In a sports world where men rarely compete directly against
women, it comes as a surprise to many sports fans when they learn
that the overwhelming majority of NCAA women’s basketball
teams use men to practice against.
The tradition of using men either on scout teams or to help with
drills during the women’s team practice goes back several
decades.
So a statement released by the NCAA Committee on Women’s
Athletics last month that recommended ending this longtime practice
created a stir in the women’s basketball community.
“The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics believes
that the use of male undergraduate students as practice players in
women’s intercollegiate athletics violates the spirit of
gender equity and Title IX,” read the opening of the
statement. “The committee believes that any inclusion of male
practice players results in diminished participation opportunities
for female student-athletes, contrary to the Association’s
principles of gender equity, nondiscrimination, competitive equity
and student-athlete well-being.”
Since then, coaches across the country have spoken out in
support of using male practice players.
“I think (the men) are stronger and quicker and
they’re going to make you better,” UCLA coach Kathy
Olivier said. “That’s one of the reasons the
women’s game has improved so much, because we’re
finding ways to get the most out of our athletes.”
“I really think it would be very detrimental to
women’s basketball,” Hall-of-Famer and Tennessee coach
Pat Summitt told the Kansas City Star. “If you look at just
what has happened with the parity in the game, the fact is that
when we have male practice players, they challenge us.”
Collegiate women’s basketball teams do use men differently
at practices. Some may only use a couple, while many use full
five-man teams to scrimmage against. Some use men more for drills,
others use them as a scout team to prepare for opponents. But male
players are used by an overwhelming majority of NCAA women’s
teams across the country.
“We use men because they are typically faster and
stronger,” UCLA senior forward Julia Pitts said. “It
helps us in the long run during our games to make it harder on us
in practice. It’s very difficult to find (women) athletes,
especially at a school like UCLA which is based more on
academics.”
Among the main concerns of the Committee on Women’s
Athletics were that using male practice players takes away
opportunities from women and that using men was against the spirit
of Title IX.
“If it means our players … were going to get better, why
would I be against that?” Patrick Nero, a member of the
committee, told the Hartford Courant. “I’m looking at
it from what college athletics are supposed to be about, what Title
IX is supposed to be about.”
Many coaches and players don’t buy that argument,
though.
“They help us prepare for our opponents,” Olivier
said. “I don’t take time from other players and
that’s where you get into the controversy. What I try to do
is give equal reps to the first team and second team.”
The quality of available women athletes to use as walk-ons for
the scout team has also been questioned.
“It could take away opportunities if there were females
who wanted to be on the scout team, but I don’t think that
would benefit myself or my teammates,” Pitts said. “The
best of the best that want to play basketball have tried out for
the team, and if they didn’t make the team, I don’t
know that they’d be good enough to play against.”
“The walk-ons are obviously walk-ons for a reason,”
Olivier said. “They’re not at the level of scholarship
athletes. So when you have women on the scout team are you going to
get better when you play someone who is a level slower and not as
strong?”
Per NCAA rules, teams can’t just drag any random men out
to practice; they must be students who are enrolled at that school.
Many of them do get compensated in the form of scholarships.
Practice players often study opponents’ game film and
schedule classes around the women’s team practices when
possible.
“It’s fun and difficult sometimes,” said
Marvin Hamlin, manager of the UCLA scout players. “It’s
not like you’re just playing pick-up ball. You do what coach
wants you to do for the good of the team. We all understand our
roles.”
Hamlin helps organize which scout players will show up to
practice on a given day (UCLA has 16 players in all, but some are
seldom used while others are present almost every day).
Hamlin, also a fourth-year neuroscience student, helps recruit
new scout players the way he was found, while playing pick-up ball
at the Wooden Center.
“It’s kind of irresponsible of the NCAA,”
Hamlin said. “Coaches should be able to run practices however
they want to.”
Hamlin and his fellow scout players try to show up at every
women’s basketball home game, cheering on the players they
practiced with during the week.
“Unfortunately, a lot of women’s sports aren’t
highly regarded in the community by males. This is a way for guys
to see that women can play sports,” Hamlin said.
“You see the amount of work that they put in ““ they
practice just as hard as the men’s team practices,”
said David Updegrove, also a scout team player. “You build a
respect for what they’re doing.”
Many scout players also enjoy the feeling of being, at least
slightly, a part of the team.
“When we see an opposing team do what we worked on in
practice and our team stops it, there’s a sense of
satisfaction, like we did it right,” Updegrove said.