rchad Reagan

Virginia Munoz. oiic oi the host

woman swimmers in the Midwest

Conicrciicc. works on her biittcrily

forrn ioi- Saturday's upcoming
llii-aclc ilclavs.

Women s

by Dave Calvert

Women sporting letter jackets
and strolling into the men’s locker
room to put in a little time on the
weight machine in preparation for
the big meet up in Northfield?

Protessors iorced to change their
clothes in the student locker rooms
because varsity women have taken
over their private dressing
quarters?

And women athletes being
sought out by coaches and ad
missions counselors alike'7

Yes, yes, and yes The longtime
supremacy of male sports at
Grinnell is fast slipping in the wake
of a rapid and widespread series of
reforms in athletic opportunities
lor women. Suddenly athletically
inclined women have eight in-
tercollegiate sports and six dif-
ferent coaches to chose from, A
year ago only three team sports
were available at the varsity level.
Two years ago it was two. And
before that field hockey ruled
alone.

W1'm success no

by Dave Schechter

Tomorrow's meet may be called
the Miracle Relays but the success
of this year‘s women‘s swim team
is not a matter of divine guidance.
The Combination ofa large team, a
dedicated coach, and plenty of
hard work has resulted in the finest
season ever for the Grinnell

'.lomen.
Credit may be passed around

WEM/ bOM
lHE SlDELI N ES

liberally but a yeoman’s share
must go to Mike Daley, Daley, a
resident advisor and former All-
Aincrican swimmer at Grinnell,
has brought organization and
discipline to the women’s team

'ithout removing any oi the run
rom it

Though it has taken a lot of hard
work, with workouts often
equalling the men’s in distance,
veterans Jill Hoover and Bonnie
Kenney admit that this season has
been more fun. Daley echoed, “I
really enjoy coaching women.
We're swimming well and we have
a tightly knit group,”

After finishing third in the
Luther Invitational before break,

‘2 women returned to action last

ek,‘ beating Chicago State
University and the University of
Chicago in a triangular and
Augustana in dual action. The real
bonus of last weekend's road trip,
according to diver Ruth Risdon,
was that it brought the team
together and they got to know each
other better.

Commenting on the reasons for
this year‘s success, Hoover said,
“First, we have all of our good
freshmen swimmers Second those

us who swam last year have
improved Mike’s coaching has
done a lot too. He‘s enthusiastic
and he's helped us a lot." When
asked about practices, Kenney,
who led the team in snake dancing
at a Morris (Ill) restaurant last
weekend, could only say, “The
coach is killing us." Hoover, a
junior who along with senior Gail
Machala are the team’s captains,
is certainly right about the help oi

ireshwomen who make up 8 oi
the teams 13 swimmers.

If the team does have one “star"
swimmer it would be newcomer
Virginia Munoz, who swims buts
terfly, freestyle and individual
Medley events. Having begun
competing at age a in AAU meets,
Munoz is typical of the scholar-
athletes that Daley would like to
bring to Grinnell. Munoz, who is
able to swim competitively with
,dch oi the men's team, said that
she chose to come to Grinnell “on
the basis of academics,

that

girls’ swimming helped.” Though
the workouts are not equal to the
1244.000 yards a day she has
swum in the past, Munoz com-
mented, “It‘s more on the level
that I wanted at this time." TWO
otherfreshwomenwhc have helped
the team and have swum in AAU
programs are Sheryl Huntoon and
Renee Reichart.

Huntoon and Reichart will team
up with Mary Forsythe and Marg
Horstman tomorrow on a freestyle
relay while Reichart, Machala,
Munoz, and Kenney form a strong
medley relay. Munoz, Hoover, and
Kenney will also compete in the
butterfly and Individual Medley
relays. Daley hopes to win
tomorrow’s meet which will in
clude Nebraska, Northern Iowa,

The advent of the female athlete
at Grinnell has sorely tested the
resources oi the Physical
Education Complex. Open to the
general public in iall 1971, the six
millionrdollar structure was
designed in the late sixties, back
when women were expected to knit
in their rooms between 4 and 5 pm.
weekdays.

Not only were no special
provisions made ior varsity
women, but women received only
about half the general locker and
shower space their male coun-
terparts at the north end of the
building currently enjoy. This was
not expected to be a problem, since
the dropping of the physical
education requirement in 1971
seemed likely to make the
women’s locker room something
similar to a ghost town. However,
with 350 students enrolled in
physical education activities this
semester, the highest FE.
enrollment since spring 1971, and

miracle

Graceland, Augustana, and
Luther. “This is one of the biggest
women's athletic events in the
midwest.” he said. .

