
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993                   TAG: 9307290471
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DESIGNER SHOES FOR BOYS ONLY

I ATTENDED the Virginia High School Coaches' Association basketball all-star games in Hampton on July 12 with my stepdaughter. She will be in the ninth grade at Blacksburg High School this fall, and will try out for the girls' basketball team. She was excited to watch the girls' game, with its high caliber of play - perhaps thinking that maybe one day she might be good enough to participate in this event.

Her excitement turned to disappointment when the boys' teams took the court with shoes provided by Adidas of America - and provided only for the boys. We both immediately turned to each other and asked: Hey, where did they get those shoes? and How come the girls' teams didn't get shoes provided for them? Everyone around us asked the same questions.

A Roanoke Times & World News news article on July 22 reported that the girls' teams were given unequal treatment in more ways than the lack of a shoe sponsor. The association did not follow through on a promise to provide shoes - likely doubling the hurt for the participating girls.

The association has indicated they will provide equal treatment for boys' and girls' teams from now on. The truth in that promise can be measured only for future girls' teams. The promise to provide shoes for this year's girls' teams should still be kept. It would begin to make amends to that group, giving them more to take away from their well-earned all-star appearance than the hurt of being treated as second-class citizens.

All-star events are meant to be showcases for their respective sports. What the association showcased in Hampton was blatant insensitivity and inequality. In this day of Title 9, with its provision of equal opportunity for girls in school sports, how could tournament director Mike Smith even think this would not be noticed? If a rising ninth-grade basketball-playing girl noticed, got the "message," and felt a bit of the hurt, then the association needs to be paying much closer attention to its treatment of girls in sports. MIKE METZLER CHRISTIANSBURG

by CNB