“City made aware of recreation inequality” from the March 21, 1974 Door County Advocate
City made aware of recreation inequality
A group of concerned citizens Wednesday night brought before the Parks and Recreation board its concern over the lack of city sponsored programs for girls and women.
Addressing the board, Mrs. Phyllis Straughan said she was concerned about the inequality of girls and boys public programs offered younger children in the area. Since the city is the sole support of the Little and Pee Wee basketball she questioned if the board would be willing to sponsor similar programs for girls.
Speaking for the board, Dan Nielson said that the Parks and Recreation department would support such programs if there were enough interest and a coach or coaches could be found.
At present the only city-sponsored programs that involve girls or women are the swim club, the adult women’s softball league and the ‘Slim Jim’ adult recreation program held one night a week during the school year.
One concerned spokesman asked the reason for excluding an elementary 4-H girls’ basketball team from practice time in any of the city gymnasiums last winter. Nielson responded that too many other groups were already scheduled for use of the facilities when the girls applied.
Joe Writt, Parks and Recreation director, explained that the schools have priority use of the gymnasium facilities and the city programs must be planned around school use. With additional women’s sports at the schools this year there has been less time available for outside activity.
Nielson and others on the board concurred that with the increasing interest in sports the city will be forced to a deadline for those interested in participating in city-offered programs.
Mrs. Straughan also questioned if the board would approve co-ed sports teams for Little League and basketball. George Husby explained that it would be necessary to petition National Little League headquarters in Pennsylvania to see if they would allow girls to play on the local Little League. However, it was brought out that the Pee Wee teams were not chartered nationally and there would be no reason why there couldn’t be co-ed participation.
Explaining the lack of girls’ and women’s activities, Writt said that the crux of the problem lay with the lack of available space, equipment and qualified personnel. He urged those interested in organizing and coaching girls’ teams to begin preparation now for next fall.—LMA
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles by Linda M. Adams
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/linda-adams
Articles about girls’ sports
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/girls-sports