Summer 2006

The future is now: why should Saint Mary's invest in athletics?
By Elizabeth Station

Once upon a time, in 1995, Nike launched a compelling
ad campaign that summed up the benefits of sports for girls. "If you let me play sports," the young women in the commercial said, "I will like myself more...I will suffer less depression...I will be less likely to get pregnant... I will learn what it means to be strong."

Sarah Miesle '07 Hometown: Woodburn, Ind. Sport: Softball Position: Shortstop Accomplishments: Miesle started playing t-ball at the age of 6 and hasn't put down her bat yet. Her clutch hitting helped the softball team win 28 victories last season, the most in Saint Mary's history. Major: Math. One favorite class was Foundations of Higher Mathematics, because "it has taught me lots of different ways to approach problems." She puts her statistical skills to good use as an intern with Stephen Hinkel, sports information director, and volunteers as a coach at a local high school. Hero: "I try to find inspiration from everyone around me." Future Goals: Graduate work in sports administration and coaching. Favorite Quote: "Don't go out there thinking you're ready. Go out there knowing you're ready." – Bobby Knight

A decade later, there's a nationwide consensus that athletic participation keeps girls healthy and teaches skills and lessons that last a lifetime. More and more girls are competing on high school teams and looking for ways to keep playing sports in college.

Whether they sweat it out on the soccer field or the basketball court, girls who play team sports learn the value of cooperation and competition. They have chances to lead and to follow. They make friends, unload stress, and balance schoolwork successfully with other pursuits. "We work hard in the classroom, and we work hard out on the field," says Caroline Stancukas '07, a Saint Mary's soccer player. As a result, their grade-point averages are often as good as their batting averages.

As they reap the benefits of participation in sports, high-achieving female athletes have become a hot commodity for colleges. To attract and retain the best students, institutions around the country – including Saint Mary's – are growing athletics programs for women. "There's a huge population of females who are interested in sports," says Saint Mary's head volleyball coach Julie Schroeder-Biek '88. "One in every 2.5 girls is participating in high school athletics now, and that's a population we really should be targeting."

Why should Saint Mary's invest in athletics? What has the College done to make its varsity sports programs more competitive, and what remains to be accomplished? How do such efforts fit with the College's mission as a small, Catholic women's college in the liberal arts tradition? The answers provide a perspective on the past and the future.

Playing catch-up

Once upon a time–in 1972–legislation called Title IX forced schools that received federal funding to provide equal athletic opportunities for both sexes. As a private women's college, Saint Mary's never felt the pressure to attain parity. So while the College was sleeping, other institutions moved ahead. "For many years, our programs stayed where they were while everyone else took huge leaps forward," said Lynn Kachmarik, director of athletics and recreation at Saint Mary's.

Thanks to Title IX–and the lawsuits that forced its application – elementary and high schools around the country added more sports teams for girls. Colleges did too, and they hired coaches, purchased equipment, and upgraded facilities for women's teams. Larger institutions, classified as Division I and II schools by the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), established comparable scholarship budgets for male and female athletes.

Smaller Division III schools like Saint Mary's moved forward at varying paces. NCAA rules prohibit them from offering athletic scholarships to students. Traditionally, they aim to balance intellectually rigorous academics with sports, the arts, service, study abroad, undergraduate research, and other activities as part of a broad, liberal arts education.

Yet in recent years, even small, liberal arts colleges have noticed an interesting trend. As girls enjoyed more chances to compete athletically in grade school and high school, they
wanted to continue when they reached college. Saint Mary's athletes are strong students who "don't eat, live, and die their sports," says Kachmarik. "But all athletes want to be the best they can be. When they get to college, they want to go to the next level."

Previous generations of women can't imagine choosing Saint Mary's for its sports programs, but today it's a key factor for many prospective students. Sarah Miesle '07 spent time with the varsity softball team when she was deciding, on a campus visit, whether to attend Saint Mary's. "You could tell that improvements were being made, and the program here was headed in a direction that I wanted to be a part of," says Miesle. "And it's always been a dream of mine to play college ball."

Anne Cusack'07 Hometown: Naperville, Ill. Sport: Volleyball Position: Libero, a defensive specialist who can rotate in for any player Accomplishments: At just 5'1", she was told she was too short to play college ball–but last season she led the MIAA conference in digs (that's making a hard-hit ball playable for other team members). Major: Psychology, just like her coach, Julie Schroeder-Biek '88. The two often brainstorm to understand and motivate the volleyball team. One of her favorite classes was Psychology and the Law with Associate Professor Karen Chambers. Hero: "My mom–she's overcome a lot and works really hard." Future Goals: Attend graduate school and become a clinical forensic psychologist. Favorite Quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead

Sports were also an important consideration for sisters and soccer players Ashley '07 and Lauren Hinton '09. They were offered athletic scholarships at other schools but chose Saint Mary's for its academic quality. "We all know that few athletes make a living playing soccer," says their father, Michael Hinton. "That is why we needed to find a college that would provide both a good education and a competitive soccer experience. Saint Mary's fit the criteria for both."

