Whitworth University’s athletics prides itself on providing the “opportunity for highly motivated student-athletes to reach their full athletic potential through quality coaching, challenging competition, and competitive training environments,” as stated in its website as its core objective statement. However, a deeper question arises that brings awareness to a controversial issue at Whitworth regarding the amount of varsity sports offered between men and women: how can Whitworth athletes reach their full potential if they don’t have equal opportunities to play sports?
At the Division III level, Whitworth offers twenty-one varsity sports. Among these sports, eleven are women’s teams, and ten are men’s teams. At first glance, one could argue that those unequal numbers are an example of direct discrimination and in violation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) guidelines of Title IX. The NCAA’s website states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” but realistically, Whitworth hasn’t broken any Title IX rules with athletics.
Regarding how Title IX applies to athletics, the NCAA states, “Title IX requires that women and men be provided equitable opportunities to participate in sports. Title IX does not require institutions to offer identical sports but an equal opportunity to play.” The key terms to bring attention to are “equal,” which provides the same resources to everyone regardless of their needs, and paying attention to “equitable,” which is providing opportunities to groups when there is a need. One can see how Whitworth recognizes equitable athletic opportunities based on the needs of prospective student-athletes and regarding competition in the Northwest Conference (NWC).
Whitworth sees this inequality of available sports between men and women because of the roster sizes, especially in men’s sports like football, which has a current roster of 122 athletes. To compensate for those unequal numbers, the athletic department, including athletic director Tim Demant, has advocated for more women’s sports to provide an equal ratio of male to female athletes. With the influx of male athletes, women’s lacrosse was the most recent team to be added to the list of Whitworth varsity sports back in 2017.
However, there can be no equitable harmony with gender balances in Whitworth athletics, which often causes more assumptions and questions to arise. For example, if Whitworth has a women’s lacrosse team but no men’s lacrosse team, is that discrimination against Title IX because it’s denying the male gender the opportunity to play lacrosse at the collegiate level? Or if football has such large numbers, does that mean Whitworth can only add women’s teams and no men’s teams?
The Whitworth community wants to see more available varsity sports, as many students grew up playing sports that aren’t offered in the Northwest Conference and are forced to give it up or find different opportunities to play while at college. Eric Abel, a Whitworth sophomore, grew up playing lacrosse but couldn’t give up the sport when he came to Whitworth. He manages this by playing for Gonzaga’s club men’s lacrosse team. When Abel first learned that Whitworth had lacrosse, he was excited but soon was disappointed when he realized that there was no men’s team. Abel expressed, “It’s the fastest sport ever, so it’d be awesome to have it here, and we have the goals already because of the women’s team.” Although men’s lacrosse would create opportunities for students like Eric Abel, he also expressed his understanding that it’s hard to start an NCAA program, and there’s no close competition to Whitworth, so a club team would be an easier option.
Staff and students understand that sports cannot always be equal. Whitworth sophomore Aiden Bruno comments, “It’s [the number of male football players] out of our control… so I think it sounds a little unfair in that sense, but at the same time, like I get where the Title IX… comes from.” The Title IX situation at Whitworth may feel a little unfair to students whose sports are affected by it.
Jackson Kottman, a junior at Whitworth who played hockey growing up, would be inclined to try out for a Hockey team if there was one available. With the reduction of the Jan Term ice-skating class, however, it may be harder for Jack to find other fellow hockey players.
Whitworth’s ice-skating professor, Damon Hagerott, has always been interested in the creation of a hockey team at Whitworth but understands that a hockey team is not a possibility. He said, “the university does its best to be equitable, but that doesn’t always mean equal numbers.” Hagerott explained that a club team would be an easier option if there is enough interest. Whitworth, however, is cutting the ice-skating class normally offered during the Jan term, which will make it harder for students interested in hockey to connect and create a club team.
At Whitworth, it is entirely possible to start a new varsity team, although it is multifaceted and involves a lot of factors. “When we look at adding a sport, there’s three things I look for,” explained Tim Demant. “Number one, are there people in your area to recruit?” In the Pacific Northwest, sports like men’s lacrosse and ice hockey are increasing in popularity, but the numbers aren’t large enough yet.
Demant continued, “The second one is, is there anybody to play against?” Many schools in the NWC, including Whitworth, are growing their amount of club teams, especially in regard to ultimate frisbee, but no one has made an effort to add to their varsity teams yet, besides Pacific Lutheran University just added women’s lacrosse to their varsity numbers. The closest competition for Whitworth, if there was a men’s lacrosse team, would be against Division I schools.
Demant continued saying, “the third one is, do you have a facility where they can play?” Whitworth has the facilities for a sport like men’s lacrosse since there is already a women’s team, but for sports like hockey, they would have to build an NCAA standard ice arena, which would be expensive.
Just because Whitworth isn’t adding any new sports right now doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about it. Demant mentioned that schools around the Pacific Northwest are starting to look at adding activities like wrestling and even ESports to their programs. Demant explained that there are two easy ways to start a team. He said, “One is if it starts out as a club program. You’ve got students on campus that kind of get it going, and they organize it”. Students start playing against other teams in the area, the club builds momentum, and the school decides to pick it up. “The other one is,” Demant explained. “We just decide to do it like we did with women’s lacrosse and build the program from the ground up”.
The Whitworth athletics department would like to see new sports added to their varsity list. Not only does it bring in more prospective students, but it provides more opportunities at Whitworth to build a sense of community. The school has followed the guidelines of Title IX in regard to equity in sports to balance the athlete-gender ratio, but that balance ruins the gender and sports ratio.
