Jeanette Ward knew she was in for a big challenge when she took over the Edmonds Community College women’s soccer team in August, just days before the first practice.
How big? At the initial workout, just six players showed up.
Since then, through telephone calls, flyers on campus and other recruiting efforts, she has padded her roster to 14. That’s the good news. The bad news is that just five players have soccer experience, which is why – not surprisingly – the team is taking some lumps. The Tritons are winless, and all but one of those losses were by double-digit margins.
The Edmonds CC men’s team, meanwhile, has a comparative wealth of riches. At the first practice, 60 players were on hand, most with considerable school and club-team experience.
Those numbers highlight a problem faced by many women’s community college sports programs in Washington. Whereas men’s teams typically have plenty of players turning out, the women often are scrambling to fill their rosters.
“I don’t know if it’s just a gender thing,” Ward said, trying to explain the imbalance. “But there’s got to be (a reason) because it’s so obvious.”
Ward was an assistant coach at Edmonds-Woodway High School the past five years, and she says most high school girls programs generally match the boys in numbers. The disparity comes after high school, when a few top girls players get full or partial scholarships to four-year colleges. A large number of the rest simply quit playing.
Many of the high school players who do not receive scholarships “are still really good, but maybe soccer is not their (passion),” Ward said. “So maybe they just bail out. Why? I don’t know. It seems sad to me.”
Edmonds CC player Mallorie Davies says she also has trouble explaining why women seem to show less interest than men in staying with soccer. Since many started the game as young girls and continued through high school, she suggested, “maybe they just get burned out with practices and games every day, and not being able to have a social life. … Girls have more interests (than boys). They like to do a little of this, a little of that. And when you’re playing soccer six days a week, it takes away opportunities to dabble in other things.”
At Everett Community College, women’s coach Brandi Prince started the season with 13 players. She saw that number shrink to 10, but others were added once school started to push the total to 17.
The shortage of women players “is the biggest mystery in the world to me,” said Prince, a third-year coach. “From what I can gather, (many former high school players) think they’re done playing soccer. A lot of times they have other priorities, like jobs. Jobs are a big conflict. But my question is, why is this not an issue for the guys?”
“With the guys, maybe it’s just the love of the game,” said Everett CC athletic director Larry Walker. “The gals, a lot of them have to work. But my personal opinion is that it’s just a matter of priorities. I don’t know if (women) make it as high a priority” to continue playing, compared to the men.
Walker says his women’s teams often “struggle to get numbers out,” with the exception of basketball. Coaches and administrators have discussed different ideas to address the problem, including offering additional scholarships for women, but a more immediate plan is to boost the amount of individual scholarship dollars available for both men and women.
As it is now, the maximum scholarship for a Washington community college athlete is $200 a quarter, or roughly one-fourth of tuition. In Oregon, by contrast, community college athletes are allowed to receive full tuition waivers. Not surprisingly, Oregon’s women’s sports teams typically have better numbers than their Washington counterparts.
Next year, Walker said, CC athletes will be able to receive roughly twice what they get this year, or about one-half of tuition for the year. “That could really help women’s sports,” he said. “You never know for sure, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”
For now, coaches like Ward face a variety of challenges that go beyond training and strategies.
A big one, obviously, is coaxing enough athletes to turn out, but even more important, she said, “is keeping my players healthy and confident about what they’re doing and why they’re here. As a coach, that’s been my biggest challenge. How do I keep my core players healthy and in good spirits with our record and the amount of rest they’re getting?”
The flip side, she went on, is that “even though we’re playing poorly, we’re having a great time. What we’re giving these players is team building and the joy of soccer.”
Ward expects next season to be more fruitful. She plans to get the word out to area high school coaches and players, letting them know about opportunities at Edmonds CC. Ideally, she said, enough women will turn out that she will have to turn some away.
“Our goal next year,” Ward said, “is to have cuts.”
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