The men have Buddha as their
mascot while the women
have Andrew Jackson Faubacher,
Daley’s six-foot-long boa con-
strictor and long-time companion,
,who will be present at tomorrow's
1:30pm. event in the PEC,

For those who can make it, this
afternoon’s dual with Luther and
tomorrow’s relays will offer a good
look at women‘s college athletics.
As Daley proclaims,7“We have
built a strong women’s program. if
women’s athletics at Grinnell
didn’t come of age this past
weekend, ,then it is rapidly
coming of age.“

McCluskey hard at work

by Katy Duily

Kathy McCluskey replaces Jean
King this semester as the outdoor
education director and physical
education lecturer.

McCluskey graduated from
Allegheny College with a degree in
geology. She became interested in
outdoor education in her junior
year when she .cvived the outing
club which was about to disband.

She entered Pennsylvania State
University to do graduate work in
recreation and park studies. At
Penn State _ she served as a
graduate assistant and instructor
of sailing and camping.-

McCluskey worked with the
Massachusetts Audubon Society
and attended the National Outdoor
leadership School. Before coming
to Grinnell, she was researching
trail conditions in the Great
Smokey Mountains in order to open
up new trails and ease the traiiic
on the older ones.

Pennsylvania State Park offered
McCluskey a supervisory position,
the first to be offered a woman, but
she chose, instead. to come to
Grinnell.

“I like the school and the
people," she commented. “They
are helpiul and intelligent. A lot
can happen here and I’d like to be a
part of it for a while,”

in her newly-assumed role at
Grinnell, McCluskey described
herself as an initiator, a resource
person, and an interested and
enthusiastic supporter of new
ideas. She wants to provide
students with an opportunity to
pursue and develop interests in
outdoor recreation.

“I know a little bit about a lot of
things," she explains, adding that
she welcomes beginning and
inexperienced students and is
eager to help them with outdoor
and wilderness skills.

Spring Break including skiing in
Colorado, caving in Missouri,
backpacking in the Great Smokey
Mountains and possibly a white
water canoe trip. These trips will
be studentcrganizcd and students

run. Meetings for interested
students should be held in the next
few weeks

Hoopers hone

by Eva Hierschbiel

Opening up the action for
Grinnell’s women basketball
players was last Saturday's game
against Coe College of Cedar
Rapids. Coe. in its second season,
easily deieated the young and
inexperienced team.

in their first season of play, the
brballers found they had many
areas which needed improvement
Sandra Hoth, coach for the team,
commented, “We're facing in-
credible odds since they’ve never
played basketball before.“

Despite the discouraging loss,
Coach Hath expressed deter-
mination and will continue regular
practice. She expected the team to
work even harder now after having
been confronted with their lack of
proficiency.

Hoth hopes to see stronger play
in the future. She praised Cathy
Lee, Karen Sesbeau, and Chris
Stidley for their fine performances
in Saturday‘s game. She also
commended Lourie August,
Tammy Nylnen, Linda Peden, ch
Swackhamer, Laurice Valentine
and Ellen Walker.

Clark College will be Grinnell's
next rival. Both. teams share a
similar position at this point; that
is to say, both are winless and are
in their first season of in-
tercollegiate competition. The
so 'mmage between lark and
Gr néll has been set Saturday,
March 1,

Scarlet and _Black. February 7..15I757p. ll

with this year’s boom in women's
varsity action, the tiny locker is
hardly adequate, Beginning oils
semester, accordingly, women
have been awarded the coach and
faculty locker facility adjoining the
men's dressing quarters. Although
Sandra l-loth, assistant proiessor oi
physical education, called it “only
a temporary thing,” the rooln now
shelters the varsity basketball and
track women.
A new "lioiioi- G“

Through December 1974, male
and female athletes received
different treatment from the
physical education staff in the
conferring of letter and numeral
awards Under no conditions did
women ever get red and black
letter jackets, and men were
denied the progression or variously
colored and styled sweaters
available to women.

A December meeting of the PEG
changed all that. “Beginning this
semester,” Hath asserted Monday,
“the award system for men and
women will be identical ” A
modification of the “honor G"
jacket, probably without the black
leather sleeves oi the current style,
is hurriedly being designed ior
women lctterwinners. In addition,
double letterwinners of both sexes
will receive senior blankets upon
graduation.

