Did you notice? The birth of a new team took place right here at Virginia last weekend, but most of us were too busy cursing Jefferson Pilot Sports and the whole state of South Carolina to even take note. Virginia women's golf made a confident debut with a 334-302 win over Richmond Sunday and most Cavalier fans barely blinked an eye.
Over the last two years, the women's golf team has been getting a lot of publicity, and this was before it boasted even a single member. The exposure was all because of the program's association with the athletic department's controversial tiering proposal and some of the stickier aspects of Title IX.
In the fall of 2000, Virginia alumnus William C. Eacho donated $1.4 million to the University for the creation of a women's golf program. The Cavaliers would join six other ACC teams -- and 199 other Division I NCAA programs -- play at top-rated Birdwood Golf Course and give Virginia students yet another excuse to wear polo shirts. Back then, it seemed quite simple.
By the spring of 2001, things got more complicated. The Virginia 2020 Strategic Planning Task Force for the Department of Athletics released recommendations in response to reports that Virginia athletics would run a $47.4 million deficit by 2010. Existing Virginia athletics would be divided into the now-infamous four tiers, with the most successful, highest-revenue sports in Tier One. The tiers would determine the number of scholarships, coaching staff and travel budgets of each sport. And, in a misguided salute to Title IX, the commission recommended dropping men's indoor track and adding -- you guessed it -- women's golf.
The backlash to these recommendations came from all directions. Third and fourth tier sports were understandably horrified at the prospect of having their funding cut to "minimal staff and operating budgets" and receiving "only need-based financial aid." Others worried that the most exorbitant sports were getting away without a single dollar pared from their budgets. Supporters of Virginia track and field worried that cutting indoor track and limiting the outdoor teams to regional travel would make recruiting a difficult if not impossible task. African-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner expressed concern that cutting the track program would drastically reduce the number of black athletes at the University.
Buffeted around in this storm was the women's golf team. Some regarded it as a symbol of sex discrimination against men's programs under Title IX, while others heralded it as a crucial step toward compliance. The program was at this point little more than an earmarked donation, but the future of the program began to look shaky.
It took less than three months for the University's Board of Visitors to scrap the task force's tiering proposal, however, there were still lingering concerns over the effects the tiering debate would have on Virginia athletics' image, but -- for the moment -- the skies had cleared.
Women's golf, as luck would have it, had weathered the storm. The Board decided the sport was something that the University could still "wholeheartedly endorse." Preparations were to continue as planned.
Three years later, the controversy and publicity that swirled around the program's proposal seems like a distant memory. Coach Jan Mann and her seven young women, led by freshman and former Kentucky high school champion Leah Wigger, carved out their place in Virginia sports history Sunday with little fanfare. They displayed composure and skill and came away with a convincing win. And for that, they deserve to be applauded.
I can't claim that I anxiously awaited the first competition of Virginia women's golf. My personal golf experience is limited to an occassional game of putt-putt, televised golf is one of my favorite sedatives and I find golf-clapping about as rousing as calculus. But the start of this team feels like a long-awaited breath of fresh air through Virginia athletics.
Funding issues, discrimination and expansionissues have been put aside. Instead, this season is about seven women getting a chance to play their game, and play it well.
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