From: rjones@buzzard.eecs.umich.edu (Randolph M. Jones)
Subject: Re: Should a woman coach a women's team?
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:22:33 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.172022.2163@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, gidi@Hilbert.Stanford.EDU (Gideon Avrahami) writes:
|> rjones@buzzard.eecs.umich.edu (Randolph M. Jones) writes:
|> >I can't believe we're actually having this discussion.  
|> 
|> Why?  This is America in the 90's and women are still being
|> discriminated against, abused and disenfranchised in most walks of life.
|> So this is a discussion of one of the many places where women cannot get
|> a break.  So let's talk about it.

Perhaps I expressed myself badly.  Rather than saying "I can't believe we're
actually having this discussion," I should have said "It perturbs me greatly
that there is any argument about the question in the subject line."  In any
case, I didn't mean that the issue of sexism in college basketball shouldn't 
be discussed.  As I remember, the original posting asked the questions 
"should men coach women's teams?" and "should women coach men's teams?"  My 
point was that there is no question that members of either sex should be 
allowed to coach teams of the other sex.  Racism is also still rampant in 
this country, but I imagine that arguing that "african-american people 
shouldn't coach caucasian people," would be pretty well frowned upon (and with
good reason).  Maybe I am just interpreting the word "should" differently 
from others.

|> >Is there something
|> >about having a penis that would cause a person to understand and coach the
|> >fundamentals of basketball differently from someone who doesn't have a penis?
|> 
|> Depends on who you ask.  If you don't think that there are millions of
|> guys out there who believe that the statement above is true, you are
|> badly deluded.
|> 
|> Consider this scenario.  University A has a female head coach.
|> University B has a male head coach.  Both A and B are trying to
|> recruit high school star C.
|> 
|> C has talked to A's coach.  He talked to the players.  He knows he'll
|> get a good education at A, will be in a good basketball program, will
|> get respect, learn the game, become better -- in short, it's a great
|> college hoops program.  C is happy.
|> 
|> Now, here come the recruiters from B.  Here come the boosters.  Macho
|> guys from the neighborhood.  Callers on talk shows.  What do you think
|> *they* are saying about the woman from B?  And about guys who play for
|> her?  And how mature will C have to be, at 17, to completely ignore
|> all that backstabbing talk?
|> 
|> If you don't think that this is a valid scenario, you need to wake up.

Of course it's a valid scenario, and last I checked, I was awake, but
based on this scenario, are you saying that "a woman SHOULDN'T coach a men's
team?"  I don't think you are, but many of the postings I've seen have said
things like, "a woman shouldn't coach a men's team, because..." or, "a man shouldn't coach a women's team, because..."  I was just trying to express how 
ridiculous I thought those statements were.

Thank you for your thoughts, but not for your patronizing tone.

Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college