Instead of wearing a cap and gown and marching to Pomp andCircumstance, Raquel Alvarez spent her graduation day in spikes anda batting helmet after listening to the Star Spangled Banner.
Not that the second baseman on the Canisius College softball teamwas complaining. She didn't mind delaying her entry into the realworld by a week as the Griffs went to Los Angeles for the firstround of the NCAA Championships.
Alvarez didn't need the official ceremony anyway. She already isgainfully employed -- with sports agent Michael Watkins and thecompany, Professional Sports Planners. She'll work toward hermaster's degree (she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology with aminor in sports psychology) while helping the firm's stable ofathletes with everything from hitting slumps to plane reservations.
It's a way for her to stay involved in athletics -- withouthaving to put the spikes on again.
'I've always been around athletes and baseball and diamonds andeither playing or practicing, so I knew it had to be something withathletics just because I've grown up with it,' Alvarez said. 'I'vealways played, always just had to be this tough tomboy all the time.I think I'm just ready to be a girl and start my life.'
She's one of many women starting her real-world life in a sports-related career, combining her athletic experience with her degree.
Once upon a time, women who played sports and wanted to makeathletics their career had two options: coach or teach physicaleducation.
But as opportunities to play increased for girls and womenthrough the 1970s and '80s, so too did the opportunities for post-playing careers in the athletics world.
Take for example, Robin Roberts, who was a 1,000-point scorer inbasketball for Southeastern Louisiana University before she startedher career at ESPN. Donna Lopiano, a former athletic director at theUniversity of Texas, played softball, basketball, volleyball andfield hockey at Southern Connecticut State and now heads the Women'sSports Foundation.
They provide a mainstream example for the millions of girls whogrew up playing sports and who didn't necessarily want theirathletic careers to end on the field.
'In the past two to three years you've really seen an upswing inwomen entering sports administration programs,' said Jim Riordan,director of that program at Canisius. 'It comes in part from seeingwomen's sports on TV, the exposure of women's college basketball onESPN. They see Ann Meyers and Nancy Lieberman-Cline (broadcasting)men's sports. They see women involved in the mainstream sports, theso-called important sports, and women think, 'Hey, we can getinvolved too.' '
Meyers and Lieberman-Cline help demonstrate to the masses thatsport need not be a gender-exclusive business. Men work with women'ssports. Women work with men's sports.
But undoubtedly, the growth of women's sports has helped womenadvance in the world of sports business -- whether it be working forthe WNBA or Women's World Cup or managing arenas and stadiums andbalancing the financial books.
Visibility helps, by giving girls role models and society areason for acceptance of women into the sports realm. But what maybe more important is the confidence that develops with competitionand the security that comes from watching other women succeed.
'I think the WNBA has given women the confidence to try for jobsin the business world that they may not have otherwise tried for,'said Amanda (Petrak) Ludwig, media relations manager for the MiamiSol of the WNBA. 'With the expansion of the league, more sportsbusiness positions are open and more women are filling thosepositions. There is always opportunity for women in a women'sleague, but I do not necessarily think that the opportunities areonly open to women.'
Ludwig's career was a natural progression -- a scholarshipathlete at St. Bonaventure, she majored in journalism/masscommunication and landed an internship with the Cleveland Rockersand Cavaliers. The organization hired her after graduation and afterstints in Cleveland and Detroit, she ended up in Miami.
Alvarez and Ludwig took their experiences away from thefraternity, er, sorority of college sports, but campuses provide oneof the best opportunities for former athletes who want to makesports their life's work.
Every university has a designated senior women administrator, whoby definition must be a woman. But as athletics departments wereforced to expand -- to keep with NCAA rules and marketing trends --women have found more opportunities to stay involved with collegeathletics.
Laura Barnum played volleyball at the University at Buffalo andnow is the director of business operations for the school's athleticprogram. Kelly Cruttenden, a volleyball and softball alum fromNiagara, is an assistant compliance director at UB while workingtoward her sports administration master's at Canisius.
'There are so many women in (college athletics) who have athleticbackgrounds and their experience was so good, they wanted to sharethat experience with students,' said Barbara Hick, the seniorwomen's administrator in compliance at St. Bona and a formerlacrosse All-America at Temple.
'That's why I got into the field. . . . But there are so manythings in sports, professional, college, amateur. It's reallyexpanded in the last 10-15 years and whatever a female wants to do,even if it's working for a professional baseball team, you can do itif you have the experience. Ten or 15 years ago, that wasn'tpossible,' she said.
But don't be mistaken. Just because the possibilities andopportunities exist doesn't mean the old boys' network is dead.
'It's still a very male-dominated field,' Barnum said. 'It's achallenge for young women, even as they come into the college orprofessional level, to find what positions they're accepted to comeinto. You typically see a lot of women in communications, compliance. . . there aren't a lot in senior level positions . . . but I thinkthat's changing.'
'I think there are only about 10 women athletic directors atDivision I-A football schools,' Hick said. 'That's still only a few,but that's a lot more than there ever was. They're being hired basedon their ability to do the job, not if they're wearing a skirt orpants.'
