Playing for Keeps

After a decisive win at the state basketball championship in South Carolina last year, followed by tip-top billing from the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association this year, you might think the girls team from Lower Richland High School is the kind  that some big shoe company would want to drop their swooshes or stripes on.

Not so.

“You’re on your own,” says coach Deborah Stroman, a 22-year veteran at Lower Richland. Even as the boys at her school have won big endorsements (and big titles, too), her girls have made do with scant resources.

With few exceptions, it’s hard for girl athletes to catch free equipment from big corporate sponsors. About three-quarters of sponsorships go to boys’ teams, according to industry watchdogs, with the aim of building brand loyalty—eventually that 6'2" pimple-faced forward could become a 7'2" all-star in the NBA, willing to sign an endorsement contract and sell millions of shoes.

But at schools where the boys net the free shots and girls don’t, administrators may be violating 1972 Title IX regulations banning gender discrimination in school athletics, say women’s sports activists. Under the law, schools have an obligation to provide “equal benefits,” according to one New York law professor. And this isn’t the company’s problem to solve—they have no Title IX obligations.

At Lower Richland, Stroman hopes there might be a corporate name in her future. With a couple of big shots on her team, including her own 6'3" daughter, she believes her players will continue to garner national attention. “I really do believe the girls are closing the gap,” she says. “You can tell when you’re in the gym, playing for the championship—it’s packed. Back when I was a player, it was just my Mom up there.”

In the meantime, advocates say there might be another solution to the unequal endorsements: Just ask. Although coaches of boys’ sports may be reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them, activists say that companies might be happy to add the girls to their roster—if they’re simply asked to play fair.

Photo: Ron Levine