Connecticut College women's soccer coach Ken Kline won his 100th career game, a 1-0 triumph over the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

Steve Adlard, men's soccer coach at Marquette University, reached his 100th career victory September 22 with a 4-2 win over DePaul University.

Head women's volleyball coach Mark Birtwistle of Eastern College attained his 100th victory September 28. Birtwistle is in his seventh season at Eastern.

University of Delaware head women's volleyball coach Barbara Viera coached her 1,000th career match October 9. Through 25 years as a head coach, Viera has a 620-376-4 record.