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This just in from the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics. They have met the enemy ... and it is anyone with a Y chromosome.
Men are evil, at least during basketball practice. They should be as welcome as strep throat.
So sayeth the latest decree from this room of deep thinkers, who are seeking to ban the common routine of many women's basketball coaches of having their teams practice against men.
The idea of using men in scrimmages has been both productive and popular. The theory is simple: Work against speed and strength, and an athlete gets better. So does her team. It is a strategy based not on race, creed, gender, religion, political affiliation or sexual persuasion. It is a strategy based on basketball.
But the CWA punched a few political correctness buttons, looked for a few ghosts and found social injustice. Using men "violates the spirit of gender equity." Besides, it might hurt the end-of-the-benchers who -- presumably in a more virtuous and righteous world -- would be used as practice fodder instead of the guys.
A new suffrage: The right to be on the scout team.
"The message to female student-athletes," the CWA proclaimed in a position statement, "seems to be, 'You are not good enough to make our starters better, so we need to use men instead.'"
So instead, apparently, the message should be: "Be the best you can be. Unless that requires men. In which case, be almost the best you can be."
To take illogical thinking to its irrational conclusion, the world of women's athletics should be devoid of male coaches, trainers, officials, scorers, timers, broadcasters or anyone else who can contribute to the cause. Better all these tasks be in the hands of women, or else what unsavory message would be sent?
Basketball, by the way, was invented by a man. Is it OK to play?
The lads who practice for hours against the women are not scholarship athletes or mercenaries or the hired help. They donate their own sweat to help a team get better. The coaches relish the opportunity, and the players appreciate it. Women's basketball has taken quantum leaps forward in the caliber of play, and this is one reason why.
But the CWA has deemed them agents of discrimination and injustice. Further proof some people never run out of reasons to try to make rules.
Surely in a world where real inequalities can be found with a five-minute search, they can do better than this.
The early returns from the coaches on the proposal have been correctly negative.
"Absolutely absurd," Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie told USA TODAY. "It's got nothing to do with equity and everything to do with politics."
"I think it would be detrimental to women's basketball," Tennessee's Pat Summitt said in a recent news conference. "If you look at what has happened, the parity in the game, the fact that we have male practice players, they challenge us. It's not like they take away opportunities. On the contrary, they provide opportunities for our teams to work on specific game preparation.
"If we don't have practice guys, and I think this would be true for most coaches, then the last five players on your team become the practice squad.
"When I coached the Olympic team in 1984, we played against one female team in the exhibition games. The rest of the time, we played against males. ... The guys made us better."
None of this fazed committee members who seemed bent on an agenda. Maybe their suspicions looked reasonable in a meeting room surrounded by their own rhetoric. Maybe they should have gone to a few practices.
Contact Mike Lopresti at
mlopresti@gns.gannett.com
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