Women’sAthletic History Comes Alive on Campus


including one this past spring. “The whole philosophy of spirit, mind, and body


is so true,” she says. “And it really is powerful.” Jen Starek ’01, G’03, had a similar experience,


playing field hockey for Zenaty and softball for Mangano. She was inspired by “just the kind of people they


were and how much they put into what they were doing, and the values they instilled in both programs all the time. It was something very exciting to be a part of, and made me want to be the same kind of mentor.” evidently that’s working out just fine. The University of New Haven has


had seven straight winning seasons in softball, a time period exactly coinciding with Starek’s tenure as head coach. She has taken five of her teams to the Division II NCAA Tournament.


SWIMMING/DIVING


Stability and a calm excellence have defined the women’s swimming and diving program for longer than the current team members have been alive. Swim coach John Taffe, in his 25th year, and diving coach, Peter Avdoulos in his 29th, both have impeccable credentials. Among other things, Taffe was the head coach for the Netherlands-Antilles team in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Avdoulos has won numerous honors as NCAA Division III Diving Coach of the Year for both men and women. The program set a remarkable standard by winning a 10th straight league championship in 2010. Among the coaching protégés to emerge from this program is Lindsay


Moore ’02, now in her 12th year as head diving coach at the University of Rhode Island. An eight-time All-American at Springfield College, Moore credits Avdoulos for being a profound influence. “Having him as a mentor to guide me through my college experience


definitely changed my view as to what a coach-athlete’s relationship was,” she said. “He wanted to make sure that academically, athletically, and personally our lives were well-rounded.” The coaching she received as an athlete directly led to the type she tries


to provide as a coach. “He became somebody I looked up to—very much so,” Moore says. “I wanted to have that kind of relationship with athletes that he had with me. He was a motivator. He was a confidence booster. He directed me toward what potential I had as a diver that I had never


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By Brenden Cyr ’13 Graduate Sport Management Student Student Staff in the Office of Marketing and Communications


ThE wEEkEnd of Friday, Oct. 25 was teeming with historical athletic talent on the Springfield College campus. That’s because this particular weekend was Homecoming Weekend, and this particular Homecoming Weekend represented the 50th anniversary of women’s varsity athletics. Springfield College athletes and coaches—young, old, current, and former—all collected in our Fuller Arts Center to enjoy a symposium on the topic at hand: Girls and Women in Sports. The College assembled an impressive cast of talented women with an abundance of insight on the subject. Our own Professor of exercise Science Mimi Murray


delivered the introduction for each of our speakers on that Friday and called attention to a few of our female athletic pioneers in the audience: Martha Van Allen, our school’s first field hockey coach; Jone Bush, the school’s first women’s basketball and tennis coach; and Diane Potter, one of our speakers for the day as well as our first softball and gymnastics coach. each of these women was welcomed with a rousing standing ovation. Following Murray’s introduction, keynote speaker


Phyllis Lerner ’71 delivered a powerful presentation on the history and current condition of women in sports, on her own birthday nonetheless. Lerner currently works as a Title IX director for the Sankofa Project, a Washington, D.C.-based program whose purpose is to “raise the bar of expectation for female scholar athletes and ensure that those who want to play with a purpose need not be left behind.” In her presentation entitled “evolution, Revolution,


and Solutions” Lerner acknowledged how far women’s sports have come while highlighting several discrepan- cies that still exist. Referring to herself as a “second wave feminist,” Lerner said she “feels like I hit a home run, but I started on third base,” giving credit to the female pioneers that came before her. Interweaving humor with personal experience and factual research, Lerner crafted a compelling lecture about Title IX and beyond. She touched upon jarring stereotypes that existed in the 60s and 70s, limiting and degrading the female persona in children’s books and other media. Lerner then discussed a few examples of this same type of sexism in children’s books today and the importance of eliminating gender roles from our culture. Next up to the podium were two of our own faculty


members, Diane Potter and Kathy Mangano, to shed some light on the history of women’s athletics at the


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