Making strides

Once upon a time – in 1997 – Saint Mary's joined the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), the nation's oldest collegiate athletic conference. The move gave athletics a boost, offering sports teams more predictable schedules, a higher level of play, and opportunities to shine in post-season competition.

Since then, Saint Mary's has made strides on other fronts. Hiring full-time coaches to run four of the College's eight varsity sports programs has been a crucial step, according to Kachmarik. As coaches build programs, their teams' records and reputations improve. And as these efforts gather steam, Saint Mary's can attract women who thrive as athletes, scholars, and leaders. "Now that we're moving forward, we're recruiting some blue-chip student athletes who would have many opportunities to compete at the college level," says Kachmarik.

Compared to other women's and Division III colleges, Kachmarik now locates Saint Mary's athletic programs as "somewhere in the middle" in resources and facilities. To keep moving up, her goal is to have a full-time head coach for every varsity team within two years. Coaches like Schroeder-Biek are stretched thin–in addition to coaching volleyball she also serves as an admission counselor, assistant athletic director, and director of intramural and club sports. Since practices and other activities take place in the evening, she's often on campus from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. "There are some pretty long days involved. During your season, you might as well move in," she laughs.

Students praise the College for investing in athletics to the degree that budgets have allowed. But they'd like to see more progress. A top item on their wish list is an outdoor athletic facility, including a track, so Saint Mary's can reinstate its track and field program, host cross country meets, and give athletes from all sports a place to cross-train. They also want better indoor athletic facilities, so Saint Mary's teams aren't forced to share a crowded locker room with their opponents. Athletics staff who work out of residence hall rooms would like to have offices in the department.

"Our basketball team uses a storage closet during halftime," says Anne Cusack '07, a volleyball player. "In general, our facilities are not adequate." Other dreams include an Olympic-size pool, so the swim team can recruit more members and train on campus rather than commuting to a local high school, as they now do. And students would like lights for the soccer field, so that practices conflict less with classes and workouts can extend into fall evenings.

Caroline Stancukas '07 Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas Sport: Soccer (but she swims, too). Position: Outside midfielder, which requires both speed and stamina. Accomplishments: Nicknamed "Cheetah" because she ran so fast in her first practice. She was a member of the most successful soccer team in Saint Mary's history (with a record of 11-7-1 last year). Majors: Political science and pre-med. Her favorite class was organic chemistry, and she studied abroad in Korea, sings in the collegiate choir, and is passionate about art and architecture, too. Future Goals: Stancukas is preparing for both medical and law school. "I'd love to be a surgeon," she says, "but I want to leave my options open. If money didn't matter, I'd just be a wandering oil painter." Heroes: Her mother and Mahatma Gandhi. Favorite Quote: "First with the head; then with the heart." – Bryce Courtenay

According to Kachmarik, reestablishing the track and field program would serve multiple goals: "The addition of track and field gives us a better opportunity to diversify our student athlete population, which is just as important to Saint Mary's College as building our athletic program." Ten years from now, she would also like the College to have added varsity-level lacrosse, water polo, and ice hockey programs to attract a growing number of girls who play these sports competitively around the country.

Winning together

For alumnae who remember a time when participation in sports meant heading across the street for a Notre Dame football game, it's a brave new world. Today athletics form the fabric of many young women's lives during college, whether they plan to compete at the varsity level, join intramurals, or simply use fitness facilities to stay healthy.

In this competitive environment, Saint Mary's has distinct advantages as an academically strong Catholic women's college. "Women are the ones that have the leadership roles here, and that speaks to athletes because they are drawn to leadership," says Schroeder-Biek. Since classes are small, professors get to know their students as people and take an interest in their pursuits beyond the classroom. "Not only do they support you academically, they come to watch you play," says Miesle.

For many at Saint Mary's, support for athletics is a win-win proposition, consistent with the College's mission of educating the whole person and preparing women to make a difference in the world. "We are empowering students who come to Saint Mary's to take care of mind, body, and spirit," Kachmarik says. "Whether they want to compete at the varsity level or not, they want to play. Give them the opportunity and they will come."

Elizabeth Station is a senior writer in marketing communications.