About a year ago women began
asking PEC attendants ior access
to the Universal Weight machine
stowed at the very center of the
men’s locker maze, Somewhat
grudgingly. at iirst, women began
to be escorted into the weight
room, although not without several
embarrassing incidents.

This year, however, when new
swim coach Mike Daley ens
couraged his squad to Work with
the weights regularly, the situation
escalated. as did the “embarer
assing incidents.” As one iemale
ireshmen swimmer nonchalantly
commented early this week, “I’ve
seen lots of naked guys in the
locker room."

For those that see this as a
problem, several solutions have
been advanced. Some women have
called for a second Universal to be
inserted somewhere in the
women's locker room: or at least,
they add, the old machine Could be
placed in “neutral territory.”
Hoth, in trying to be realistic about
cos s and needs, suggests the
addition of a swinging door at the
crucial spot in the men’s locker
room, making the current site
more easily accessible to women.

Randall, Buck, dollars

The rise in women’s sports this
year has prompted other ins
novations, College News Service
Director Roger McMullen,
exasperated at not being able to
stay on top of the broadening
Grinnell sports scene, has hired a
student. Helen Randall,
speciiically to coordinate College
press coverage of women's in-
tercollegiate sports.

At the same time, in honor of

’ioyce C. Buck, '57, an assistant

professor of physical education
who died in 1969, the Joyce C, Buck
Memorial Trophy has been in-
naugurated, The natural counr
terpart to the David Theophilus
Memorial Trophy which goes
annually to the outstanding
lsenior, male) athlete of the year,
beginning this year the Buck
trophy will honor the outstanding
senior woman athlete.
selection of this year's rec' ‘
will be determlnted at a later
meeting of the six women‘s
coaches.

Another major development is
the advent of limited recruiting
efforts aimed at female athletes on
the part oi admissions and physical
education personnel Grinnell has
been able in the past two years to
attract several fine female
swimmers, tennis players, and
runners. Hoth. encouraged at this
year's success, would like to step

port new look

up these eilorts, Concerned over
the plight of her young and inex-
perienced basketball team. for
example, Hoth now has in hand
”names of a dozen or so
prospective Grinnell women who
play".

Money, naturally enough, is the
most crucial question Women get
nowhere near the iunds ap~
propriated tor the men‘s sports
program. Hoth has proposed a
budget for next year of $7,000, ior
an anticipated increase oi 300
percent. At the same time, men
likely will be gctting over $30,000
again.

Hoth maintains, however, that
the two are “not comparable,”
since women don‘t really need
more than $7,000 next year. She
points to iootball, longer schedules
and road trips as the key expenses
in the men’s program. »

Biggestbugaboos

“Any time you’re just in the
process of building a program,
there are going to be problems,”
Hoth stated, “The biggest problem

\\\\\\\\lhl-. lllhllllllhl illl

drawing by com be Free

Pictured is one oi the styles
proposcd ior women-s letter
jackets.

is developing an attitude of com-
petition, an attitude not inherent in
this culture. It's not easy to
develop that competitive spirit in
women here, although the lield
hockey team was able to this year,

Ten athletically~inclined
Grinnell women, interviewed at
random, agreed tor the most part
with Hoth's analysis, Each ob-
served that as women’s sports
programs gain momentum,
competition will increase. All were
pleased with the recent upswing in
the program.

Gail Machala, a junior swim-
mer, recalled her freshmen year
conditions as “pretty bad Most of
the women were in it only to get
into shape," she noted. “This
year," Machala continued, “its
much more competitive because oi
the emphasis this year."

Cross country veteran Bertie
August called this year “definitely
an improvement. it’s really exr
citing to see how women's cross
country has become an accepted
sport in the state oi Iowa,” she
said.

Freshman Cindy Griiiith urged
more money, equipment, and
locker space for women, but
compared Grinnell's program
favorably to those of other schools.
“We're definitely moving in the
right direction,” held Griffith,
“But we've still got a long way to
go."

Helen Randall, sports ins
formation assistant to Roger
McMullin of College Services,
largely a reed \vitll Griffith,
Recalling initial “disgust” with the
women's athletic offering at
Grinnell, Randall cited Significant
added “attention and support” this
year. “It’s just starting to get the
proper emphasis this year. People
are beginning to recognize women
as serious competitors now . . The
program is still in its pioneer
stages; the only place it's got to go
is up, and it will.”

 

