As the women's sports industry has become more profitable than ever before (though, arguably, it has much further to go), Williams is among those who have watched women coaches slowly vanish from high school and college playing fields. Since 1977, retired Brooklyn College professors Vivian Acosta and Linda Carpenter, both former coaches of various women's sports, have conducted a yearly study of female participation in sports and the status of women as collegiate coaches. Their results for the year 2000 demonstrate two extremes.

"The good news is, there are more and more college-age women and women at the high school level participating in sports," says Carpenter of this year's report, which shows women's participation in sports at an all-time high. "The bad news is that the number of women who are coaching and serving as administrators is the lowest ever in history." When Title IX was enacted in 1972, women coached more than 90 percent of women's teams. By the year 2000, that figure fell to 45.6 percent.

Marjorie Snyder, the program director for the Women's Sports Foundation, says the sharp decline in numbers of female coaches is one direct result of how many schools responded to Title IX - by combining their women's and men's athletic departments. "If you had the heads of the men's and women's athletic departments come together," Snyder explains, "invariably the man became the athletic director, and the woman became the assistant. It's the athletic director who does the hiring, and men tend to hire who they know."

Like Williams, Acosta and Carpenter grew up playing sports pre-Title IX. Their coaches were primarily women from physical education departments who volunteered to coach girls because they felt it was important. Along with the other girls on their "teams," Acosta and Carpenter bought their own uniforms and paid for their travel to away games. Their coaches received thank-you notes at the end of the year, and not much more.

"Now, the salaries for coaches are still pretty small," says Carpenter, "and coaches of women's teams still tend to be paid less than those of men's teams. But still, the fact that it became paid had a lot to do with men looking at coaching women as a viable job."

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"Another thing is that some [male coaches] started to see [coaching women] as a stepping-stone to coaching males," says Acosta. "And, once they started coaching women, found they were cooperative, they listened, they're eager to please, and found that they liked coaching girls, sometimes more than they liked coaching boys."

Coach Rob Donohoe, another graduate of Shore Regional, has been coaching the Shore's freshman girls' softball team for the last four years. He says that after years of coaching the boys' soccer team and boys' basketball teams, he enjoys coaching girls in the spring.

"Girls are totally different to coach," says Donohoe, 30, who credits Williams for much of what he knows about coaching young women. "They are willing to please, but at times they are harder to manage than boys. I always try to push 'em to their fullest extent. And sometimes they get pissed at me. But I definitely enjoy it. Coaching girls and boys, you get the best of both worlds."

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