<p>Opie, I feel like Richard Dawson -- "And the survey says....." The interest surveys show that women are not clamoring for interscholastic sports. Many colleges have reported having trouble filling the rosters of the women's teams, even in pretty popular sports like soccer. I believe in giving women what they want, whether it is more sports or more services of another nature. Colleges should be able to find out what that is and fill their needs. They already have more women represented in tons of activities, and nobody has a problem with that. </p>
<p>Posters keep coming on and giving examples of how their daughters could not imagine living without sports. Data point of one. I've got one of those female jocks at home, too. But data show that she is not the norm, or will likely choose to fill her athletic needs with non competitive activites as college approaches. Choose is the operative word in that sentence.</p>
<p>Sorry about your ER experience. I guess that doc forgot the part about "First do no harm." I hope he didn't purposely leave a nasty scar!</p>
<p>I'm also big on being flexible. But the situation of dad's kid facing cuts for no good reason, simply because wrestling is a scapegoat for Title IX inflexibility, is grossly unfair. I think the discussion is about competitive sports, not just sports that you love. If my son wants to shoot hoops & the driveway has cars in it, I just tell him to go toss a football or kick a soccer ball or ride his bike. He'll live. He loves them all. But that is very different from passionately working at a sport that you were led to believe could help you gain admission to or $ for college, or to be on a college team, and suddenly have it shut down to make room for a women's team that the women don't want! If I had any illusions about my son winning a Div1 scholarship, I'd probably be forbidding all that cross-training anyway, and getting him a personal trainer. Of well, maybe when he turns 11.</p>
<p>I really don't place too much emphasis on sports. In the case of dad's son, it's his passion. His love. If Title IX were taking away male spots in orchestras and dad's son was a musician losing his shot, the argument still applies. (Look how professional orchestras have changed. Men are getting fewer spots because tryouts are now held with the musician behind a curtain. Nobody knows if it's a he/she/black/white/whatever. Now that's what I call fair!)</p>
<p>Your grandmother could probably run a ten minute mile. I doubt that would impress the hypothetical admissions rep. If anything, it would scream "resume padding." I guess I have more faith in their objectivity. (And as a female who ran track, I would easily give the nod to the quarterback.) After all, if the rep had lost out to the class brain in the 3rd grade spelling bee, he might carry a deep-seated grudge and put the kabosh on the NMFs and vals, too. But I doubt it.</p>