"Girls sports putting crimp on gym facilities" from the January 20, 1976 Door County Advocate
By JON GAST
Girls sports putting crimp on gym facilities
By JON GAST
"I kind of liken it to having a 10-person family and trying to fit them. into a two-bedroom house; you have to do things in shifts," said Sevastopol Athletic Director Eugene Waterstreet, referring to the problem of inadequate gym facilities for the growing number of sports in high school athletic programs.
It wasn't too many years ago that the problem was non-existent, but today, with the advent. of Title IX legislation, girls' programs are flourishing and because of this the number of teams in many high schools around the country have doubled. What has this meant to athletic programs?
The result is crowded gyms and shortened practices.
Possibly for the exception of Gibraltar, Door county high schools have felt the crunch to some degree and with girls' sports still not developed to their maximum, the situation could be worsening.
Probably the worst hit of the four schools is Southern Door. Athletic Director John Bowers said the school has had to do some juggling in order to accommodate the schools interscholastic sports program.
The Southern Door boys' and girls' varsity and junior varsity basketball teams get the use of the gym after school. One day the boys will practice from 3-4:30 p.m. while the girls go from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and the next day they will flip-flop. This takes up a pretty good chunk of the gym's free time considering the gym is used for numerous school and rec activities at night. So what about all the other interscholastic sports?
This is where Bowers turns into somewhat of a magician. The freshman basketball team practices the first three hours of the school day. According to Bowers, because the freshmen boys are too young to drive and must rely on parents for their transportation, it is not rational to have them practice at night or before school.
We still haven't covered wrestling or girls' gymnastics.
After all the meals are prepared and the mess cleaned up, the wrestlers roll out their mats in the cafeteria for their afternoon workouts. And. the girl gymnasts, contrary to popular opinion, don't get the library, they get the hallways.
That's right, they set up their equipment in the hallways in the afternoons.
An added problem for Bowers is the fact that there is no transportation for the group of basketball players practicing from 4:30-6 because the last bus leaves the school at 5:15.
"I think we have a little more of a problem out here," said Bowers, "because we are out in the country we have that problem with transportation."
Two things have helped ease the problem at Sturgeon Bay. First, the junior and senior high schools are separate, thereby relieving the problem caused by freshman sports. The second advantage that the Clippers own is in the layout of the high school. Sturgeon Bay has a balcony adjacent to the gym that allows for an area where wrestling practice can be conducted. It also has the added advantage of not having a girls' gymnastics program and in these times of added stress on facilities one less sport can make a lot of difference.
"So far we've been able to work things out," said Athletic Director Ron Casadont. "It's not the best system in the world, but at least everyone has time to work out."
As far as use of the gym is concerned, basketball uses up most of that time as it does at most schools; like at Southern Door, the Clippers boys and girls must share their time. One group goes from 2:30-5 while the other must come from 5-6:30.
"As more teams come in we'll have more problems," said Casadont. "But most of the coaches realize that we had better go on cooperating."
At Sevastopol, the Pioneers are engaged in the two-gym suffle. Wrestling, boys' basketball and girls' basketball are cooperating in sharing the elementary and high school gyms.
At present, Athletic Director Eugene Waterstreet is trying to keep things organized with a monthly schedule that directs each sport, when and where it is to practice.
"We haven't had any great problems," said Waterstreet. He has the junior high practicing from 2:15 to 3:05 each day with the high school teams taking over after school and at night. Because then are three teams for two gyms, one team often has to come back at night to practice. But as at the other schools, variables are involved, like interscholastic games at night or Rec League or a grade school game, all adding up to one big headache for Waterstreet.
One added problem that Waterstreet has is a Wednesday night ordinance that states that there will be no school activities after supper. This means one team is without practice time, but Waterstreet said that he has gotten around this with the cooperation of the girls' basketball team which has agreed not to practice on Wednesday nights.
The crowded conditions have forced many of the teams to move their practices to Saturday and there have been some on Sunday also.
A good example of a team feeling the crunch is the Sevastopol freshman team. The squad is scheduled with the varsity and junior varsity teams. But the priority that is given to the varsity and junior varsity often leaves the freshmen out in the cold, forcing them to search for spots of time when the gym is available. This means an inconvenience for parents who must cart their boys to school at night or on a Saturday so the team can get in a decent practice.
Due to a decision by the Gibraltar school board, dropping athletics in the junior high, the Vikings. enjoy an escape from the "crowd." Add to this the fact that Gibraltar has no wrestling team and you have virtually no problem. The school has no problem in getting in both the boys' and girls' practices after school and still has plenty of time left over for intramurals.
"Our dropping the junior high program helped spacewise," said Principal Larry Lundell. "I don't know how it will eventually effect the team, though."
How does all this affect the performance of the athlete?
"I don't think it has that much effect on the athletes," said Bowers. "The kids go out because they enjoy the sport." As girls' sports grow so will the problems, "but, as Casadont said, the coaches will have to realize that for the sake of the survival of their own sport they will have to compromise on time. But, he said, as far as Sturgeon Bay is
concerned, the winter sports may not be the problem area. He feels that when the spring sports roll around the situation nay worsen for awhile as boys' track, girls' track, baseball and eventually girls' softball all must share the gym for a month or so while waiting for the thaw to arrive.
The more you think about it, 10 people in a two-bedroom house sounds kind of roomy.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Posted later:
"Mothers and sports" from the May 6, 1976 Door County Advocate (also by Jon Gast)
https://doorcounty.substack.com/p/mothers-and-sports-from-the-may-6
Other posts about girls’ sports
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/girls-sports