Girls In Indiana May See More Prime-Time Games

Indianapolis Star

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130219/SPORTS02/302190102/Girls-high-school-basketball-may-get-primetime-payoff

Stephanie Mavunga is one of the best high school basketball players in country.

Yet on Friday nights, when Hoosiers fill basketball gyms, they rarely saw the Brownsburg senior forward play — even though that’s against federal law.

An Indianapolis Star analysis into 80 area programs revealed 78 of them are violating federal Title IX laws, which prohibit gender-based discrimination, by having boys’ teams play in primetime nearly twice as often as girls on average.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily fair,” said Mavunga, who has signed with the University of North Carolina. “I talk to a lot of my friends who say they can’t make it (on a weeknight) because they have this or that to study. But on Friday night they can make it.”

It’s too late for Mavunga; her career ended Saturday in regional. But the era of ignoring the 15-year-old Title IX rules when setting Indiana high school basketball schedules may be coming to an end.

• A federal lawsuit filed by a former girls basketball coach was recently settled and will force one school district to be in compliance by 2016-17.

• The Indiana High School Athletic Association had previously taken a hands-off approach on the issue because it isn’t involved in regular-season scheduling, but recently sent an email encouraging schools to balance their schedules, and included a link to the consent decree from the case.

“Hopefully for the girls of the future they do change it, because it would be more fun and beneficial for the girls’ teams in Indiana,” said Hamilton Southeastern forward Taya Reimer, who has signed with Notre Dame.

While some question the importance of having balanced schedules — including girls basketball coaches and female athletic administrators who spoke to The Star — there are three concerns: less time for homework when playing more often on weeknights; more difficult for fans to see the team play; and the implication that girls are less deserving of primetime exposure.