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The intangible benefits may be even greater.
Aly Marzonie, one of Miller's teammates, would barely say a word on the field after making the varsity squad as a sophomore. Two years later she was a co-captain, and it was her voice that could be heard above the crowd during games, calling out directions and encouragement to teammates. Marzonie has learned how to work and get along with teammates she might not otherwise consider friends, and she's got enough self-confidence to hold her own in conversations with both adults and fellow teenagers. Her time-management skills would put some folks twice her age to shame.
Marzonie may have learned these skills through soccer, but she'll use them long after her playing career is over.
"Any situation, I could relate to soccer," she said. "It's nice to revert back to something I'm comfortable with in an uncomfortable situation."
It's not just women whose mindset has changed over these last 40 years. Boys have grown up watching sisters, friends, classmates, even their mothers play sports, and the distinction between an "athlete" and a "female athlete" has faded. All four of tennis' Grand Slam tournaments pay equal prize money to the men's and women's winners. Last year's Women's World Cup final between the United States and Japan earned the highest television rating for any soccer game on an ESPN network.
Not only is Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins the highest rated college player on Tweetscenter's most recent "Power Rankings and Swag Index," at No. 6 she's one spot above Kevin Durant. Diggins' jersey may as well be the uniform at Irish coach Muffet McGraw's summer basketball camps -- for both girls and boys.
"It's rewarding to look at that and see they have such great respect for (Diggins) and what she's accomplished," McGraw said. "They don't care she's a girl, they just know she can play."
For all the strides female athletes have made, however, the playing field is not yet even. Women typically make up more than half of the student population, but were only 43 percent of the athletes last year, according to the NCAA. A 2007 study found that female athletes had received only 35 percent of total athletic expenditures in 2004-05. In the latest update of their "Women in Intercollegiate Sport" study, R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter found there were 215 female athletic directors at NCAA schools in 2012. But only 36 were in Division I, and less than 5 percent of those were at Football Bowl Subdivision schools, the power brokers in collegiate sports.
And even though Title IX has been upheld by the courts time and again, it remains a matter of debate in the court of public opinion. There was a net loss of 300 men's teams in Division I between 1988-89 and 2009-10, according to the NCAA, and Title IX is often blamed for the cuts. Never mind that there's nothing in the legislation about cutting men's teams to create opportunities for women. Or that the huge size -- and expense -- of football squads creates an inherent imbalance.
"There's a lot more gains to be had," Ruggiero said. "I think there's a lot more room for growth, certainly in the participation numbers."
There is also a vast difference when it comes to fan interest in women's sports -- at all levels.
Though the WNBA has not only survived but thrived, thanks in large part to early support from the NBA, there is no other major women's professional league. Not even the fervor that surrounded last summer's World Cup could save Women's Professional Soccer, which folded last month after three seasons. The NCAA set an attendance record for women's basketball with 11.2 million people last season -- and that was still only about a third of the 33 million fans the men drew.
Entire towns turn out for a high school football game while the girls are lucky to get a few handfuls of friends to join their parents in the stands.
"Football is so intense for boys, and girls' sports should be looked at like that, too," said Maddie Mulford, another New Trier player. "We're all athletes. Our goals are all the same."
Equal opportunity, on the field and off.
Though athletics may not have been the main objective of Title IX, the original supporters get immense satisfaction whenever they see a playing field filled with girls. Or hear fathers exhorting their daughters the same as they do their sons: Run! Shoot! Tackle!
Because as girls like Mulford and Miller show, the lessons and attitudes learned on the field are not left there. They apply everywhere, to everyone.
"What makes the papers is the sporting aspect. But at the bottom of it, what we're talking about is how do we educate our children to the best of their abilities?" Ruggiero said. "Whether that's in the science department, math department, athletic department, it's one in the same.
"When you break it down, you're going to support Title IX," she added. "It wasn't, `Let's make a quota.' It was, `How do we better educate our children?' And athletics is part of it."
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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